[ubuntu-uk] What to do if external hard drive isn't unmounted properly?

[Rob Beard]

On 17/05/10 07:26, Rowan Berkeley wrote:
> Hi, people. This is a preventative question, since it hasn't happened
> yet. I have an external hard drive connected to my computer by USB.
> Unlike the computer it does not have battery power to fall back on if
> mains power is interrupted. I always unmount the hard drive by
> right-clicking on its desktop icon and selecting 'unmount' before
> powering down, otherwise when I next connect it it will be unable to
> mount properly. What I would like to know in advance is how to restore
> it to mountable condition if if this ever happens. Thanks.
>
>

Do you know what format the drive is in?

FAT32, NTFS, EXT3, EXT4?

If you haven't formatted the drive since you got it (for instance if it 
was pre-formatted) then you might find it's NTFS or FAT32.

Rob