[solved] Freecom 80GB external hard drive

[AlbertP]

I'm having an (Ext3 formatted) Freecom 80GB external hard drive. In Linux Mint 10 (but also Fedora 14), I do only have read-only access to the disk. In Mint I can, as root, create folders but nothing more. In Fedora I can't even do that. It's some old drive (it still needs both USB and power cord) that, NTFS or FAT formatted, works fine on Windows.

I want to switch from Fedora to Mint, but cannot backup my data on this drive now. Do I need to buy another USB (pen)drive or is there any solution on this?

[seeley]

Hi AlbertP!
Booting from your Mint live medium you should have access to the files.
seeley

[AlbertP]

I have only tried it from the Live USB (DVD version on a 2GB stick) of Mint and the Live CD of Fedora. I have not yet installed Mint on my harddisk... I want to copy my data from Fedora first.

[seeley]

Hi!
As I wrote: booting from any Linux distribution live medium you should have access to all files, maybe you must mount the drive / partition.
seeley

[AlbertP]

What I said in my first post is about accessing the HDD from a live CD/USB. It does not work.

From an installed distro, it also does not work. I cannot even see my files on the disk, only folders are visible.

[seeley]

Hi!
We could try to edit fstab, but first boot to your installed Linux (Mint) and please post the output of Terminal:

Code: Select all

cat /etc/fstab

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cat /etc/mtab

and

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mount

seeley

[AlbertP]

As I said before, Mint is not yet installed. I want to backup my data before shrinking the Fedora partition. I'll boot it from USB now and check the fstab, mtab and mount there. Or should I show the Fedora ones from harddisk?

Edit: the disk is split into two partitions: 123MB and 80GB, both Ext3 formatted. You might ask, how did I get it Ext3 formatted without Linux being able to write. This is because I had connected it as a network drive, and the device for connecting the drive to the network did only support Ext3.

[seeley]

Hi!
Please start with one of those 2 possibilities - as you want. When posting, please add from where you've got the outputs.
BTW: I recommend to download and burn an image of PartedMagic 5.9; PM contains many useful tools, you have connection to the NET, can access all files - if your hd is recognized. I never will miss PM!
seeley

[AlbertP]

Here Fedora 14 (32-bit Gnome) booted from (internal) hard drive:

#
# /etc/fstab
# Created by anaconda on Tue Nov 23 11:12:11 2010
#
# Accessible filesystems, by reference, are maintained under '/dev/disk'
# See man pages fstab(5), findfs(8), mount(8) and/or blkid(8) for more info
#
/dev/mapper/vg_laptopalbert-lv_root / ext4 defaults 1 1
UUID=fe532bc3-a5df-4e4e-b3dd-d01716573335 /boot ext4 defaults 1 2
/dev/mapper/vg_laptopalbert-lv_swap swap swap defaults 0 0
tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs defaults 0 0
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0

$ cat /etc/mtab
/dev/mapper/vg_laptopalbert-lv_root / ext4 rw 0 0
proc /proc proc rw 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs rw 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts rw,gid=5,mode=620 0 0
tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs rw,rootcontext="system_u:object_r:tmpfs_t:s0" 0 0
/dev/sda2 /boot ext4 rw 0 0
none /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc binfmt_misc rw 0 0
fusectl /sys/fs/fuse/connections fusectl rw 0 0
gvfs-fuse-daemon /home/Albert/.gvfs fuse.gvfs-fuse-daemon rw,nosuid,nodev,user=Albert 0 0
/dev/sdb2 /media/cc6fffbe-4709-46bc-b21e-5246c6a7edc3 ext3 rw,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=udisks 0 0
/dev/sdb1 /media/053436e7-6418-4e06-bc0b-003696435cb1 ext3 rw,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=udisks 0 0

$ mount
/dev/mapper/vg_laptopalbert-lv_root on / type ext4 (rw)
proc on /proc type proc (rw)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,gid=5,mode=620)
tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,rootcontext="system_u:object_r:tmpfs_t:s0")
/dev/sda2 on /boot type ext4 (rw)
none on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw)
fusectl on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw)
gvfs-fuse-daemon on /home/Albert/.gvfs type fuse.gvfs-fuse-daemon (rw,nosuid,nodev,user=Albert)
/dev/sdb2 on /media/cc6fffbe-4709-46bc-b21e-5246c6a7edc3 type ext3 (rw,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=udisks)
/dev/sdb1 on /media/053436e7-6418-4e06-bc0b-003696435cb1 type ext3 (rw,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=udisks)

I'll reboot now (or after dinner) to Mint 10 live USB.

