Ubuntu

cannot mount internal hard drive

Asked by chaplanger

I currently am at a loss -- I cannot mount the hard drive upon which I have Ubuntu 8.04 installed.

Long story short:
Initial Set-up:
(1) I have (had) two hard drives on my system.
(2) Drive 1 (primary) had WIN XP SP-2
(3) Drive 2 (secondary) had Ubuntu 8.04
(4) MBR worked fine to boot to either drive

BIG Mistake:
(1) I decided to install Ubuntu 8.10 on Drive 2 (reformat and completely replace Ubuntu 8.04)
(2) I inadvertently reformatted Drive 1 by mistake -- wiping out my WIN XP installation. (Losing all data files with it -- groan) -- BUT wait -- the data was backed-up in the original Ubuntu 8.04 -- so all is not lost.
(3) MBR still allows me to boot into either Drive 1 (Ubuntu 8.10) or Drive 2 (Ubuntu 8.04) -- my backed-up Windows data lives.
(4) I disconnect Drive 1 to make certain I can still boot into Drive 2, independent of it. I can, so I decide to reinstall WIN XP SP-2 on Drive 1 ( I disconnect drive 2 for the reinstallation of WIN XP)

BIGGER Problem:
(1) After successfully reinstalling WIN XP to Drive 1 -- I try to boot into Drive 2 (Ubuntu 8.04) by removing cables from Drive 1 -- No joy -- Drive 2 not recognized.
(2) I reboot with a DVD version of Ubuntu 8.10 into a live session -- I can find my former "Home" files on the Hard Drive, but I cannot access them (I don't have permissions to access them).
(3) Following how to reset an MBR -- I follow the instructions from "Recovering Ubuntu after installing Windows at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RecoveringUbuntuAfterInstallingWindows
(4) Following these instructions I reset the MBR -- still no joy. No bootable partition found. I run the application again --reset to another possible hd combination. no joy and now I can't find any bootable partition on the hd
(5) I cannot find any mount points for this drive -- I cannot get to my data.
(6) I ran the 'install program' from the live CD to seek out the partition Ubuntu installed upon -- and when it gets to identifying partitions -- it finds NO partitions.

Lacking a portable USB hard drive (which I now have) -- I was unable to grab the data prior to WIN XP reinstallation.
I cannot access the data that is still on the Ubuntu hard drive. Access means not only can't open, but can't copy the files as well. BIG Help request here.

Looks like I need to find a way to get my UBUNTU 8.04 partition recognized again. OR a way to change permissions for the folder. . . HELP!

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dragonov7 (dragonov7) said : 		#1

Hello there. For what I am reading it seems that you can not access the the mounted filesystem because you are not root (step 2 in your BIGGER Problem seccion). Try this:

1- connect drive 2.
2- boot Ubuntu 8.10 from DVD.
3- locate the partition you want to access. (You can use dmesg command).
4- mount the partition. In a terminal, type: sudo mount /dev/(your partition here) /mnt
5- In your "System" menu go to: System -> Administration -> Users and Groups. You'll see the root user there, click on it and click Properties.
6- Set a password for the root user.
7- In the terminal do: su - root . When asked type the password you just setted for the root user
8- Now you are the root user. Try having access to the partition you mounted on step 4.

Hope this helps!

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Wyatt Smith (wyatt-smith) said : 		#2

Sound like you have two separate issues here. Not being able to boot Hardy. And not being to copy files the files from while running to LiveCD.

First to recovery your data using LiveCD
If your have your hardy drive mounted and can see you former ¨Home¨ folder. Open a terminal and type

df

This output should show you where the mountpoint for the drive is. FOR EXAMPLE, if the drive is mounted in /media/disk2 then you can change permission of your home directory with this command.

sudo chmod -R 777 /media/disk2/home/username

Please substitute the correct names in the above command.

Then you should be able to copy all your data back onto you windows drive from you home directory.

As for you other problem of not being able to boot to your hardy drive. I suggest you open a thread at Ubuntu Forums. It is a fantastic place to get help with booting problems and since there are usually some many more people logged in at the forums you will receive quicker answers.

Hope this helps

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