Get the message "Cannot mount volume" when I try to access new sata drive.

Hi Jerome,

Can you please follow this procedure:
1. Boot into the Ubuntu install that's giving you problems.
2. Connect the new SATA drive and try to mount it.
3. Open the terminal, run "sudo dmesg | tail" and paste the output here.
4. Also if you know which device (should be /dev/sda if it's the only SATA disk) your new SATA disk is under, run fdisk -l on it and paste the output. For example "sudo fdisk -l /dev/sda".

One issue is that the partition was created, and marked as ext3, but never formatted. Do you expect to have any data on this new disk?

Thanks for the help.

 sudo dmesg | tail
[sudo] password for jerome:
[47745.478600] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdd] Write Protect is off
[47745.478608] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdd] Mode Sense: 00 00 00 00
[47745.478612] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdd] Assuming drive cache: write through
[47745.480685] Buffer I/O error on device sdd, logical block 0
[47745.480713] Buffer I/O error on device sdd, logical block 1
[47745.480718] Buffer I/O error on device sdd, logical block 2
[47745.480723] Buffer I/O error on device sdd, logical block 3
[47745.481703] Buffer I/O error on device sdd, logical block 0
[50560.713801] usblp0: removed
[50563.791710] type=1503 audit(1238380973.754:5): operation="inode_permission" requested_mask="::rw" denied_mask="::rw" fsuid=7 name="/dev/tty" pid=20170 profile="/usr/sbin/cupsd"

 sudo fdisk -1 /dev/sda
fdisk: invalid option -- '1'

Usage: fdisk [-b SSZ] [-u] DISK Change partition table
       fdisk -l [-b SSZ] [-u] DISK List partition table(s)
       fdisk -s PARTITION Give partition size(s) in blocks
       fdisk -v Give fdisk version
Here DISK is something like /dev/hdb or /dev/sda
and PARTITION is something like /dev/hda7
-u: give Start and End in sector (instead of cylinder) units
-b 2048: (for certain MO disks) use 2048-byte sectors

According to GParted the disk is sda

Hi you wrong the command fdisk the option isn't "-1" but "-l" (little L).
Attach the result of command:
  sudo fdisk -l

(without /dev/sda) following Rouben's steps

Much thanks to both of you for your help. I have learned one thing, sda is the disk drive and sda1 is the partition. Correct?

:~$ sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 250.0 GB, 250000000000 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30394 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00005372

   Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 30394 244139773+ 83 Linux

Disk /dev/sdb: 20.8 GB, 20847697920 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 2534 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x2add2adc

   Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 1 973 7815591 83 Linux
/dev/sdb2 974 2534 12538732+ 5 Extended
/dev/sdb5 2424 2534 891576 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdb6 974 2423 11647062 83 Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order

Disk /dev/sdc: 300.0 GB, 300069052416 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 36481 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000001

   Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 * 1 36104 290005348+ 83 Linux
/dev/sdc2 36105 36481 3028252+ 5 Extended
/dev/sdc5 36105 36481 3028221 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Yes, but in your system there are three drives:
"sda"
"sdb"
"sdc"

these drives are:
"sda" -> 250.0 GB partition sda1.
"sdb" -> 20.8 GB partitions sdb1, sdb2, sdb4, sdb6.
"sdc" -> 300.0 GB partitions sdc1, sdc2, sdc5.

I still get the same message when I try to mount the sata drive

"Cannot mount volume. The volume 'newsata' uses the Ext 3 file system which is not supported by your system." The file system is Ext 3. Thanks in advance.

with the command "sudo dmesg" find and attach the information about sda device...

Thanks Antonio for the help. I keyed in the command "sudo dmesg" and get a bunch of info. I don't know how to separate it. Do you want it all? Below I have included just the info about the sda device as near as I can tell.

