External Firewire Hard Drive refuses to mount.

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mattf

External Firewire Hard Drive refuses to mount.

Post by mattf »

Hello,

Since yesterday my external Glyph GT050 firewire HD refuses to mount. I can see it listed as a generic firewire drive under "Computer", but it won't mount. I never had a problem with it before. I have also tried mounting it in the Fedora 10 and OpenSuse 11.1 Live CDs without any positive results.

My computer is a Toshiba Satellite M300.

My OS is Mint 6.

My fdisk output is:

Disk /dev/sda: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0009d1e4

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 486 3903763+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda2 * 487 30401 240292237+ 83 Linux

Disk /dev/sdb: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000eede9

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System

Thanks in advance--
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
miket

Re: External Firewire Hard Drive refuses to mount.

Post by miket »

Hi !
mattf wrote:Hello,

Since yesterday my external Glyph GT050 firewire HD refuses to mount. I can see it listed as a generic firewire drive under "Computer", but it won't mount. I never had a problem with it before. I have also tried mounting it in the Fedora 10 and OpenSuse 11.1 Live CDs without any positive results.

My computer is a Toshiba Satellite M300.

My OS is Mint 6.

My fdisk output is:

Disk /dev/sda: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0009d1e4

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 486 3903763+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda2 * 487 30401 240292237+ 83 Linux

Disk /dev/sdb: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000eede9

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System

Thanks in advance--
OK, so from what you have said this is not a Mint problem but a problem of some sort with the device.
Does the drive have NTFS filesystem on it ?
If so, was it cleanly unmounted from the windows system ?
If not, plug it back into the windows system, mount it and then unmount it using the "Safely remove hardware" tool on the menu bar.
Once you've done this try mounting it under Mint, you will probably find it is ok.

If you no longer have access to windows, open a terminal and type:

Code: Select all

sudo ntfsfix /dev/sdxxx
where sdxxx = the device to be fixed.

This command will do the same as windows does when it cleanly unmounts the drive.
Let us know how you get on.

Mike.
mattf

Re: External Firewire Hard Drive refuses to mount.

Post by mattf »

Thanks for your response, Mike. Yes, it is an ntfs drive, but has not been connected to Windows in a long time. I would like to test it on a Windows install, but don't have access to one.

About the command you posted, I'm unclear on how to tailor it to be applicable to the drive I am trying to recover. sdglyph? In other words, I'm not sure what the drive is called.

Please forgive my ignorance, as I am new to GNU/Linux. :oops:
miket

Re: External Firewire Hard Drive refuses to mount.

Post by miket »

Hi Matt !
mattf wrote:Thanks for your response, Mike. Yes, it is an ntfs drive, but has not been connected to Windows in a long time. I would like to test it on a Windows install, but don't have access to one.

About the command you posted, I'm unclear on how to tailor it to be applicable to the drive I am trying to recover. sdglyph? In other words, I'm not sure what the drive is called.

Please forgive my ignorance, as I am new to GNU/Linux. :oops:
OK, you need to identify the drive on which the command is going to be run, each drive has what is called a physical device in the /dev directory.
To find your drive, open a terminal from the main menu and type this command:

Code: Select all

sudo blkid
This will list all the drives on your PC that the system can find, one of which will be the NTFS drive.
Make a note of the /dev/sdxx entry on the far left of the O/P and then use this in the ntfsfix command like below:

Code: Select all

sudo ntfsfix /dev/sdxx
If you get really stuck drop by the IRC channel, just start Xchat from the menu and you will be automatically connected, I am there most evenings!

I hope this makes sense !

Mike.
mattf

Re: External Firewire Hard Drive refuses to mount.

Post by mattf »

Hi Mike,

The command 'sudo blkid' gave me this:

/dev/sda1: TYPE="swap" UUID="c73f797f-4018-44f8-9807-7fff017ca12f"
/dev/sda2: UUID="60657252-d5c3-4bd3-9fd7-21d6a4544665" TYPE="ext3"

... which I am not taking as a good sign. The generic "firewire drive" icon is still there though http://tinyurl.com/de2wme.

Do you think it's time to give up on this drive?

Best regards,
Matt
miket

Re: External Firewire Hard Drive refuses to mount.

Post by miket »

Hi Matt,
mattf wrote:Hi Mike,

The command 'sudo blkid' gave me this:

/dev/sda1: TYPE="swap" UUID="c73f797f-4018-44f8-9807-7fff017ca12f"
/dev/sda2: UUID="60657252-d5c3-4bd3-9fd7-21d6a4544665" TYPE="ext3"

... which I am not taking as a good sign. The generic "firewire drive" icon is still there though http://tinyurl.com/de2wme.
Do you think it's time to give up on this drive?
Best regards,
Matt
Looks like the system isn't recognising that drive at all ?
Are you sure it's actually working ?
Can you try it on another machine ?

Mike.
mattf

Re: External Firewire Hard Drive refuses to mount.

Post by mattf »

Hi Mike,

The "Firewire Drive" icon appears under "Computer" when I turn the drive on, and it disappears when I turn the drive off. So, at least the computer recognizes that it is dealing with a firewire drive. It doesn't seem to be able to read any other details though. The problem may very well be that the drive is just broken, as it is about five years old.

I don't have another computer, but I will try to get someone to stop by with a Windows laptop and test it on there. Will report back when I have more info.

Best regards,
Matt
ezsurfer

Re: External Firewire Hard Drive refuses to mount.

Post by ezsurfer »

I don't know if Matt will be back, but I am having the same issue with my firewire JVC digital camcorder.

I haven't used it for a while, and never on Mint. Still, it works great, but the firewire port doesn't shake hands at all on this laptop.

It's enabled via the new expresscard bus on the laptops.

This is a Dell Inspiron 1545. Everything else I have tried works great, but no firewire.

Any ideas?
optimize me

Re: External Firewire Hard Drive refuses to mount.

Post by optimize me »

If you look under Administration>Authorizations, you'll find a section called 'device-access'. Check your settings for both Directly Access Firewire IIDC and for Directly Access Firewire AVC.
ezsurfer

Re: External Firewire Hard Drive refuses to mount.

Post by ezsurfer »

All were set to active = Yes - Switched to allow all to yes - no change at all after reboot.
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