Hard Drive Can't Mount

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Mashimaro7

Hard Drive Can't Mount

Post by Mashimaro7 »

I'm completely new to Linux, so if the answer is console stuff, you'll have to explain to me very slowly lol.

I'm dual-booting with Windows Vista, I couldn't access my second partition on Linux so I combined them into one partition because the only one I could access was nearly full.(also for drive C, which is on said drive, tells me I only have 2gb left... This is probably normal but another reason why I was trying to increase said drive lol. So I formatted the one partition, combined them again, and now I can't even open my 500gb drive, I can open the 200gb okay. It says unable to mount location, can't mount file. So how do I... mount the drive? lol

EDIT: Ran Gparted, it says the drive is already mounted(well, should be since that's the drive Linux is on), still can't access it. Ran NTFS config, enabled read/write support, which did absolutely nothing lol.
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.
Mashimaro7

Re: Hard Drive Can't Mount

Post by Mashimaro7 »

Can anyone help? Sorry to bump this, but I'm getting a million views and no answers. I've searched google and these forums, found some solutions I think, all console commands that I don't understand. Please help, the low disk space is one of the only reasons why I don't use Linux much, and I can't even open the drive Linux should be running installed on.

EDIT:After some more searching I found the command for mounting the drive, I guess?

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sudo mount /dev/sda2 /media/sda2
And came up with the error,
"Mount is denied because the NTFS volume is already exclusively opened.
The volume may be already mounted, or another software may use it which
could be identified for example by the help of the 'fuser' command."
Switched out mount for fuser, got the number 639? I have no idea what that means lol
jawgrape

Re: Hard Drive Can't Mount

Post by jawgrape »

do the following and post here:

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sudo fdisk -l
and

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df -h
Mashimaro7

Re: Hard Drive Can't Mount

Post by Mashimaro7 »

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Disk /dev/sda: 200.0 GB, 200049647616 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 24321 cylinders, total 390721968 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x67df67df

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1              63    12273659     6136798+  12  Compaq diagnostics
/dev/sda2   *    12273660   390717982   189222161+   7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

Disk /dev/sdf: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xc728aa4a

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdf1   *          63   976768014   488383976    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
and

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Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/loop0       18G   11G  6.1G  63% /
udev           1001M  4.0K 1001M   1% /dev
tmpfs           404M 1016K  403M   1% /run
none            5.0M     0  5.0M   0% /run/lock
none           1009M  432K 1008M   1% /run/shm
none            100M   12K  100M   1% /run/user
/dev/sdf1       466G  228G  239G  49% /host
/dev/sda2       181G  126G   56G  70% /media/sda2
Last edited by Mashimaro7 on Sat Feb 16, 2019 10:34 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Added code tags
jawgrape

Re: Hard Drive Can't Mount

Post by jawgrape »

I don't know a ton about dual boot set ups but from the output you posted your the drive you mentioned in a previous post is already mounted at /media/sda2.

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Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/loop0 18G 11G 6.1G 63% /
udev 1001M 4.0K 1001M 1% /dev
tmpfs 404M 1016K 403M 1% /run
none 5.0M 0 5.0M 0% /run/lock
none 1009M 432K 1008M 1% /run/shm
none 100M 12K 100M 1% /run/user
/dev/sdf1 466G 228G 239G 49% /host
/dev/sda2 181G 126G 56G 70% /media/sda2   <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
and from the fdisk info you can see that its NTFS, and is your boot drive, One of the SDA devices is usually contains the boot sector for linux so this make sense. I assume that you have your windows partition on sdf?

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda2 * 12273660 390717982 189222161+ 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

That is why it wont mount... its already mounted. when you open computer from the desktop that should be the linux file system on this drive.

you should also be able to

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cd /media/sda2

ls -l
To see your files here.
Last edited by jawgrape on Sat Feb 16, 2019 10:34 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Added code tag
Mashimaro7

Re: Hard Drive Can't Mount

Post by Mashimaro7 »

Sorry for the long delay. So do I need to input that code in order to use my files? It's not that I need to mount my drive, I'm just trying to open it and it says cannot mount drive. Also my Windows partition is on the sda2, I put Linux on the bigger one and a bunch of my files which I can't even access unless I'm using Windows lol.
jawgrape

Re: Hard Drive Can't Mount

Post by jawgrape »

No ls -l is just the terminal command to list files in a directory.

