Newbie Confused with Mounting USB Storage Device

[MikeH30]

I have a 160GB Western Digital USB device attached to my server. I would mount it by right clicking on the USB Mass Storage icon and choose "mount." Recently I have lost my GUI ( I am currently trying to figure out what happened) and only have a command prompt to work with. I have a CRON job that backs up my web root nightly to my USB device. I noticed that the directory /media/WD_USB_2 contains my backed up web root files however I do not see the rest of my directories on the USB drive. I tried to mount my USB device manually as follows.

1. I created a directory called /mnt/usb_wd2.

2. Next I added an entry to etc/fstab like this:

/dev/sda/ /mnt/usb_wd2 auto noauto,user 0 0

When I issue the command "mount /mnt/usb_wd2" I get the following reply
"mount: /dev/sda/ already mounted or /mnt/usb_wd2 busy"

How do I replicate what I was doing with the GUI by right clicking and choosing "mount" at the command prompt?

Thanks.

-Mike

[whych]

The message means that the drive is probably already mounted.
Suse uses /media for mounting removable drives.
Try using a terminal as root and typing:
fdisk -l
to see where it is mounted.

I take it that by 'lost my gui' you mean that you don't have a graphic logon?

[D-cat]

fdisk -l shows what partitions are existing (mounted or not)

typing only mount by itself will show you what's mounted where.

[MikeH30]

Whych,

Yes, by "lost my gui" I mean that my x windows is gone. I tried re-running SAX2 and uninstalling and re-installing X-windows via YAST2 but to no avail. Anyways, my file and web server are still functional. I am taking this in as a good way to learn how to operate Linux via the command line.

-Mike

[MikeH30]

D- Cat,

When I type "mount" here is the output:

/dev/sda2 on / type reiserfs (rw,acl,user_xattr)
proc on /proc type proc (rw)
debugfs on /sys/kernel/debug type debugfs (rw)
udev on /dev type tmpfs (rw)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw, mode=0620,gid=5)
nfsd on /proc/fs/nfsd type nfsd (rw)

My CRON job is baking up my web root to "/media/WD_USB_2" which is my USB storage device. When I had my X-windows functional, I could double click on the USB storage device icon and see my backed up web root files plus all other directories on my USB storage device.

I am not sure how to navigate to my USB storage device via the command line.
When I CD to "/media/WD_USB_2" I only see the directories backed up from my CRON job and do not see the rest of the directories like I saw when I viewed the USB storage device via the GUI.

I need to access some of the files on my USB storage device. How do I get to them?

Thanks.

-Mike

[D-cat]

We still need the output of fdisk -l while the drive is plugged in to ensure the following will work as typed (there may need to be a device or type adjustment, I'm going to assume fat32 on /dev/sdb1), but I'll give it to you as best as I can predict it'll work..

su to root user, then mount as follows:

cd /media

mkdir WD_USB_2

mount -t vfat -o rw,umask=0 /dev/sdb1 /media/WD_USB_2

If fdisk -l reveals a different device, make the adjustment above. Also, if it shows the partition is ntfs, then replace vfat with ntfs-3g .

Good luck!

[MikeH30]

There is already a directory named "/media/WD_USB_2"

However there only 3 files listed there. These are the 3 files that I specified to back up in my CRON job. In actuality there are over 50 directories on my USB drive and non are listed.

Output for "fdisk -l"

Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80000000000 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9726 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks ID System
/dev/sda1 1 262 2104483+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda2 * 263 9726 76019580 83 Linux

Disk /dev/sdb: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks ID System
/dev/sdb1 1 19457 156288321 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)


I changed directory to /media and then I typed:
mount -t vfat -o rw,unmask=0 /dev/sdb1 /media/WD_USB_2

Output:

mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sdb1,
missing codepage or other error
In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
dmesg | tail or so


Next I typed "dmesg | tail" and the output was a bunch of MAC address listings but the last line
read: "FAT: Unrecognized mount option "unmask=0" or missing value."

I am a command line noob so I appreciate any help on what all the output means.

Thanks.

-Mike

[D-cat]

umask, not unmask

Short for User Mask, where user 0 is root.

It makes the drive accessible to all users as if they were the root user.

[MikeH30]

D-Cat,

I can't believe I saw "unmask" instead of "umask" - I am embarrassed!

Anyways, it worked. I am able to see all of my files on my USB storage device when I CD to "WD_USB_2." Thanks!!

From the "fdisk -l" output above , I thought /dev/sdb was my USB device because I know it is a 160GB drive.

Why did I have to mount the USB drive to /dev/sdb1 and not /dev/sdb?


Mike

[D-cat]

Why did I have to mount the USB drive to /dev/sdb1 and not /dev/sdb?

You were actually correct that the device was /dev/sdb. However, just like any other hard drive, you need to define a partition table and a format the drive (usually done in the factory for externals).

The partition table allows for 4 primary partitions and several (I never tried to find a limit) virtual partitions within an extended partition. The number after sdb represents the partition number, 1-4 is a primary partition slot. If one of those slots define an extended partition, then the contained partitions will begin at 5 and go up from there.

/dev/sdb1 litterally means the first partition on the second storage device.