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I have just installed/configured my machine to run Ubuntu 13.10, with Windows 8 running in a virtual machine on VirtualBox 4.2.16_Ubuntu r86992.

I was just experimenting with mounting and unmounting an external hard drive which has a FAT32 filesystem.

Everything seemed to work... The drive could be mounted and unmounted in the VM, and I could see on Ubuntu that it was also mounting and unmounting.

However, then I tried to access a folder in Ubuntu, and it appeared empty. So I clicked on another folder, to see if it was also empty, and it was. I tried a couple more, and they appeared empty. None of these should have been empty.

Then I tried to connect the drive to a different physical Windows laptop. It appeared that every folder that I had clicked on in Ubuntu was empty!

I'm scared to try access this drive from Ubuntu again, and I don't know what could have caused this to happen. (The drive is FAT32.)

Is there any way to recover my data?

Is there any way to prevent this happening again?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

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  • Try opening it in the ubuntu virtualbox and see if your files are there.
    – bleeves
    Mar 13, 2014 at 19:49
  • @bleeves - I've tried it, and the folders still appear empty. A message pops up in the Windows VM stating something like: "the drive needs to be repaired, click to scan" (which seems a common thing when drives are mounted in windows.) I'm reluctant to try it, do you think it might work?
    – DavidS
    Mar 13, 2014 at 20:00
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    Did you remove the USB safely? Mar 13, 2014 at 20:17
  • @ Elliott Frisch - When mounting or unmounting from within the VM, the reverse happens automatically in the host. So I didn't need to remove anything physically. I noticed the problem when the drive was still plugged in.
    – DavidS
    Mar 13, 2014 at 20:22

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Please consult this help page for information regarding data recovery on failed or formatted drives from within ubuntu. It is possible to recover lost data but it is worth you reading the help page to avoid me repeating it here. Tread carefully, and if in doubt take it to a store that offers data recovery.

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  • Thanks @bleeves. I'll try this, or I'll tread carefully to a data recovery place. Have you ever heard of a similar thing happening?
    – DavidS
    Mar 13, 2014 at 20:19
  • Yes, it happened to me once. I used a program called disk drill on a mac to recover the data. Fingers crossed!
    – bleeves
    Mar 13, 2014 at 20:22

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