FAT32 Storage drive not recognized

[rj586b]

Hello,

I would like to be able to save data to my storage drive from Ubuntu. When I first installed it I saw all 3 hard drives and formated the storage drive as Fat32.

I have 3 hard drives; 1 with Ubuntu 8.10, 1 with winxp and 1 storage drive formated as Fat32. Ubuntu recognizes all but the storage drive. Under Places and Computer it shows 300.1 GB Media, CD Rom and Filesystem.

Here is what FSTAB shows:
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
# /dev/sdb6
UUID=07a87831-01da-46f4-b92c-033e609f16d5 / ext3 relatime,errors=remount-ro 0 1
# /dev/sdb7
UUID=7f93ef14-45a5-439e-a801-4f2e44d4a627 /home ext3 relatime 0 2
# /dev/sdc5
UUID=0FC2-FE88 /windows vfat utf8,umask=007,gid=46 0 1
# /dev/sdb5
UUID=2de21df3-d94d-4d27-883e-00a41ae2c75c none swap sw 0 0
/dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0

Your help is appreciated.

[devils casper]

Execute this

sudo fdisk -l
df -h

Post output here.

* Its small L in fdisk -l.

[rj586b]

Thanks DC. Here it is:

Disk /dev/sda: 300.0 GB, 300069052416 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 36481 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x1eb81eb7

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 36480 293025568+ 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdb: 74.3 GB, 74355769344 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9039 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00069b2f

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 9039 72605736 5 Extended
/dev/sdb5 1 123 987934+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdb6 124 3770 29294496 83 Linux
/dev/sdb7 3771 9039 42323211 83 Linux

Disk /dev/sdc: 74.3 GB, 74355769344 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9039 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0007bc34

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 1 9039 72605736 5 Extended
/dev/sdc5 1 9039 72605704+ b W95 FAT32
chris@rj586b-Linux-desktop:~$ df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sdb6 28G 2.7G 24G 11% /
tmpfs 1.4G 0 1.4G 0% /lib/init/rw
varrun 1.4G 100K 1.4G 1% /var/run
varlock 1.4G 0 1.4G 0% /var/lock
udev 1.4G 2.8M 1.4G 1% /dev
tmpfs 1.4G 112K 1.4G 1% /dev/shm
lrm 1.4G 2.0M 1.4G 1% /lib/modules/2.6.27-9-generic/volatile
/dev/sdb7 40G 289M 38G 1% /home
/dev/sdc5 70G 969M 69G 2% /windows
/dev/scd0 3.3G 3.3G 0 100% /media/cdrom0

Looks like the drive shows here but not sure why it doesn't show under places/computer.

[devils casper]

300GB media has only one partition having NTFS filesystem. Are you sure that you have formatted it correctly?
All other partitions are moutned already.
Try this

sudo mkdir /media/sda1
sudo mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sda1 /media/sda1 -o defaults,umask=0
ls /media/sda1

Does it list contents of /dev/sda1 partition? Does it allow you save/delete files in /media/sda1?

[rj586b]

I am sure I formatted the drive as Fat32. Windows uses it as a storage drive just fine. The only thing that I wondered about during the format was the fact that I named it as windows when it doesn't really have windows on it.

Here is the output from the commands I entered:
28772597bab7dcc202 IO.SYS Program Files
AUTOEXEC.BAT MSDOS.SYS RECYCLER
autorun.inf MSOCache sccfg.sys
boot.ini NTDETECT.COM System Volume Information
CloneDVDTemp ntldr vista.ico
CONFIG.SYS NVIDIA WINDOWS
Documents and Settings pagefile.sys

I am not showing anything under computer in Ubuntu yet. Any other ideas?

Thanks

[TaZMAniac]

I just ran into this problem while getting my system ready to install XP in my Ubuntu system.

Using the sudo mount command that devil's casper posted should mount that partition.
Are you sure that partition is a logical partition and not an extended one?
Because you can't mount an extended partition, only logical can be mounted.

And if you do get it mounted you will probably have a write permissions problem with that partition.
From all the info I just poured through it seems you need to set the R/W permissions for that fat32 partition while in Windows.

Just wondering why you decided to use fat32 instead of NTFS.
Ubuntu reads and writes NTFS with no problems as long as you have ntfs-3g installed. And it handles files over 4 gigs plus the cluster size is smaller then the fat32 format thus you have less wasted space with partially used clusters.

Anyway, here are some links that should help you out and save you time looking for info elsewhere.

File System Mounting Basics

http://ubuntuguide.org/wik


Hope this helps you out and please let us know if you got it fixed and how.

Good luck.

TaZMAn

Ubuntu 4 You

[joruss]

should the mount be as below:

sudo mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 /media/sda1 -o defaults,umask=0

[TaZMAniac]

I still suck at interpreting drive partition table info but from what the poster had said;

Everything but his fat32 storage partition is being seen.
And from the looks of it, his storage partition is on sdc5.
I may be wrong about that but it sure looks like that would be the one he needs to mount.

I am however open to suggestions or partition gurus.
I got a headache from all the partition problems I had earlier tonight. LOL!!

TaZMAn

Ubuntu 4 You

[devils casper]

/dev/sdc5 70G 969M 69G 2&#37; /windows

/dev/sdc5 has been mounted at /windows already. There isn't any entry of /dev/sda1 in /etc/fstab file and OP have to mount it manually.

What is the output of this

ls /windows

?

[joruss]

sudo mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 /media/sda1 -o defaults,umask=0

Your right probably should be:

sudo mount -t vfat /dev/sdc5 /media/sdc5 -o defaults,umask=0

vfat is what you need for FAT32