 6.040694] sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] 488281250 512-byte hardware sectors (250000 MB)
[ 6.040725] sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
[ 6.040730] sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
[ 6.040777] sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
[ 6.040896] sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] 488281250 512-byte hardware sectors (250000 MB)
[ 6.040920] sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
[ 6.040925] sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
[ 6.040963] sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
[ 6.040971] sda: sda1
[ 6.051518] sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI disk
[ 6.

With 'dmesg' (you don't need 'sudo' for that), the interesting info is usually at the end, right after you plugged in your device (unless it is fix installed and cannot be removed while the machine is running).
Do you know the size of your SATA disk? Is it 250GB? Because in your first dmesg excerpt there are some errors for a device sdd, not sda. Do you have 3 harddisks installed in total, or 4? I'd assume it's 4, and there are some I/O problems on the sdd disk.
The output of this command will help us in determining which disk is what:
mount

Also, as Rouben requested, is this a new, empty disk, or is there some data already on it you want to keep? If the disk is empty, we could simply try to create a new ext3 filesystem on it (="format").

Hey Cruncher, thanks for the help.
The 250GB sata disk is a new disk. It is formated to ext3 file system. I have two other ide drives, a 20GB and a 300GB for a total of 2 ide and one sata. The 250GB sata is the problem disk. There is no data on it. I have used GParted to format it several times, deleted the partition, created new, changed the file system to ext2 and still get the same message.

"Cannot mount volume. The volume 'newsata' uses the Ext 3 file system which is not supported by your system."

The file system is Ext 3. I did it my self and thats what GParted tells me.

OK, we can try creating a new filesystem on the disk manually, but it probably won't make a difference, as this is essentially what gparted does with the 'format' option. Make sure your system setup is unchanged and /dev/sda is really your 250GB disk, since the mke2fs command will erase data! You can recheck your disk configuration with 'sudo fdisk -l'
sudo mke2fs -j /dev/sda1
sudo e2fsck -p -f /dev/sda1

If there are errors during this process, please report back.
Now we should simply force a mount by adding the device to /etc/fstab. Think of a folder name under which you want to access your disk, for example '/newsata'. Then do:
sudo mkdir /newsata
sudo blkid /dev/sda1

This command should print a cryptic number after 'UUID=', and should contain the string 'TYEP="ext3"', and maybe a 'SEC_TYPE="ext2"'. If it printed anything else, please post the output here.
Now add it to the mount list. Open:
gksudo gedit /etc/fstab

And append these two lines (the xxxxx is the number from before, without the quotes)
# /dev/sda1
UUID=xxxxxxxxxxx /newsata ext3 defaults 0 2

Save and exit. Last command:
sudo mount -a

Now try to access /newsata in Nautilus or Thunar. The folder will exist, only question is whether it now points to the new disk. Open "Properties" on the tab, and make sure the "Free space" shows the 250GB, and possibly the 'Volume" newsata.

One more thing: permissions.
Assuming everything worked out, you will want to adjust read/write permissions. With the default settings, only root may write to the drive, which is probably not what you want.

- If you are the only user on your system, simly do this (replace 'username' with your username):
sudo chown -R username:username /newsata

- If you have multiple users and you want to give each of them unrestricted access, do this:
sudo chmod 777 /newsata

- If you have multiple users and you want them to have access according to their individual permissions for "external storage devices" in the User&Group setup, do this (again replace "username" with your username):
grep username /etc/passwd
grep plugdev /etc/group
After "username:x:" and "plugdev:x:" there will be one or more numbers. Usually they are 1000 and 46. Open fstab again:
gksudo gedit /etc/fstab
Go to the end of the file, the line with your /newsata in it, and replace the word "default" with:
defaults,umask=007,uid=1000,gid=46
(of course with your numbers, if they are not 1000 and 46)
Save and exit. Now close your Nautilus, or at least point it away from /newsata, then do:
sudo umount /newsata
sudo mount -a

Well Cruncher, I think I screwed it up. I was doing OK and even kind of understood what I was doing. I cut and pasted the UUID number into the fstab file everything was OK. All seemed OK so I rebooted and it won't boot. So I booted off a live CD and lo and behold, I can mount the 250GB drive. All drives and partitions are mounted, so, its bed time for me and I have to work for the next 3 days, its going to be a while getting back to this. My thinking right now is just to reinstall.

