Can't mount my hard drive

Question

When I try to mount one of my hard drives, it can't locate the folder with the hard drive.

This is the output for the command df:

Filesystem                       1K-blocks      Used Available Use% Mounted on
rootfs                            33000428    119124  32881304   1% /
none                              33000428    119124  32881304   1% /
198.27.85.63:/home/pub/rescue.v7 886788312 250295096 591423904  30% /nfs
198.27.85.63:/home/pub/pro-power 886788312 250295096 591423904  30% /power
198.27.85.63:/home/pub/commonnfs 886788312 250295096 591423904  30% /common
tmpfs                                10240       204     10036   2% /dev
tmpfs                              6600088        72   6600016   1% /run
tmpfs                                 5120         0      5120   0% /run/lock
tmpfs                             13200160         0  13200160   0% /run/shm

This comes when I run the command fdisk -l:

WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/sdb'! The util fdisk doesn't support GPT. Use GNU Parted.


Disk /dev/sdb: 2000.4 GB, 2000398934016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 243201 cylinders, total 3907029168 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 identifier: 0x00000000

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1               1  3907029167  1953514583+  ee  GPT

WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/sda'! The util fdisk doesn't support GPT. Use GNU Parted.


Disk /dev/sda: 2000.4 GB, 2000398934016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 243201 cylinders, total 3907029168 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 identifier: 0x00000000

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1  3907029167  1953514583+  ee  GPT

Disk /dev/md3: 1978.9 GB, 1978886193152 bytes
2 heads, 4 sectors/track, 483126512 cylinders, total 3865012096 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 identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/md3 doesn't contain a valid partition table

Disk /dev/md2: 21.0 GB, 20970405888 bytes
2 heads, 4 sectors/track, 5119728 cylinders, total 40957824 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 identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/md2 doesn't contain a valid partition table

When I try to mount the /dev/sda1 hard drive with the command mount -o barrier=0 /dev/sda1 it gives me this message:

mount: can't find /dev/sda1 in /etc/fstab or /etc/mtab

How can i fix this, so i can backup all of my stuff?

This comes when I try to mount /dev/sdb3:

mount: unknown filesystem type 'linux_raid_member'

Then I tried to use the command mdadm --assemble --run /mnt /dev/sdb3 but then it just gives me this:

mdadm: /dev/sdb3 is busy - skipping

How can I fix this?

EDIT This is my output from using cat /proc/mdstat

md2 : active raid1 sda2[0] sdb2[1]
      20478912 blocks [2/2] [UU]

md3 : active raid1 sda3[0] sdb3[1]
      1932506048 blocks [2/2] [UU]

unused devices: <none>

`mount: can't find /dev/sda1 in /etc/fstab or /etc/mtab` this means that you should tell `mount` where to mount that disk, since there is no defined directory in /etc/fstab for this disk. Try to create a dir, e.g. `/mnt/hd`, and the mount it on that: `mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/hd`, if this succeeds you can permanently set this in /etc/fstab. You can also configure this to auto-mount of the hard disk at boot. — Alex Mazzariol, Jun 20 '15 at 21:56
If the partition is part of an array you cannot mount the single partition with mount, you should mount the raid device: `mount /dev/md2 /mnt/raid2` or `mount /dev/md3 /mnt/raid3`, assuming you previously created the `/mnt/raid2` and/or `/mnt/raid3` empty directories. — Alex Mazzariol, Jun 20 '15 at 21:58

score 1 · Answer 1 · edited Jun 11 '20 at 10:02

For the first question:

When I try to mount the /dev/sda1 hard drive with the command mount -o barrier=0 /dev/sda1 it gives me this message:

mount: can't find /dev/sda1 in /etc/fstab or /etc/mtab

How can i fix this, so i can backup all of my stuff?

The answer is that mount looks for mount points in either /etc/fstab or /etc/mtab, but none is configured for /dev/sda1. You can specify the mount point (an empty directory will do just fine) on the mount command line, e.g.

mkdir /mnt/hd
mount -o barrier=0 /dev/sda1 /mnt/hd

If this succeeds, you can add the configuration setting on /etc/fstab so you can mount without specifying the directory (mount will read fstab and use the configured one) and you could also set the boot-time auto-mount for that partition.

For the second question:

This comes when I try to mount /dev/sdb3:

mount: unknown filesystem type 'linux_raid_member'

Then I tried to use the command mdadm --assemble --run /mnt /dev/sdb3 but then it just gives me this:

mdadm: /dev/sdb3 is busy - skipping

How can I fix this?

You should not mount a partition which is part of an MD array. You should mount the corresponding raid device, e.g. /dev/md2 or /dev/md3, as per your /proc/mdstat, and also in this case an empty directory will work as a mount point:

mkdir /mnt/raid2
mount /dev/md2 /mnt/raid2

As before, you can set an entry in the /etc/fstab file and omit the directory in the mount command, and/or benefit from auto-mount during the system boot.

If no errors were reported during the mount operation, and in `/proc/mdstat` no errors are reported for md3, then I think the volume is just empty. What does `df` say? — Alex Mazzariol, Jun 20 '15 at 22:21
It seems you did mount the `/dev/mdX` devices many times, which is not a problem per se, but you first used `/mnt` for both arrays (which should have triggered a warning, and you shouldn't do) then you used directories under `/mnt`. Please unmount from `/mnt` before remounting in a subdirectory (e.g. `umount /mnt` or `umount /dev/md2`). Still, beyond that, everything seems right. You should have the space in the volumes `md2` and `md3` mounted under `/dev/raid2` and `/dev/raid3`, and then you can list contents or add files. — Alex Mazzariol, Jun 21 '15 at 07:38

Can't mount my hard drive

1 Answers1