[seeley]

Hi!
Okay. You also should run "gparted" as root and have a look on the drives / partitions. If possible you should label the partitions you are knowing - to better identify.
Example of my fstab:

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...
/dev/sda7 /media/DATA ntfs auto,rw,users	0	0
...

[/color]

you see the data exchange partition [DATA] Windows - Linux (automatically mounted)

and mount shows my SD card [8 GB -> MICROSD8]:

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...
/dev/mmcblk0p1 on /media/MICROSD8 type vfat (rw,...)
...

[/color]
rw = readwrite
seeley

[AlbertP]

I've now booted Mint from Live USB and here the fstab, mtab and mount:
$ cat /etc/fstab
aufs / aufs rw 0 0
tmpfs /tmp tmpfs nosuid,nodev 0 0

$ cat /etc/mtab
aufs / aufs rw 0 0
none /proc proc rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev 0 0
none /sys sysfs rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev 0 0
fusectl /sys/fs/fuse/connections fusectl rw 0 0
none /dev devtmpfs rw,mode=0755 0 0
none /dev/pts devpts rw,noexec,nosuid,gid=5,mode=0620 0 0
/dev/sdb1 /cdrom vfat rw,relatime,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=cp437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,errors=remount-ro 0 0
/dev/loop0 /rofs squashfs ro,noatime 0 0
none /sys/kernel/debug debugfs rw 0 0
none /sys/kernel/security securityfs rw 0 0
none /dev/shm tmpfs rw,nosuid,nodev 0 0
tmpfs /tmp tmpfs rw,nosuid,nodev 0 0
none /var/run tmpfs rw,nosuid,mode=0755 0 0
none /var/lock tmpfs rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev 0 0
binfmt_misc /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc binfmt_misc rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev 0 0
gvfs-fuse-daemon /home/mint/.gvfs fuse.gvfs-fuse-daemon rw,nosuid,nodev,user=mint 0 0
/dev/sdc1 /media/053436e7-6418-4e06-bc0b-003696435cb1 ext3 rw,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=udisks 0 0
/dev/sdc2 /media/cc6fffbe-4709-46bc-b21e-5246c6a7edc3 ext3 rw,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=udisks 0 0

$ mount
aufs on / type aufs (rw)
none on /proc type proc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
none on /sys type sysfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
fusectl on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw)
none on /dev type devtmpfs (rw,mode=0755)
none on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,noexec,nosuid,gid=5,mode=0620)
/dev/sdb1 on /cdrom type vfat (rw,relatime,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=cp437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,errors=remount-ro)
/dev/loop0 on /rofs type squashfs (ro,noatime)
none on /sys/kernel/debug type debugfs (rw)
none on /sys/kernel/security type securityfs (rw)
none on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
tmpfs on /tmp type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
none on /var/run type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,mode=0755)
none on /var/lock type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
binfmt_misc on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
gvfs-fuse-daemon on /home/mint/.gvfs type fuse.gvfs-fuse-daemon (rw,nosuid,nodev,user=mint)
/dev/sdc1 on /media/053436e7-6418-4e06-bc0b-003696435cb1 type ext3 (rw,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=udisks)
/dev/sdc2 on /media/cc6fffbe-4709-46bc-b21e-5246c6a7edc3 type ext3 (rw,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=udisks)

Btw the live USB is created with Pendrivelinux and the 64-bit Gnome DVD ISO

rw is there, which means both read and write should be possible. But write isn't... As root I can make folders but still not write files to the disk.

[AlbertP]

I've found it.
sudo chmod a+w /media/cc5fffbe-4709-46bc-b21e-5246c6a7edc3
sudo chmod a+w /media/053436e7-6418-4e06-bc0b-003696435cb1
On Fedora of course su instead of sudo, but that also works fine.

If a hidden (. prefix) folder is copied to the disk, it is not given permission to create another folder inside it. I've to chmod a . folder before copying can continue, but that's not a real problem as my documents do not contain many hidden folder.

[seeley]

Hi!
Fine!
But you should consider to label your partitions; you can label form Fedora / Gparted the other ones and form another system the Fedora ones.
If you don't have further questions concerning this thread, please edit your first post and add [solved] to the subject line.
seeley

[AlbertP]

I am replacing Fedora with Mint. I know how to label partitions with Grub. Thank you, problem solved.