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Re: can't mount USB thumb drive



On Thu, 07 Mar 2013 20:58:17 -0500
Joe Zien <jozien@comcast.net> wrote:

> > I am using mepis 12, a debian distro, on my ThinkPad T60 and can't 
> > mount my thumb drive.
> > It is 4GIG fat32 and 90% filled with important files.
> > Below is all the info I have on this drive /dev/sdb1:
> >
> > # fdisk -l
> >
> > Disk /dev/sdb: 4012 MB, 4012900352 bytes
> > 120 heads, 55 sectors/track, 1187 cylinders
> > Units = cylinders of 6600 * 512 = 3379200 bytes
> > Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
> > I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
> > Disk identifier: 0x00000000
> >
> >     Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
> > /dev/sdb1               1        1188     3918832    b  W95 FAT32
> >
> > drive is recognized.
> >
> > Try to mount and get:
> >
> > [root@sda11 jozien]# mount -t vfat /dev/sdb1 /mnt/sdb1
> > mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sdb1,
> >         missing codepage or helper program, or other error
> >         In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
> >         dmesg | tail  or so
> >
> > [root@sda11 jozien]# dmesg | tail
> > [  254.251751] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] 7837696 512-byte logical blocks: 
> > (4.01 GB/3.73 GiB)
> > [  254.253126] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
> > [  254.253134] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 03 00 00 00
> > [  254.253139] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
> > [  254.262277] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
> > [  254.269632]  sdb: sdb1
> > [  254.271754] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
> > [  254.271758] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk
> > [  369.068710] FAT: invalid media value (0x00)
> > [  369.068714] VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev sdb1.
> > [root@sda11 jozien]#
> >
> > I tried the drive in windows XP and get error:
> >
> > "not formated, format now"
> >   Please help, got a lot of important info on /dev/sdb1
> >
> > jozien
> >
> >
> 

While I wouldn't necessarily know how to proceed (others here will), my
first recommendation is to dd the USB partition into a file on your hard
drive! Assuming you have at least 4 GB of free hard drive space, make a
backup of that right away. Careful not to dd over your data, of course!
Something like "dd if=/dev/sdb1 of=~/myusb.bin"

I'm assuming you can do this since clearly the computer recognizes
the existence of the device. Once you have an image of the data, it
might be easier to try mounting or playing with the image file rather
than the USB stick itself? That's what I'd try, anyway.

Good luck!

-- 
Aubrey

"There are two types of people in the world: those who
  can extrapolate from incomplete data."

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