Cannot mount portable drive

[Spailpin Fanach]

I'm a newbie on here so be gentle!

I cannot mount a portable drive on Linux Mint, current version. It worked ok to a few days ago.

This is the problem

Unable to mount 1TB Portable Drv
Error mounting /dev/sdb1 at /media/brian/1TB Portable Drv: can't read superblock

When I tyry to mount in Nemo, I get error msg: Unable to mount. An operation is already pending.

I get this in Disk Usage Analyser: could not analyse volume. An operation is already pending.

I have attached screenshop of Disk utility. It recognises drive but states that it is not mounted.

I have data on drive I would really like to salvage. Mainly about 5000 photos and videos I took on recent 3 month expedition to Africa

I downloaded a TestDisk from CGSecurity and this is output:

TestDisk 7.0, Data Recovery Utility, April 2015
Christophe GRENIER <grenier@cgsecurity.org>
http://www.cgsecurity.org

Disk /dev/sdb - 1000 GB / 931 GiB - CHS 121601 255 63
Current partition structure:
Partition Start End Size in sectors

1 P Linux 0 32 33 121601 57 56 1953521664 [1TB Portable Drv]
No partition is bootable

I'm afraid to do anyting else in case I wreck data on drive.

Any advice?

Many thanks

[deck_luck]

I'm a newbie on here so be gentle!

I cannot mount a portable drive on Linux Mint, current version. It worked ok to a few days ago.

This is the problem

Unable to mount 1TB Portable Drv
Error mounting /dev/sdb1 at /media/brian/1TB Portable Drv: can't read superblock

That is not good. Have you experienced previous problems with that drive. If you are clumsy like me, have you dropped the drive?

With that error, it might have read i/o errors. Have you checked the kernel error ring buffer for device errors? Take a quick look use the following command:

Code: Select all

sudo fdisk -l /dev/sdb
dmesg -H | grep -i ata

Also, you can use the Disks program to get the s.m.a.r.t. status. In the top corner of the Disks program, you will find a button with three horizontal lines. Click it, and select the SMART option to check the drive health.

I hope you have a good backup. Like I always says, you can never have too many good backups.

EDIT: 20200420_1502 add fdisk - l

[SoyDodger]

Spailpin, did you ever find a solution for this? I seem to have a similar error and I'm wondering whether you recovered the drive.