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SOLVED Can't mount SATA disk

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Chris_F

Member
Joined
Jun 30, 2003
Location
Columbus, Ohio
I'm using Mint 10 and I have two hard drives. One which contains both my Linux partition and my Windows 7 partition, and one which contains a single NTFS partition.

All partitions on sda are showing up correctly and are automatically mounted, but I can't mount the 2nd disk. sdb shows up in /dev, but sdb1 does not.

dmesg | grep sdb
Code:
[    2.298354] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] 312581808 512-byte logical blocks: (160 GB/149 GiB)
[    2.298648] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
[    2.298652] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
[    2.298782] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
[    2.299355]  sdb: sdb1
[    2.307194] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI disk

lshw -C disk
Code:
  *-disk:0                
       description: ATA Disk
       product: WDC WD5001AALS-0
       vendor: Western Digital
       physical id: 0
       bus info: scsi@2:0.0.0
       logical name: /dev/sda
       version: 01.0
       serial: WD-WCASYC128292
       size: 465GiB (500GB)
       capabilities: partitioned partitioned:dos
       configuration: ansiversion=5 signature=7ac74741
  *-disk:1
       description: ATA Disk
       product: WDC WD1600AAJS-0
       vendor: Western Digital
       physical id: 1
       bus info: scsi@3:0.0.0
       logical name: /dev/sdb
       version: 01.0
       serial: WD-WCAV33631644
       size: 149GiB (160GB)
       capabilities: partitioned partitioned:dos
       configuration: ansiversion=5 signature=d9a4d61e
  *-cdrom
       description: DVD-RAM writer
       product: BDDVDRW GGC-H20L
       vendor: HL-DT-ST
       physical id: 0.0.0
       bus info: scsi@4:0.0.0
       logical name: /dev/cdrom
       logical name: /dev/cdrw
       logical name: /dev/dvd
       logical name: /dev/dvdrw
       logical name: /dev/scd0
       logical name: /dev/sr0
       version: 1.03
       capabilities: removable audio cd-r cd-rw dvd dvd-r dvd-ram
       configuration: ansiversion=5 status=nodisc

fdisk /dev/sdb
Code:
Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1               1       19458   156288000    7  HPFS/NTFS

There is nothing about sdb in fstab. Anyone have any clue about what I should do?
 
Last edited:
I am a bit rusty on the issue.... As in, I am on Windows and going on memory.


You can locate a util in the repos. Since Mint and Ubuntu use the same repos. It should be there... It is call mount manager.
http://www.ubuntugeek.com/mount-manager-user-friendly-management-of-disks-and-partitions.html
It can help locate and mount errant/stubborn partitions.

Been ages since I used it. But it was wonderful when I did. Worked great, for writing to the fstab and makin things work..
 
Ok, in mountmanager it lists sdb with one partition also named sdb with a file system of type isw_raid_member. I was using this disk in RAID at one point before I started using it as a single disk. Windows 7 has no problems accessing it.

How can I fix this without destroying the data on the disk?
 
I don't know much about mint... is ntfs-3g or the equivalent installed? And what happens when you just try to mount /dev/sdb itself, manually?
 
Ok, in mountmanager it lists sdb with one partition also named sdb with a file system of type isw_raid_member. I was using this disk in RAID at one point before I started using it as a single disk. Windows 7 has no problems accessing it.

How can I fix this without destroying the data on the disk?

Software RAID? What level.
 
How where you mounting it? Did you try from the command line specifying the filesystem type by hand?
 
whats the output of
Code:
# fdisk -l /dev/sdb

Code:
Disk /dev/sdb: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xd9a4d61e

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1               1       19458   156288000    7  HPFS/NTFS

I don't know much about mint... is ntfs-3g or the equivalent installed? And what happens when you just try to mount /dev/sdb itself, manually?

Yes, I have 2 NTFS partitions on sda that mount fine. mount /dev/sdb gives an error "mount: unknown filesystem type 'isw_raid_member"

Software RAID? What level.

It was used in RAID10, but like I said, its not being used that way any more.

How where you mounting it? Did you try from the command line specifying the filesystem type by hand?

I get:

Code:
NTFS signature is missing.
Failed to mount '/dev/sdb': Invalid argument
The device '/dev/sdb' doesn't seem to have a valid NTFS.
Maybe the wrong device is used? Or the whole disk instead of a
partition (e.g. /dev/sda, not /dev/sda1)? Or the other way around?
 
Glad you got it resolved.

Could you please set the [Solved] tag on the topic.
 
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