External Hard drive issue

[lanzen]

On Sunday 09 December 2007 20:29:41 Valter Mura wrote:

> Please note that I'm not very skilled with command line (I'm an almost-ex
> windows user...), but I'll explain what I've done

Never mind, I'm pretty new myself!

Sorry, I've been away and maybe you've sort it all out. Nevertheless...

> I've installed ntfs-config, as you suggested: everything well.

What I explained you I did it quite some time ago, so I checked it out now and
it appears I don't really need ntfs-config to see my ntfs partition on my usb 
disk.

You would also have to run it and, if you do on kde, nothing will happen. 
Editing the menu should reveal that the command line is set to 'gksu 
ntfs-config', good enough for gnome, but useless for kde. Change it, if you 
haven't yet done so, to 'kdesu ntfs-config' and see if it helps. I doubt it 
will. If it  won't you might as well just purge it.
To do that, open a terminal and give the following command
sudo apt-get purge ntfs-config
answer Yes, and remove the entry in the menu if still there. This last bit is 
only cosmetic and you may leave if you like.

> I turned on the etx drive, but I couldn't open it because not mounted.

On my usbdisk I have two partitions. One is formatted  as ntfs and the other 
one as ext3. Now, I use both Ubuntu and Kubuntu to access it, but Ubuntu opens 
both partitions - no problem - whereas Kubuntu nicely shows the linux bit and 
spits out the win one letting hal complain about uid 1000 :

'hal-storage-removable-mount-all-options refused uid 1000'

That's unfair as uid 1000 would be me! :)

So I right click on the unmounted disk icon and, in properties, find out where 
the OS sees my unmounted disk. It appears to be /dev/sda1.

Next I go to /media and note that there is already a /media/disk directory. If 
I open it, I get into my ext3 usb partition.
I need to create a mounting point for the ntfs part, so I open konsole and 
input ths command:

sudo mkdir /media/oldwin

any name would do, really.

On request I'll input my password and make sure the dir is created,

Konsole again and
sudo mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sda1 /media/oldwin -o force  

In desktop I will see that the drive is mounted and clicking on the icon will 
show it to me. I can read from it and write in it.

> In 
> System setting/advanced/Drives and filesystem, I enabled the drive and
> then, because nothing seems to go well, I restart the OS (I obviously
> turned off the ext drive).

Maybe you don't need that.

>
> Then I turn on the drive again and the Kde deamon appeared asking me to
> choose an action. I chose "Open in a new window" and it launched Dolphin:
> Dolphin opens "system:/media/sda1/" and in the right bottom a progress bar,
> that says "loading address" stays at 0%, freezed. The drive seems mounted
> but not working (its working-red light doesn't blink...).

Well it could be that your disk is not supported. Googling for your disk name 
might say if it is or not. I don't get that loading thingy window.

> I tried to paste some file inside but it returns an error and
> klauncher/dolphin doesn't work anymore. Moreover, I cannot see what I have
> in my home folder... I must restart the os to arrange everything (with the
> ext drive off, of course)

If it's not mounted that's normal. Also if it was read-only you couldn't. But 
your /home... something must be broken.

> But the big problem is now that, when I connects any usb drive (also a pen
> drive!) the system seems to freeze and dolphin/klauncher/ etcetera don't
> load. Also the memory seems to finish.

That's bad! But I don't know how it happens, sorry.

> Now this is a big problem because I cannot use any pen drive (for me very
> important). I know this is an error of mine (I surely changed something
> important concerning sda1 in the System settings), but if anybody could
> give me a suggestion... I thank you in advance!

The only suggestion I can give you is to remember what you did and try to go 
back. Hope others may offer you a better key.

Good luck!

-- 
lanzen