"unwritable" external USB drive
Greetings All. I wonder if anyone can give me some advice! Seeking a device to take backups onto, I bought a Western Digital "My Passport Essential" external USB hard drive (500 GB, USB 2.0 and 3.0). When I plug this in (Debian Lenny) I get a pop-up which says: Cannot mount volume Invalid mount option when attempting to mount the volume 'My Passport' dmesg | tail -35 gives: usb 4-3: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 9 usb 4-3: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice scsi8 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices usb-storage: device found at 9 usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning usb 4-3: New USB device found, idVendor=1058, idProduct=0740 usb 4-3: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=5 usb 4-3: Product: My Passport 0740 usb 4-3: Manufacturer: Western Digital usb 4-3: SerialNumber: 575839314138315934373632 usb-storage: device scan complete scsi 8:0:0:0: Direct-Access WD My Passport 0740 1003 PQ: 0 ANSI: 6 scsi 8:0:0:1: Enclosure WD SES Device 1003 PQ: 0 ANSI: 6 sd 8:0:0:0: [sdc] Spinning up disk....ready sd 8:0:0:0: [sdc] 976707584 512-byte hardware sectors (500074MB) sd 8:0:0:0: [sdc] Write Protect is off sd 8:0:0:0: [sdc] Mode Sense: 47 00 10 08 sd 8:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through sd 8:0:0:0: [sdc] 976707584 512-byte hardware sectors (500074MB) sd 8:0:0:0: [sdc] Write Protect is off sd 8:0:0:0: [sdc] Mode Sense: 47 00 10 08 sd 8:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through sdc: sdc1 sd 8:0:0:0: [sdc] Attached SCSI disk ses 8:0:0:1: Attached Enclosure device fdisk /dev/sdc gives: Disk /dev/sdc: 500.0 GB, 500074283008 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60797 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Disk identifier: 0x00038a56 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdc1 1 60798 488352768 7 HPFS/NTFS Then, as root (remote login): mount -t ntfs /dev/sdc1 /mnt apparently mounts OK, and then: ls -la /mnt gives: drwx------ 1 root root 4096 2012-01-19 13:11 . drwxr-xr-x 21 root root 4096 2009-04-17 19:52 .. drwx------ 1 root root 4096 2011-03-10 00:48 Extras drwx------ 1 root root 0 2012-01-19 13:11 $RECYCLE.BIN drwx------ 1 root root 0 2012-01-19 13:10 System Volume Information drwx------ 1 root root 0 2011-03-10 00:48 User Manuals -rw------- 2 root root 3290480 2011-03-09 22:43 WD Quick Formatter.exe drwx------ 1 root root 4096 2011-03-10 00:48 WD SmartWare -rw------- 2 root root 4246384 2011-03-09 22:43 WD SmartWare.exe drwx------ 1 root root 0 2011-03-10 00:48 WD SmartWare for Mac and I can read the user manual under "User Manuals". However, I want to make a new directory on the USB disk, so as a test I try: mkdir /mnt/Test which gives: mkdir: cannot create directory `/mnt/Test': Operation not permitted (despite the fact that /mnt, and /mnt/Test and all subdirectories, apparently have write permission for root). Also, in /media I have: -rw------- 1 root root 0 2012-01-23 18:37 .hal-mtab-lock which was not there before I plugged it in (well, it was from a previous session, but I deleted it before starting this test). SO: How do I make this thing writeable??? (This is the first time I have had a USB drive so this on me). With thanks, Ted. ------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding@wlandres.net> Date: 23-Jan-2012 Time: 18:41:46 This message was sent by XFMail -------------------------------------------------
(Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding@wlandres.net> [...]
When I plug this in (Debian Lenny) I get a pop-up which says:
Cannot mount volume Invalid mount option when attempting to mount the volume 'My Passport'
dmesg | tail -35 gives:
Try /var/log/messages and /var/log/daemon to see if it traps what command it is trying to run. I suspect it's udev or hal kicking in and trying to mount it as vfat instead of ntfs. I think they mount things under /media so that may explain the .hal-* file. If so, you need to find the rule and add a more specific one for that disk (probably its UUID or label or something) to mount it as ntfs instead. Hope that points you in roughly the right direction, -- MJ Ray (slef), member of www.software.coop, a for-more-than-profit co-op. http://koha-community.org supporter, web and library systems developer. In My Opinion Only: see http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html Available for hire (including development) at http://www.software.coop/
On 23-Jan-2012 MJ Ray wrote:
(Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding@wlandres.net> [...]
When I plug this in (Debian Lenny) I get a pop-up which says:
Cannot mount volume Invalid mount option when attempting to mount the volume 'My Passport'
dmesg | tail -35 gives:
Try /var/log/messages and /var/log/daemon to see if it traps what command it is trying to run.
