Need help ASAP

[GeoTrail]

I'm in such a crappy mood now

Yesterday I used Partition Magic to convert one of my drives from NTFS to FAT32 so I would have access to it via a DOS boot disk. But when I converted the drive I got an error message. Can't remember what it said.

Anyways, I ran chckdsk to see if I could fix it, cause some files could'nt be accessed. Now I can't access that drive in Windows at all and all my emails, projects and other IMPORTANT things are on that drive.

I got a CD from a buddy, with Mandrake Move, it's a Live Linux running from a CD. That works fine. But I want to move some of the files on that drive to my USB pen so I can make backups of the things I need. But when I insert the USB pen, I can't find the device. I'm not very good with Linux. All I see is a bunch of weird folders like etc, mnt, dev and stuff like that.

Could some PLEASE help me get access to my USB storage device? Please, this is VERY important *crying like a baby*

[Saboteur]

I don't know how works Mandrake Move, but I think you can do it from a terminal. But first, look into directoy /mnt (with your memory pen connected), if you see a directory named memory_card possibly it is your USB pen.

First make a directory in /mnt
later mount the pen

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cd /mnt
mkdir usbpen
mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 usbpen

Now, you can use your USB pen in directoy /mnt/usbpen

[GeoTrail]

When I try that I get this error message:

mkdir: cannot create directory `usbpen': Permission denied

Not sure if I have or can get root access or what it's called. Think Mandrake Move might be limited compared to normal Linux systems.

Perhaps someone knows of a free dos app I can use to fix the drive?

[Saboteur]

I think Mandrake Move can read usb devices automatically.
Could you type

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mount

in a terminal and show here the result?

[GeoTrail]

Yeah, here's what I get

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rootfs on / type rootfs (rw)
none on / type tmpfs (rw)
none on /cdrom type supermount (ro,dev=/dev/hdc,fs=iso9660,tray_lock=always)
/dev/chloop0 on /image_boot type iso9660 (ro)
/dev/chloop1 on /image_always type iso9660 (ro)
/dev/chloop2 on /image_totem type iso9660 (ro)
/dev/chloop3 on /image type iso9660 (ro)
/proc on /proc type proc (rw)
none on /dev type devfs (rw)
/proc/bus/usb on /proc/bus/usb type usbdevfs (rw)
/dev/chloop4 on /image_always_i18n_en_US type iso9660 (ro)
/dev/hda1 on /mnt/win_c type ntfs (ro,noatime,nodiratime,uid=0,gid=0,umask=00,nls=iso8859-1,errors=continue,mft_zone_multiplier=1)
/dev/hda5 on /mnt/win_d type ntfs (ro,noatime,nodiratime,uid=0,gid=0,umask=00,nls=iso8859-1,errors=continue,mft_zone_multiplier=1)
/dev/hdb1 on /mnt/win_c2 type vfat (ro)
none on /mnt/floppy type supermount (rw,sync,dev=/dev/fd0,fs=ext2:vfat,tray_lock=onwrite,--,umask=0,codepage=850,iocharset=iso8859-1)

Looks greek to me...

[Saboteur]

I forget it...
Please, type in the terminal:

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cat /etc/fstab

Another thing, can you create directories in your /home/ directory? Perhaps is all mounted like read only, because it's a live cd.

[GeoTrail]

Then it returns

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none /cdrom supermount dev=/dev/hdc,fs=udf:iso9660,ro,--,iocharset=iso8859-1 0 0
none /dev/pts devpts mode=0620 0 0
none /mnt/floppy supermount dev=/dev/fd0,fs=ext2:vfat,--,umask=0,sync,codepage=850,iocharset=iso8859-1 0 0
/dev/hda1 /mnt/win_c ntfs umask=0,ro,iocharset=iso8859-1 0 0
/dev/hdb1 /mnt/win_c2 vfat umask=0,codepage=850,iocharset=iso8859-1 0 0
/dev/hda5 /mnt/win_d ntfs umask=0,ro,iocharset=iso8859-1 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0

Yes, I can create directories in my home directory. Will that help?

[Saboteur]

Yes, that can help.
Try first commands, but in your home directory (/home/user or /root or whatever):

With:

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cd ~

you should be in your home

Now, repeat:

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mkdir usbpen 
mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 usbpen

If don't find the device, type:

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ls -la /dev/sd*

Perhaps you are using another usb port, like sda2, etc.
Try with that port.
If don't work yet, I'll have to get a ticket to norway.

