NTFS drive wont mount - "unknown filesystem"?

[Karl F. Larsen]

David McNally wrote:
> Hi Everyone.
> 
> Back when i used windows i got a 700 GB USB external hard drive. It
> was formatted with NTFS because it was first set up on windows. I've
> been using it since then on Ubuntu, without any problems. i never
> bothered to reformat it as a better filesystem because the NTFS worked
> well enough, and I didn't want to mess with it. However, it isn't
> working properly anymore. Maybe someone here can help me.
> 
> I opened up GParted to see if i could find a problem with it. When i
> go into GParted and select the hard drive, it tells me that the file
> system is "unknown". Next to the word "unknown" is a black square. It
> is able to determine the correct size (698.64 GiB), but can not tell
> me how much is used and how much is unused. Under partition, it says
> "/dev/sdf1" and then has a little orange triangle with an "!" in it.
> When i go into Nautilus, the hard drive is not listed or mentioned in
> any way.
> 
> I can tell that this isn't good, but I was hoping that someone had
> maybe seen this before and might know how to help. It looks like the
> rest of the computer is working just fine. Ubuntu boots from the
> internal hard drive properly, so I'm still able to use the computer
> like normal, but the external hard drive isn't working at all. I did
> have quite a lot of important stuff on it, so it's pretty important
> for me to be able to use it again.
> 
> Thanks in advance!
> 

	I have a big hard drive in a plastic box that connects to my 
computer via a USB port. It works fine, but do not have more 
than one partition! If you have trouble with it, take the hard 
drive out of the box and connect it into your computer. Then 
look at it with all your tools.

	If the hard drive is bad, consider using dd to copy it all 
from the bad to a partition on your computer. I had lots of 
good luck with dd on a bad HD.

73 Karl


-- 

	Karl F. Larsen, AKA K5DI
	Linux User
	#450462   http://counter.li.org.
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