Thanks loads for the help.

Nite, Nite

Don't panic :o) , the only thing that needs to be updated again is GRUB, the boot loader.
The problem is most likely, that the SATA drive cheatet itself to the place of your primary disk (hence it is referred to as sda, the others are now sdb and sdc, while without the SATA drive they most likely were sda and sdb respectively), so the boot loader can no longer find your partitions.

I am no expert on GRUB, but generally it should fix itself by running these commands:
sudo grub

This will bring you to a new prompt "grub>". Here you enter:
find /boot/grub/stage1

This will print something like (hdX,Y), with X being the hard disk (starting with 0), and Y being the partition (starting with 0! so the numers will differ from the info that fdik gives).
If the find command only prints one set, it is easy. If it prints several sets, we need to figure out which is your original root partition. According to your fdisk log, possible candidates should be an 8GB partition on the smaller disk, and a 290GB partition on the large disk. Do you remember which partition contained your "/" mountpoint?
The two partitions mentioned are probably listed as (hd1,0) and (hd2,0) - but that's just guessing. If you have trouble with this, get back to us, then we can take a look at /boot/grub/menu.lst, which will contain this info.

Once you know the correct set of numbers, these commands (and replace X and Y with the numbers printed by the find command!) should restore the boot manager:
root (hdX,Y)
setup (hdX)
quit

Then reboot.

Note that, should you look at /boot/grub/menu.lst yourself, the numbers for hdX will (most likely) have shifted by one now, so you cannot use the numbers listed there directly.

Thinking about it, this reassignement of device names ("drive letters") is probably also the reason why the system failed to recognize your new drive in the first place.

Jerome,
I don't know if you've solved it or not, but here's a good way to figure out what drive you have booting in the Grub Loader.
When you boot up, hit an up down key when it hits the Grub loader, this stops the countdown.
Take a look at what lines it has listed, usually you'll see 2 lines that specify the Ubuntu loader and one that is for a memory test.
Cruncher is correct, the new sata drive more than likely bumped your boot drive, not unusual.
Here's what to do to figure out which one it is.
This is what it will look something like (note mine shows I've done an update that changed the kernel from 2.6.27-7 to 2.6.27-11)

 Ubuntu 8.10, kernel 2.6.27-11-generic

 Ubuntu 8.10, kernel 2.6.27-11-generic (recovery mode)

 Ubuntu 8.10, kernel 2.6.27-7-generic

 Ubuntu 8.10, kernel 2.6.27-7-generic (recovery mode)

Now Highlight the top line and hit E (for edit). It will call up a set of lines (I dont have a way to paste it so...) the very top line is what you're intersted in, it will say something like
boot HD0 (that's a zero), sorry going from memory, but you'll get the jist of it when you see it.
Now highlight that top line and hit E again. It will let you edit the line, merely arrow key back to HD0 and change it to HD1.
Then hit ESC to back up to the previous page and hit B (for boot). If it's correct it will boot into Ubuntu, if not it will say "No operating system, hit enter to reboot, in which case you do it again with the next number ( HD2 ) and repeat until it boots.
Since this is only a quick fix,and if it doesn't work the first time it resets itself. But once it boots, you will have to go into menu.lst as Cruncher instructed and then modify it to the correct number, save it and you are all set.

Hopefully this helps

Thanks for all for the help. I appreciate everybody's input. It just got too complicated for me. I think I'm getting to be an old timer and my brain don't work that good anymore. It was kind of a throw away installation any way. I just wiped out the disk and installed Ubuntu 9.04 beta. I didn't loose any data, I have a separate data drive. Anyway, thanks all.