So the drive you are trying to access is:
/dev/sdf1 466G 228G 239G 49% /host

which is mounted at /host

You should just be able to open it. Maybe its a permissions problem.

do this at the terminal and post the output:

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ls -l / | grep host
Mashimaro7

Re: Hard Drive Can't Mount

Post by Mashimaro7 »

It just said... 8 host. Did I type it right? lol
jawgrape

Re: Hard Drive Can't Mount

Post by jawgrape »

should look something like this:

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# ls -l / | grep host
drwxr-xr-x   4 root root 4.0K Mar 28 16:25 host
Mashimaro7

Re: Hard Drive Can't Mount

Post by Mashimaro7 »

Oh okay,I just copied it this time and got

drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 4096 Apr 1 19:00 host
nerdtron

Re: Hard Drive Can't Mount

Post by nerdtron »

Mashimaro7 wrote:
Disk /dev/sdf: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xc728aa4a

and

Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/loop0 18G 11G 6.1G 63% /
udev 1001M 4.0K 1001M 1% /dev
tmpfs 404M 1016K 403M 1% /run
none 5.0M 0 5.0M 0% /run/lock
none 1009M 432K 1008M 1% /run/shm
none 100M 12K 100M 1% /run/user
/dev/sdf1 466G 228G 239G 49% /host
/dev/sda2 181G 126G 56G 70% /media/sda2
From the looks of it, I think your 500GB partition is already mounted in the /host directory.
Have you tried going to the /host directory from your file manager? Are your files in there?

If not, you can try unmounting the partition first.

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sudo umount /host
Then, mount it again.

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sudo mkdir /media/(your username)/sdf1
sudo mount /dev/sdf1 /media/(your username)/sdf1
Let us know how it goes.

EDIT: I edited how to mount a external USB disk.
Last edited by nerdtron on Mon Apr 08, 2013 10:37 pm, edited 2 times in total.
jawgrape

Re: Hard Drive Can't Mount

Post by jawgrape »

Permissions look fine.

yeah so as nerdtron mentions and I have before... you should just be able to get to the files...

Try this before trying to unmount and remount in a different directory.

click into Computer on your desktop>File System>host

and tell us if you see the files you wish to access. If not then try nerdtrons thing.

good luck
Mashimaro7

Re: Hard Drive Can't Mount

Post by Mashimaro7 »

I tried unmounting it, it says the drive is in use(since it's the one Lunux is installed on), I can access the files on /host I found out, but still I can't install anything to the drive or. The problem is... half solved? lol
nerdtron

Re: Hard Drive Can't Mount

Post by nerdtron »

I tried unmounting it, it says the drive is in use(since it's the one Lunux is installed on)
I don't understand. But it is not a Linux Partition, isn't it? How come Linux is installed in this NTFS/exFAT partition?

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Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdf1 * 63 976768014 488383976 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
Try to force unmount,

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sudo umount -f /host
or

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sudo umount -l /host
I can access the files on /host I found out, but still I can't install anything to the drive or.
What are you trying to install in the /host partition? It's not the path where installed applications go. You should just us the Software Center if you want to install anything. It will handle everything for you.

And by the way, how did you install Linux Mint? Did you use mintforwin? Or you did a full install? If a full install, what did you choose? Install alongside windows or you clicked "do something else" and went to the manual partitioner?
Mashimaro7

Re: Hard Drive Can't Mount

Post by Mashimaro7 »

Yeah it's Linux... I installed it on a NTFS drive... I don't know about forcing an unmount since it's my host drive lol... I'm trying to install/try out steam games, but when I try to install it to drive c it says not enough space... Also, I installed with mint4win and went install alongside Windows... I still use Windows... just for games though lol.
nerdtron

Re: Hard Drive Can't Mount

Post by nerdtron »

Mashimaro7 wrote:Yeah it's Linux... I installed it on a NTFS drive...
You lost me there...lol
Mashimaro7 wrote:Also, I installed with mint4win and went install alongside Windows...
That explains it. I thought it was a full install. I don't have much experince in mint4win scenarios so I cannot help you further.
And besides, if you really would like to install steam and try out gaming in Linux, you should create a seperate partition for it and do a full install instead. Because with a mint4win install you will not experice the full potential of Linux. mint4win was primarily designed for testing purposes and being familiar with the Linux environment.
Mashimaro7

Re: Hard Drive Can't Mount

Post by Mashimaro7 »

Oh really? I wanted to do that, but I was unsure if I could do it without a DVD/flash drive...
nerdtron

Re: Hard Drive Can't Mount

Post by nerdtron »

1. If you want to do a full install, first remove your mint4win install. Go to the control panel in windows and uninstall Linux Mint there.

2. Next your can burn the Linux Mint ISO to a DVD or to a bootable USB. See this tutorial full of screenshots http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/usb

3. Boot using your DVD or the bootable USB you created and follow this tutorial http://www.linuxbsdos.com/2012/06/06/ho ... windows-7/

Note: Even though this procedure is safe, be sure that you have a backup of your data. This can go wrong easily when working with partitions. Goodluck!
Mashimaro7

Re: Hard Drive Can't Mount

Post by Mashimaro7 »

Oh? What if I'm just installing it on a second drive? The 200gb is a seperate harddrive from the 500gb.
nerdtron

Re: Hard Drive Can't Mount

Post by nerdtron »

Yes install it on a second drive...be sure it's not the windows partition. and read the tutorial link I gave you carefully.

Just some notes, when you install Mint in the 200 GB partition, you'll lose access to that drive in Windows. When you open My Computer in Windows, the 200GB drive won't show up because it is now a linux partition and windows doesn't read linux filesystems. However, when you are in Linux Mint, you'll be able to access all you drices, both windows and linux partition and you'll be allowed to read/write on all partitions as well.
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