Ubuntu

Ubuntu 20.04 suddenly unable to read NTFS external HDD

Asked by Stefank

I have been backing up every few months to an external 10 year old Fujitsu Siemens 1.5Tb HDD without any problems for 4 years from my custom made silent computer using only Ubuntu (orginally 16.04 LTS). The disk has an external power source.

For the past three days, however, I get the following error message:
‘Unable to access “Volume”
Error mounting /dev/sda1 at /media/stefan/Volume:
Unknown error when mounting /dev/sda1’

Basic stuff like rebooting and shutting down make no difference. My system does not have a GRUB menu, so I can’t boot in an older version of the OS. Gparted states the external drive is NTFS and cannot read the allocated and unallocated spaces. If I reformat to FAT32, I will lose about 800Gb of data on the HDD. I don’t have access to a Windows OS. Can anyone help, please?

Here is today’s Terminal output of commands suggested in a Launchpad post on 2016-01-23 by subscriber Manfred Hampl:

stefan@stefan-System-Product-Name:~$ uname -a
Linux stefan-System-Product-Name 5.4.0-104-generic #118-Ubuntu SMP Wed Mar 2 19:02:41 UTC 2022 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
stefan@stefan-System-Product-Name:~$ lsb_release -crid
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 20.04.4 LTS
Release: 20.04
Codename: focal
stefan@stefan-System-Product-Name:~$ sudo fdisk -l
[sudo] password for stefan:
Disk /dev/loop0: 93.34 MiB, 97869824 bytes, 191152 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk /dev/loop1: 4 KiB, 4096 bytes, 8 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk /dev/loop2: 91.52 MiB, 95952896 bytes, 187408 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk /dev/loop3: 16.21 MiB, 16990208 bytes, 33184 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk /dev/loop4: 8.10 MiB, 9416704 bytes, 18392 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk /dev/loop5: 55.52 MiB, 58204160 bytes, 113680 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk /dev/loop6: 110.82 MiB, 116178944 bytes, 226912 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk /dev/loop7: 55.5 MiB, 58183680 bytes, 113640 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk /dev/nvme0n1: 238.49 GiB, 256060514304 bytes, 500118192 sectors
Disk model: SAMSUNG MZVLW256HEHP-00000
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: F76D77B5-C36F-49FB-8D49-4439B5CFCDCA

Device Start End Sectors Size Type
/dev/nvme0n1p1 2048 1050623 1048576 512M EFI System
/dev/nvme0n1p2 1050624 483631103 482580480 230.1G Linux filesystem
/dev/nvme0n1p3 483631104 500117503 16486400 7.9G Linux swap

Disk /dev/loop8: 9.3 MiB, 9465856 bytes, 18488 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk /dev/loop9: 323.52 MiB, 339222528 bytes, 662544 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk /dev/loop10: 65.1 MiB, 68259840 bytes, 133320 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk /dev/loop11: 164.78 MiB, 172761088 bytes, 337424 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk /dev/loop12: 219 MiB, 229638144 bytes, 448512 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk /dev/loop13: 290.59 MiB, 304689152 bytes, 595096 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk /dev/loop14: 255.6 MiB, 267997184 bytes, 523432 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk /dev/loop15: 2.55 MiB, 2658304 bytes, 5192 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk /dev/loop16: 162.89 MiB, 170778624 bytes, 333552 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk /dev/loop17: 247.93 MiB, 259948544 bytes, 507712 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk /dev/loop18: 260.73 MiB, 273375232 bytes, 533936 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk /dev/loop19: 65.22 MiB, 68378624 bytes, 133552 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk /dev/loop20: 400.77 MiB, 420216832 bytes, 820736 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk /dev/loop21: 295.62 MiB, 309968896 bytes, 605408 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk /dev/loop22: 289.8 MiB, 303853568 bytes, 593464 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk /dev/loop23: 127.17 MiB, 133341184 bytes, 260432 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk /dev/loop24: 248.78 MiB, 260841472 bytes, 509456 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk /dev/loop25: 54.24 MiB, 56872960 bytes, 111080 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk /dev/loop26: 370.32 MiB, 388296704 bytes, 758392 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk /dev/loop27: 235.98 MiB, 247422976 bytes, 483248 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk /dev/loop28: 2.55 MiB, 2658304 bytes, 5192 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk /dev/loop29: 150.17 MiB, 157462528 bytes, 307544 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk /dev/loop30: 106.3 MiB, 111177728 bytes, 217144 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk /dev/loop31: 80.8 MiB, 83968000 bytes, 164000 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk /dev/loop32: 295.73 MiB, 310079488 bytes, 605624 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk /dev/loop33: 61.91 MiB, 64897024 bytes, 126752 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk /dev/loop34: 17.10 MiB, 18845696 bytes, 36808 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk /dev/loop35: 219 MiB, 229638144 bytes, 448512 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk /dev/loop36: 140 KiB, 143360 bytes, 280 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk /dev/loop37: 61.92 MiB, 64901120 bytes, 126760 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk /dev/loop38: 50.98 MiB, 53432320 bytes, 104360 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk /dev/loop39: 62.101 MiB, 66043904 bytes, 128992 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk /dev/sda: 1.37 TiB, 1500301910016 bytes, 2930277168 sectors
Disk model: EADS-00P8B0
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0xc04f12b3

Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sda1 2048 2930274303 2930272256 1.4T 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
stefan@stefan-System-Product-Name:~$ mount
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
udev on /dev type devtmpfs (rw,nosuid,noexec,relatime,size=3970700k,nr_inodes=992675,mode=755)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,nosuid,noexec,relatime,gid=5,mode=620,ptmxmode=000)
tmpfs on /run type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,size=799980k,mode=755)
/dev/nvme0n1p2 on / type ext4 (rw,relatime,errors=remount-ro)
securityfs on /sys/kernel/security type securityfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
tmpfs on /run/lock type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,size=5120k)
tmpfs on /sys/fs/cgroup type tmpfs (ro,nosuid,nodev,noexec,mode=755)
cgroup2 on /sys/fs/cgroup/unified type cgroup2 (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,nsdelegate)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/systemd type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,xattr,name=systemd)
pstore on /sys/fs/pstore type pstore (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
efivarfs on /sys/firmware/efi/efivars type efivarfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
none on /sys/fs/bpf type bpf (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,mode=700)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/freezer type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,freezer)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/devices type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,devices)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/net_cls,net_prio type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,net_cls,net_prio)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/cpu,cpuacct type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,cpu,cpuacct)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/blkio type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,blkio)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/hugetlb type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,hugetlb)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/perf_event type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,perf_event)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/cpuset type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,cpuset)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/pids type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,pids)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/rdma type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,rdma)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/memory type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,memory)
systemd-1 on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type autofs (rw,relatime,fd=28,pgrp=1,timeout=0,minproto=5,maxproto=5,direct,pipe_ino=2627)
hugetlbfs on /dev/hugepages type hugetlbfs (rw,relatime,pagesize=2M)
mqueue on /dev/mqueue type mqueue (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
debugfs on /sys/kernel/debug type debugfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
tracefs on /sys/kernel/tracing type tracefs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
fusectl on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
configfs on /sys/kernel/config type configfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/amparepdftoimage_1.snap on /snap/amparepdftoimage/1 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/ampareimagetopdf_2.snap on /snap/ampareimagetopdf/2 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/bare_5.snap on /snap/bare/5 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/core18_2284.snap on /snap/core18/2284 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/canonical-livepatch_132.snap on /snap/canonical-livepatch/132 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/chromium-ffmpeg_23.snap on /snap/chromium-ffmpeg/23 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/core_12725.snap on /snap/core/12725 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/core18_2253.snap on /snap/core18/2253 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/canonical-livepatch_126.snap on /snap/canonical-livepatch/126 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/kde-frameworks-5-qt-5-15-core20_14.snap on /snap/kde-frameworks-5-qt-5-15-core20/14 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/gtk-common-themes_1515.snap on /snap/gtk-common-themes/1515 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/gnome-3-28-1804_161.snap on /snap/gnome-3-28-1804/161 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/gnome-3-34-1804_72.snap on /snap/gnome-3-34-1804/72 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/kde-frameworks-5-core18_30.snap on /snap/kde-frameworks-5-core18/30 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/gnome-system-monitor_174.snap on /snap/gnome-system-monitor/174 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/kde-frameworks-5-qt-5-14-core18_4.snap on /snap/kde-frameworks-5-qt-5-14-core18/4 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/gnome-3-28-1804_145.snap on /snap/gnome-3-28-1804/145 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/kde-frameworks-5-core18_32.snap on /snap/kde-frameworks-5-core18/32 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/gnome-3-38-2004_87.snap on /snap/gnome-3-38-2004/87 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/jerry_8.snap on /snap/jerry/8 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/vlc_2288.snap on /snap/vlc/2288 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/gtk-common-themes_1519.snap on /snap/gtk-common-themes/1519 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/thorium-reader-snap_12.snap on /snap/thorium-reader-snap/12 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/kde-frameworks-5-qt-5-14-core18_3.snap on /snap/kde-frameworks-5-qt-5-14-core18/3 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/gnome-3-38-2004_99.snap on /snap/gnome-3-38-2004/99 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/gnome-system-monitor_169.snap on /snap/gnome-system-monitor/169 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/jerry_7.snap on /snap/jerry/7 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/snap-store_558.snap on /snap/snap-store/558 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/kde-frameworks-5_27.snap on /snap/kde-frameworks-5/27 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/vlc_2344.snap on /snap/vlc/2344 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/thorium-reader-snap_10.snap on /snap/thorium-reader-snap/10 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/ffmpeg_1286.snap on /snap/ffmpeg/1286 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/dev/nvme0n1p1 on /boot/efi type vfat (rw,relatime,fmask=0077,dmask=0077,codepage=437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,errors=remount-ro)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/okular_109.snap on /snap/okular/109 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/chromium-ffmpeg_24.snap on /snap/chromium-ffmpeg/24 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/core20_1361.snap on /snap/core20/1361 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/gnome-3-34-1804_77.snap on /snap/gnome-3-34-1804/77 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/gtk2-common-themes_13.snap on /snap/gtk2-common-themes/13 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/core20_1376.snap on /snap/core20/1376 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/snap-store_547.snap on /snap/snap-store/547 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/okular_108.snap on /snap/okular/108 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
tmpfs on /run/snapd/ns type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,size=799980k,mode=755)
nsfs on /run/snapd/ns/canonical-livepatch.mnt type nsfs (rw)
tmpfs on /run/user/1000 type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,size=799976k,mode=700,uid=1000,gid=1000)
gvfsd-fuse on /run/user/1000/gvfs type fuse.gvfsd-fuse (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_id=1000,group_id=1000)
/dev/fuse on /run/user/1000/doc type fuse (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_id=1000,group_id=1000)
nsfs on /run/snapd/ns/snap-store.mnt type nsfs (rw)