I suspect it's udev or hal kicking in and trying to mount it as vfat instead of ntfs. I think they mount things under /media so that may explain the .hal-* file.
If so, you need to find the rule and add a more specific one for that disk (probably its UUID or label or something) to mount it as ntfs instead.
Hope that points you in roughly the right direction, -- MJ Ray (slef), member of www.software.coop, a for-more-than-profit co-op.
Well, maybe ... ! The /var/log/messages looks the same as the output of dmesg which I posted previously. /var/log/daemon.log may be more informative, but I don't know how to interpret it: Jan 23 18:37:09 deb2 NetworkManager: <debug>\ [1327343829.337959] nm_hal_device_added():\ New device added (hal udi is \ '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/storage_serial_WD_\ My_Passport_0740_575839314138315 934373632_0_0'). Furthermore: When I used mount -o rw to force mounting rw: mount -t ntfs -o rw /dev/sdc1 /mnt and then execute 'mount' to see what's there, I see: /dev/sdc1 on /mnt type ntfs (rw) so it is (allegedly) mounted rw, and with FS type NTFS, but I cannot execute 'mkdir /mnt/Test' since I get mkdir: cannot create directory `/mnt/Test': Operation not permitted Thanks, Ted. ------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding@wlandres.net> Date: 23-Jan-2012 Time: 20:04:19 This message was sent by XFMail -------------------------------------------------
On Mon, 23 Jan 2012 20:04:24 -0000 (GMT), Ted.Harding@wlandres.net said:
so it is (allegedly) mounted rw, and with FS type NTFS,
I haven't used NTFS in a decade, but do you have a kernel that has the capability to write NTFS? For a long time, NTFS was read-only on Linux. Do you even need to use NTFS? If it were me, I'd backup any data already on there that I needed, and reformat as ext3. One other test you could try, as root: # touch /mnt/xyz ...and see if you can create a file. -- "You can have everything in life you want if you help enough other people get what they want" - Zig Ziglar. Who did you help today?
On 23 January 2012 21:02, Keith Edmunds <kae@midnighthax.com> wrote:
On Mon, 23 Jan 2012 20:04:24 -0000 (GMT), Ted.Harding@wlandres.net said:
so it is (allegedly) mounted rw, and with FS type NTFS,
I haven't used NTFS in a decade, but do you have a kernel that has the capability to write NTFS? For a long time, NTFS was read-only on Linux.
Kubuntu 11.10 can write to ntfs via the fuse lib. Ones before the ntfs-3g stuff didnt allow anyone (even root) to write to NTFS? Lenny is old? Regards, Srdjan
On 23-Jan-2012 Srdjan Todorovic wrote:
On 23 January 2012 21:02, Keith Edmunds <kae@midnighthax.com> wrote:
On Mon, 23 Jan 2012 20:04:24 -0000 (GMT), Ted.Harding@wlandres.net said:
so it is (allegedly) mounted rw, and with FS type NTFS,
I haven't used NTFS in a decade, but do you have a kernel that has the capability to write NTFS? For a long time, NTFS was read-only on Linux.
Kubuntu 11.10 can write to ntfs via the fuse lib. Ones before the ntfs-3g stuff didnt allow anyone (even root) to write to NTFS?
Lenny is old?
Regards, Srdjan
AHHH!! It hadn't occurred to me that NTFS might be read-only! It's true that as root I can't write to it, even if mounted RW. As to the vintage of Lenny: # uname -a Linux deb2 2.6.26-2-686 #1 SMP Wed Sep 21 04:35:47 UTC 2011 i686 GNU/Linux but the distro is older than that (that was the latest update date). Lenny was apparently first released in Feb 2009, and superseded by Squeeze in Feb 2011. ("deb2" is the short name for the machine). There are certainly "ntfs" modules for the kernel, but I can't suss out how to access information about whether they permit writing. Some googling suggests that NTFS of recent years is not writable by Linux (unless you install some special software). Well, having said all that, a bit of light relief (I need it). Maybe some of you have heard of the "Devil's Data Processing Dictionary" (by Stan Kelly-Bootle, McGraw-Hill, 1981). This has some interesting entries: IBM Irish Business Machines (Their brand was later poached by an American start-up). Irish Business Machines first became famous for developing an absolutely secure data storage device, which has totally defeated all attempts by the most ingenious hackers ever since to steal confidential data. This device is the: WOM WOM chip (Write-Only Memory). Then IBM went on to work with the Irish Navy, making very important contributions to the technology incorprated into the Irish Navy's invincible craft, the unsinkable submarine. (sort of like the unwritable backup disk -- impossible to damage any backed-up data). Best wishes to all, Ted. ------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding@wlandres.net> Date: 23-Jan-2012 Time: 22:40:39 This message was sent by XFMail -------------------------------------------------
participants (4)
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Keith Edmunds -
MJ Ray -
Srdjan Todorovic -
Ted.Harding＠wlandres.net