Other Help Topics :: External usb hard drive

Quote (CAPTAIN RON N FL @ July 14 2007,04:17)

FAT: Did not find valid FSINFO signature.
Found signature1 0x4e0005 signature2 0xc6e8000 sector=1.
VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev 08:01.
NTFS: Invalid $mft record zero.
Fat: Did not find valid FSINFO signature.
Found signature1 0x4e0005 signature2 0xd6e8000 sector=1.
VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev 03:01.
Fat: Did not find valid FSINFO signature.
Found signature1 0x4e0005 signature2 0xd6e8000 sector=1.
VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev 03:01.

As you can see, there are 3 'Found signature [...]' lines. The 3 external drives are being detected. The 'Invalid $mft' message should be due to a slight filesystem inconsistency caused by the improper shutdown. I think you should run Window's `chkdsk` program on all 3 drives. It looks like a minor problem, and there is a good chance a filesystem check will solve it. Assuming you have the Windows XP CD with you, you should boot up from it, proceed to choose 'Start Recovery Console', and run:
e.g. (depending on drive letters of the usb drives)
`chkdsk /f C:` or `chkdsk /f E:` etc.

If this succeeds, you can reboot into Windows XP and start restoring your data (assuming your Windows installation is still working).

If you plan to restore data from an NTFS filesystem to another NTFS filesystem (i.e. writing to NTFS) from within Linux, I would advise you not to use DSL or any other Linux that uses kernel 2.4.x. I do not know exactly how reliable the NTFS-write driver in the 2.4 kernel is, but if you look at the menu configuration for kernel compilation, the NTFS-write driver is flagged as 'Dangerous!'.
On the other hand, the newer 'ntfs-3g' driver (which requires a Linux kernel 2.6.20 and later) is reputed to be 100% safe from filesystem corruption - It is said, for practical purposes, to be 100% safe to use (see here).
Recently, I used ntfs-3g to write ~120G of backup data onto NTFS (on my friend's computer) and it worked very nicely.

To use the ntfs-3g driver, I recommend one of the LiveCD distributions that come loaded with ntfs-3g, especially one of the smaller LiveCDs meant for rescuing data - The one I know about is the quite-famous gparted.

Good advice, stupid_idiot. Here's a list of Linux distros (including live CDs) that have the NTFS-3G driver:

http://www.ntfs-3g.org/index.html#download

I ran the Recovery Console but it would not let me do the E drive. It did not recognize chkdsk/fE:. It would let me run chkdsk but it only would do C. Maybe I did something wrong.
I even tried it on another laptop..... no one has a tower here... with the same ending. No Joy.
Any suggestions on how to get chkdsk to do E?
Maybe it is because I am using student XP disk from college? Probably not... just can't figure it out.
Thanks, Ron

First, sorry if this is a completely unhelpful comment 'cause I'm 99% noob...

But, using DSL 3.01, I have found that sometimes a drive will not show up in the mount tool on the bottom right corner of the desktop (especially if USB stick is plugged in after initial boot up from CD)...

BUT if I go to the menu, "system, mount tool," my unmounted USB sticks will show up and then can mount and unmount normally.

Don't know if this applies with other versions of DSL...just my personal experience that does occur often.

i recommend one of the rescue kits in lucky13 's list.
they are usually live CDs.

trinity is a good one.

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