Question information

Language:
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Status:
Solved
For:
Ubuntu Edit question
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Solved by:
Manfred Hampl
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Last reply:
Revision history for this message
Manfred Hampl (m-hampl) said : 		#1

1. "My system does not have a GRUB menu"
If you press the left shift button early during the boot process, you should get the grub menu.
In any case, I do not expect that an earlier version of the kernel can change anything.

2. Your drive seems to be either defective, or in an unclean status that Ubuntu cannot repair.
Why did you select NTFS for its file system? That is a Windows proprietary format.
If it is NTFS formatted, then you should try getting access to a Windows system to run a file system check on it. Maybe it is possible to recover the disk and its contents. If that also fails, then the last chance that I see is trying to salvage its contents with disk recovery tools, e.g. photorec.

You write that the disk is for backup. What's the problem if it gets lost? You should still have the original files on your live system.
Or is it not a backup, but an archive? Then you should have considered making a backup of it.

Revision history for this message
Stefank (stefankarpik) said : 		#2

Dear Manfred,

Thank you for your reply. It is going to save me a lot of time!

  1. I can't get a GRUB menu by holding down the left shift button.
  2. I'm not aware of ever having selected NTFS, I was surprised to find out my drive was not in an Ubuntu format. So far as I know, I haven't changed anything and the backup/ archive HDD has for years worked with Ubuntu until a few days ago.
  3. However, I did experiment with dual booting a laptop with Windows just after my last backup in September and erased it in disgust. It confirmed my choice to be an Ubuntu user, made 10 years ago. Perhaps I plugged the external drive in then and something changed inadvertently.
  4. You are right. What started as a backup changed into an archive when I got a computer with a small SSD. I hadn't noticed the change until now. I should back up my archive (if I can recover it). Thank you.

