NTFS drive wont mount - "unknown filesystem"?

[David McNally]

Hi again.

Looks like I shouldn't try formatting to NTFS, considering that I
still need the data on the hard drive.

I tried what Preston said, and this happened:

david at david-desktop:~$ sudo ntfsfix /dev/sdf1
[sudo] password for david:
Mounting volume... Failed to startup volume: Invalid argument.
FAILED
Attempting to correct errors... FAILED
Failed to startup volume: Invalid argument.
Volume is corrupt. You should run chkdsk.
david at david-desktop:~$

Not really sure what to do now. It does say that I should run chkdsk.
Anyone know how to do that exactly?

On Tue, Jan 19, 2010 at 6:10 PM, Karl F. Larsen <klarsen1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> ubuntu-users mailing list
>>> ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com
>>> Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-users
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
> --
>
>        Karl F. Larsen, AKA K5DI
>        Linux User
>        #450462   http://counter.li.org.
>         Key ID = 3951B48D
>
>
> --
> ubuntu-users mailing list
> ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com
> Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-users
>



-- 
David McNally
david3333333 at gmail.com
Linux Kernel 2.6.31-17-generic