Ubuntu can't see usb drive

[Douglas Pollard]

On 06/07/2011 12:58 AM, Nils Kassube wrote:
> Douglas Pollard wrote:
>> On 06/06/2011 08:20 PM, Douglas Pollard wrote:
>>> douglasdoug at ubuntuDoug:~$ sudo mount -t vfat /dev/sdc /mnt
>>> [sudo] password for douglasdoug:
>>> mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sdc,
> That should have been
>
> sudo mount -t vfat /dev/sdc1 /mnt
>
> because you can only mount partitions, not the entire disk.
>
>>>         missing codepage or helper program, or other error
>>>         In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
>>>         dmesg | tail  or so
>>>
>>> douglasdoug at ubuntuDoug:~$ dmesg | tail  or so
>>> tail: cannot open `or' for reading: No such file or directory
>>> tail: cannot open `so' for reading: No such file or directory
>>> douglasdoug at ubuntuDoug:~$
> That error message is a bit misleading. IMHO it should suggest the
> command "dmesg | tail" and the "or so" on separate lines. Now please try
> the mount command above (with sdc1) and then
>
> dmesg | tail
>
> That should give a hint why it can't mount the partition. But beware, if
> you changed the USB disks it might be a different device now. Please
> verify with
>
> sudo fdisk -l
>
> that /dev/sdc is the 2TB disk.
>
>> My wife's netbook with Ubuntu 10.04 for netbooks can't see the drive
>> in PLACES. The disk utility can see it in both machines.   Since
>> this is a vfat drive do you think windows xp can see it?
> Yes, XP should see the drive.
>
>
> Nils
>
Ok, Thanks Nils, I no longer have a dual boot machine with xp and my xp 
cd is scratched and does not work, I will have to see if any of my 
neighbours can run the drive in windows and copy the files to my other 
usb drives. If that works I can repartition the drive and put the 
material back on it.  I have about 500 g of data on the drive so I need 
to recover it even if I have to pay somebody to do it.
                                                                         
             Thanks for your input.       Doug