Yours sincerely,

Stefan Karpik

________________________________
From: <email address hidden> <email address hidden> on behalf of Manfred Hampl <email address hidden>
Sent: 13 March 2022 14:41
To: <email address hidden> <email address hidden>
Subject: Re: [Question #700918]: Ubuntu 20.04 suddenly unable to read NTFS external HDD

Your question #700918 on Ubuntu changed:
https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fanswers.launchpad.net%2Fubuntu%2F%2Bquestion%2F700918&amp;data=04%7C01%7C%7Cdb71c78a21e143de804608da04ff8c28%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637827792855255507%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&amp;sdata=pb%2ByCU53cEVeIMnF4eNicY3gIeCO8%2FXs391mFCax%2Bqg%3D&amp;reserved=0

    Status: Open => Answered

Manfred Hampl proposed the following answer:
1. "My system does not have a GRUB menu"
If you press the left shift button early during the boot process, you should get the grub menu.
In any case, I do not expect that an earlier version of the kernel can change anything.

2. Your drive seems to be either defective, or in an unclean status that Ubuntu cannot repair.
Why did you select NTFS for its file system? That is a Windows proprietary format.
If it is NTFS formatted, then you should try getting access to a Windows system to run a file system check on it. Maybe it is possible to recover the disk and its contents. If that also fails, then the last chance that I see is trying to salvage its contents with disk recovery tools, e.g. photorec.

You write that the disk is for backup. What's the problem if it gets lost? You should still have the original files on your live system.
Or is it not a backup, but an archive? Then you should have considered making a backup of it.

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Revision history for this message
Manfred Hampl (m-hampl) said : 		#3

For the grub menu you should try tapping the left shift key repeatedly.

Revision history for this message
Stefank (stefankarpik) said : 		#4

Dear Manfred,

Unfortunately, that doesn't work either.
I'm going to lose my archive and reformat the disk with GParted. Is ext 4 the best format?

Yours sincerely,

Stefan Karpik

________________________________
From: <email address hidden> <email address hidden> on behalf of Manfred Hampl <email address hidden>
Sent: 13 March 2022 17:35
To: <email address hidden> <email address hidden>
Subject: Re: [Question #700918]: Ubuntu 20.04 suddenly unable to read NTFS external HDD

Your question #700918 on Ubuntu changed:
https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fanswers.launchpad.net%2Fubuntu%2F%2Bquestion%2F700918&amp;data=04%7C01%7C%7C143045cfc3444c03159408da0517f5a8%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637827897701070690%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&amp;sdata=D0mt6NW8UOoiT0Fc7N4WUEogQ%2FE2wWWfFhGzd%2BzfNgo%3D&amp;reserved=0

    Status: Open => Answered

Manfred Hampl proposed the following answer:
For the grub menu you should try tapping the left shift key repeatedly.

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Revision history for this message
Best Manfred Hampl (m-hampl) said : 		#5

There is another possibility for enabling the grub menu:
Edit /etc/default/grub and change the value of GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE from hidden to menu and make sure GRUB_TIMEOUT is not set to 0 then run
sudo update-grub
This will show the grub menu with every boot.

And for the format of your archive:
It depends a bit on the systems where you want to read/write from/to that device.
If you intend to connect in only to Linux systems, then ext4 is a good choice.
If you (sometimes) want to read it by a Windows system, then you probably better choose something else.

Revision history for this message
Stefank (stefankarpik) said : 		#6

Dear Manfred,

That all works well now. Thank you.

Yours sincerely,

Stefan Karpik

________________________________
From: <email address hidden> <email address hidden> on behalf of Manfred Hampl <email address hidden>
Sent: 13 March 2022 18:45
To: <email address hidden> <email address hidden>
Subject: Re: [Question #700918]: Ubuntu 20.04 suddenly unable to read NTFS external HDD

Your question #700918 on Ubuntu changed:
https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fanswers.launchpad.net%2Fubuntu%2F%2Bquestion%2F700918&amp;data=04%7C01%7C%7Cb7f711baceb047af351508da0521bc88%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637827939692529815%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&amp;sdata=HlolXDo7HRg3bAvK26pZtHvuxO3vDP9dpkKuY8hnxUk%3D&amp;reserved=0

    Status: Open => Answered

Manfred Hampl proposed the following answer:
There is another possibility for enabling the grub menu:
Edit /etc/default/grub and change the value of GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE from hidden to menu and make sure GRUB_TIMEOUT is not set to 0 then run
sudo update-grub
This will show the grub menu with every boot.

And for the format of your archive:
It depends a bit on the systems where you want to read/write from/to that device.
If you intend to connect in only to Linux systems, then ext4 is a good choice.
If you (sometimes) want to read it by a Windows system, then you probably better choose something else.

--
If this answers your question, please go to the following page to let us
know that it is solved:
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Revision history for this message
Stefank (stefankarpik) said : 		#7

Thanks Manfred Hampl, that solved my question.