[GeoTrail]

I tried this after creating a Test dir under my home directory:

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mount -vfat /dev/sda1 Test

but got this message in return:

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mount: only root can do that

[GeoTrail]

Output after the ls -la /dev/sd* command:

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lr-xr-xr-x    1 root     root           33 Jul  9 09:10 /dev/sda -> scsi/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/disc
lr-xr-xr-x    1 root     root           33 Jul  9 09:10 /dev/sdb -> scsi/host0/bus0/target0/lun1/disc
lr-xr-xr-x    1 root     root           33 Jul  9 09:10 /dev/sdc -> scsi/host0/bus0/target0/lun2/disc
lr-xr-xr-x    1 root     root           33 Jul  9 09:10 /dev/sdd -> scsi/host0/bus0/target0/lun3/disc
lr-xr-xr-x    1 root     root           33 Jul  9 09:09 /dev/sde -> scsi/host1/bus0/target0/lun0/disc
lr-xr-xr-x    1 root     root           34 Jul  9 09:09 /dev/sde1 -> scsi/host1/bus0/target0/lun0/part
1
lr-xr-xr-x    1 root     root           34 Jul  9 09:09 /dev/sde2 -> scsi/host1/bus0/target0/lun0/part
2
lr-xr-xr-x    1 root     root           34 Jul  9 09:09 /dev/sde5 -> scsi/host1/bus0/target0/lun0/part
5

/dev/sd:
total 0
drwxr-xr-x    1 root     root            0 Jul  9 09:09 ./
drwxr-xr-x    1 root     root            0 Dec 31  1969 ../
lr-xr-xr-x    1 root     root           36 Jul  9 09:10 c0b0t0u0 -> ../scsi/host0/bus0/target0/lun0sc
lr-xr-xr-x    1 root     root           36 Jul  9 09:10 c0b0t0u1 -> ../scsi/host0/bus0/target0/lun1sc
lr-xr-xr-x    1 root     root           36 Jul  9 09:10 c0b0t0u2 -> ../scsi/host0/bus0/target0/lun2sc
lr-xr-xr-x    1 root     root           36 Jul  9 09:10 c0b0t0u3 -> ../scsi/host0/bus0/target0/lun3sc
lr-xr-xr-x    1 root     root           36 Jul  9 09:09 c1b0t0u0 -> ../scsi/host1/bus0/target0/lun0sc
lr-xr-xr-x    1 root     root           37 Jul  9 09:09 c1b0t0u0p1 -> ../scsi/host1/bus0/target0/lupart1
lr-xr-xr-x    1 root     root           37 Jul  9 09:09 c1b0t0u0p2 -> ../scsi/host1/bus0/target0/lupart2
lr-xr-xr-x    1 root     root           37 Jul  9 09:09 c1b0t0u0p5 -> ../scsi/host1/bus0/target0/lupart5

[Saboteur]

You can get root access with:

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su

but don't know if in MandrakeMove there is a password for root user or not.

[MadMax]

I find that the most valuable help tool for Linux is Google.

Linux at first, specialy if you aren't used to using a console, can be confusing. But in the end if you persiste, and there are a lot of help pages, howtos and irc's to help, you'll get there fine.

Probably your main trouble is using a Live CD, these are very nice to see if Linux works on your system and to get a feel for it. I also use one to sort out windows problems.

I'm not lucky enough to have one of those USB pens, so I realy can't help you. But I'm pretty sure Mandrake will have some configuring tool for it. One thing is that these usualy require a root password to work, you define this yourself when you install Linux. As you are using a Live CD this might already be set, but you'll always be able to find out what this is by looking at the documents, or in the same page you downloaded it from, if not a clever search in Google will surely give you the answer.

To get you started with Linux, if you are a newbie, there are a couple of nice courses online at http://www.linux.org/ click on the courses button on the left hand menu (below the Amazon ad)

Sorry I couldn't help more specificaly, but let us know how you get on (Who knows I might get lucky and need to install one of these pens myself)

[GeoTrail]

OK, I got root access now. Tried mounting and has is the result:

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mount -vfat /dev/sda1 usbpen
Usage: mount -V                 : print version
       mount -h                 : print this help
       mount                    : list mounted filesystems
       mount -l                 : idem, including volume labels
So far the informational part. Next the mounting.
The command is `mount [-t fstype] something somewhere'.
Details found in /etc/fstab may be omitted.
       mount -a [-t|-O] ...     : mount all stuff from /etc/fstab
       mount device             : mount device at the known place
       mount directory          : mount known device here
       mount -t type dev dir    : ordinary mount command
Note that one does not really mount a device, one mounts
a filesystem (of the given type) found on the device.
One can also mount an already visible directory tree elsewhere:
       mount --bind olddir newdir
or move a subtree:
       mount --move olddir newdir
A device can be given by name, say /dev/hda1 or /dev/cdrom,
or by label, using  -L label  or by uuid, using  -U uuid .
Other options: [-nfFrsvw] [-o options] [-p num].
For many more details, say  man 8 mount .

have to be honest and say that I'm not sure what to do next

[Saboteur]

Nooo:

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mount -vfat /dev/sda1 usbpen

This must be:

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mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 usbpen

There are another live cds wich automatically mount usb devices (I think MandrakeMove Pro do it), I have a knoppix live for recovery, it's easiest.

[GeoTrail]

Now I get this errer:

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mount: special device /dev/sda1 does not exist

Someone has a gun I can borrow?
*looking at my PC*


I tried creating the sda1 folder and ran the mount command again and got this

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mount: /dev/sda1 is not a block device