NTFS drive wont mount - "unknown filesystem"?

[Karl F. Larsen]

David McNally wrote:
> Hi Karl.
> 
> Thanks for getting back so quick, but I have a little problem with
> that. The partition on the broken hard drive is bigger than my
> internal hard drive, or any hard drive that i own.

	That IS bad.


  That might not work
> so well. Also, I'm not too good with opening hard drives or computers.
> I'm good at fixing software, but I'm no use for fixing broken
> hardware.

	We are all amateurs but you can get the hang of it pretty fast.


> 
> However, I noticed in GParted that it allows me to "Format as NTFS". I
> didn't actually do it, but I was wondering what would happen if I did.

	If you do format a hard drive you loose everything on that 
drive. I think you do not want to do that.


> Does format strictly mean that it will erase everything on the hard
> drive, or will it just make the hard drive into an NTFS partition? If
> it just makes it into an NTFS partition, then I could probably try
> that, right?

NO!

73 Karl

> 
> David
> 
> On Tue, Jan 19, 2010 at 5:27 PM, Karl F. Larsen <klarsen1 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 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.
>>         Key ID = 3951B48D
>>
>>
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> 
> 
> 


-- 

	Karl F. Larsen, AKA K5DI
	Linux User
	#450462   http://counter.li.org.
         Key ID = 3951B48D