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I am a relatively new Ubuntu user and I am having some difficulty mounting my external 2TB HDD. When I first installed Linux my external HDD was working just fine, however, it has stopped working and I have a lot of important files on there that I need.

Before my HDD would automatically mount and no worries. Now, however, it doesn't automatically mount and when I try to manually mount it I keep running into filesystem type errors that I can't seem to get past.

Below are images that depict my step by step process of how I am trying to mount my HDD along with the errors I am receiving. If anybody has any idea what I am doing wrong or how to correct the issue I would greatly appreciate it.

Step 1) Ensure the computer recognizes my external HDD.

pj@PJ:~$ dmesg

...

[ 5790.367910] scsi 7:0:0:0: Direct-Access     WD       My Passport 0748 1022 PQ: 0 ANSI: 6    
[ 5790.368278] scsi 7:0:0:1: Enclosure         WD       SES Device       1022 PQ: 0 ANSI: 6        
[ 5790.370122] sd 7:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0    
[ 5790.370310] ses 7:0:0:1: Attached Enclosure device    
[ 5790.370462] ses 7:0:0:1: Attached scsi generic sg3 type 13    
[ 5792.971601] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] 3906963456 512-byte logical blocks: (2.00 TB/1.81 TiB)    
[ 5792.972148] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off    
[ 5792.972162] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 47 00 10 08    
[ 5792.972591] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] No Caching mode page found    
[ 5792.972605] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through    
[ 5792.975235] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] No Caching mode page found    
[ 5792.975249] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through    
[ 5792.987504]  sdb: sdb1    
[ 5792.988900] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] No Caching mode page found    
[ 5792.988911] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through    
[ 5792.988920] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI disk

Step 2) Check if it mounted properly (it does not)

pj@PJ:~$ df -ah

Filesystem        Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on   
/dev/sda1         682G  3.9G  644G   1% /    
proc                 0     0     0    - /proc    
sysfs                0     0     0    - /sys    
none                 0     0     0    - /sys/fs/fuse/connections    
none                 0     0     0    - /sys/kernel/debug    
none                 0     0     0    - /sys/kernel/security    
udev              2.9G  4.0K  2.9G   1% /dev    
devpts               0     0     0    - /dev/pts   
tmpfs             1.2G  928K  1.2G   1% /run    
none              5.0M     0  5.0M   0% /run/lock    
none              2.9G  156K  2.9G   1% /run/shm    
gvfs-fuse-daemon     0     0     0    - /home/pj/.gvfs

Step 3) Try mounting manually using NTFS and VFAT (both as SDB and SDB1)

pj@PJ:~$ sudo mount /dev/sdb /media/Passport/

NTFS signature is missing.    
Failed to mount '/dev/sdb': Invalid argument    
The device '/dev/sdb' doesn't seem to have a valid NTFS.    
Maybe the wrong device is used? Or the whole disk instead of a    
partition (e.g. /dev/sda, not /dev/sda1)? Or the other way around?

pj@PJ:~$ sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /media/Passport/

NTFS signature is missing.   
Failed to mount '/dev/sdb1': Invalid argument    
The device '/dev/sdb1' doesn't seem to have a valid NTFS.
Maybe the wrong device is used? Or the whole disk instead of a   
partition (e.g. /dev/sda, not /dev/sda1)? Or the other way around?

pj@PJ:~$ sudo mount -t ntfs /dev/sdb /media/Passport/    
NTFS signature is missing.    
Failed to mount '/dev/sdb': Invalid argument    
The device '/dev/sdb' doesn't seem to have a valid NTFS.    
Maybe the wrong device is used? Or the whole disk instead of a   
partition (e.g. /dev/sda, not /dev/sda1)? Or the other way around?

pj@PJ:~$ sudo mount -t vfat /dev/sdb /media/Passport/

mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sdb,    
missing codepage or helper program, or other error    
In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try    
dmesg | tail  or so

pj@PJ:~$ sudo mount -t ntfs /dev/sdb1 /media/Passport/

NTFS signature is missing.    
Failed to mount '/dev/sdb1': Invalid argument    
The device '/dev/sdb1' doesn't seem to have a valid NTFS.    
Maybe the wrong device is used? Or the whole disk instead of a    
partition (e.g. /dev/sda, not /dev/sda1)? Or the other way around?

pj@PJ:~$ sudo mount -t vfat /dev/sdb1 /media/Passport/

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

1 Answer 1

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How to Mount a NTFS File System in Linux

Download ntfs 3g using wget command from terminal.

tar -xvf ntfs-3g_ntfsprogs-2013.1.13.tgz
cd ntfs-3g_ntfsprogs-2013.1.13.tgz
./configure
make
make install
sudo mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sdb1 /mnt/ntfs HDD

fstab Entry For Permanent mounting after restart

sudo vim /etc/fstab
/dev/sda1 /mnt/ntfs HDD ntfs-3g defaults 0 0

Enter the fstab entry at last

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  • How exactly does this work? What is it doing when I run these commands?
    – Snuggie
    Nov 9, 2013 at 3:16
  • So I installed the ntfs-3g program and I am still getting the same errors as before. It says "NTFS signature missing"
    – Snuggie
    Nov 9, 2013 at 15:07

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