How can I mount a drive that does not want to mount?

Question

I started off with previous versions of Lubuntu and settled on 14.10, using the box as a file server and/or torrent box. I upgraded from smaller to larger hard drives over time. The last hard disk drive (HDD) was 750 GB, but it seemed to have problems mounting and booting.

There were also problems recently with copying data to and from it. I assumed that it was time to upgrade the drive. I picked up a 2 TB HDD to replace it. I would like to mount the old drive and copy data from the 750 GB to the 2 TB. The 750 GB is attached with an external USB attachment. The drive will not mount.

Since it had trouble auto-mounting to boot, I assumed that it would have trouble mounting normally. It did not auto-mount when plugged in with USB. I used the disk program, and it shows that the HDD is detected, but it is not mounting. I get a little spinning wheel. If I cancel the action, I get an error:

Error mounting /dev/sdg1 at /media/xxxxx/089e669d-ac89-4f0d-9490->09ad16a79b3b: Operation was cancelled (g-io-error-quark, 19) (udisks->error-quark, 0)

The file server was my original backup location. I do not have a second or third backup of the data, and I do not want to lose any of the data that is on the 750 GB HDD. What other options can I try?

If I become able to mount, but not copy, should I try to do some computer forensics activities to try and recover the data?

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fdisk -l shows:

Device     Boot      Start        End    Sectors   Size Id Type
/dev/sdf1  *          2048 1458878463 1458876416 695.7G 83 Linux
/dev/sdf2       1458880510 1465147391    6266882     3G  5 Extended
/dev/sdf5       1458880512 1465147391    6266880     3G 82 Linux swap / Solaris

I cannot mount with the terminal. Here is my error:

mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sdf,
      missing codepage or helper program, or other error

Here is the result from dmesg | tail:

[91643.058809] usb-storage 1-5:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
[91643.064175] scsi7 : usb-storage 1-5:1.0
[91644.064948] scsi 7:0:0:0: Direct-Access     ST375033 0SV                   PQ: 0 ANSI: 2 CCS
[91644.066169] sd 7:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg5 type 0
[91644.073173] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdf] 1465149168 512-byte logical blocks: (750 GB/698 GiB)
[91644.074192] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdf] Write Protect is off
[91644.074201] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdf] Mode Sense: 00 38 00 00
[91644.075952] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdf] Asking for cache data failed
[91644.075962] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdf] Assuming drive cache: write through
[91644.138675]  sdf: sdf1 sdf2 < sdf5 >
[91644.144813] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdf] Attached SCSI disk

Looking at the disks program, I see that my partition1, which should have been ext4 is showing up as unknown. I see the button for delete partition, and more actions, but do not have the 'mount' button. Is it possible to have corrupted the partition from clicking buttons within this program to see what options are available? Is it possible to recover data from an unknown partition?

Solution

I see a problem with your commands: /dev/sdg1 in the 1st error. /dev/sdf in the 2nd error. g-io-error-quark, 19 means "Method name you invoked isn’t known by the object you invoked it on." So I would assume your 1st command has an invalid device and it should be /dev/sdf1.

Regarding the superblock error: start here and read the link in post 2

So how the hell you are gonna Surviving a Filesystem Failures? Most of time fsck (front end to ext2/ext3 utility) can fix the problem, first simply run e2fsck - to check a Linux ext2/ext3 file system, first unmount /dev/sdf1 then type following command :

# e2fsck -f /dev/sdf1

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Is it possible to recover data from an unknown partition?

Yes as explained above: fschk can be used to fix your partition

Comments

[Sh1d0w]

What is the filesystem type of the 750 GB HDD? NTFS, ext4, FAT32 or something else?

[ThatOneGuy]

750 was my previous lubuntu file server drive. ext4 is what it should have been.

[David Foerster]

Can you try to mount the drive from a terminal? If that doesn't work, run sudo dmesg immediately afterwards and post the last, relevant lines here. Please edit your question, if you want to add information. Especially file or program output listings (with the help of the {} button in the editor toolbar) are much more readable there and overall it's best to have everything relevant in one place. Also, comments may be deleted for various reasons.

[Rinzwind]

I see a problem with your commands: "/dev/sdg1" in the 1st error. "/dev/sdf" in the 2nd error. g-io-error-quark, 19 means " Method name you invoked isn’t known by the object you invoked it on." So I would assume your 1st command has an invalid device and it should be "/dev/sdf1". Regarding the superblock error: start here ubuntuforums.org/… and read the link in post 2 cyberciti.biz/tips/surviving-a-linux-filesystem-failures.htm‌​l "Is it possible to recover data from an unknown partition?" fschk might be able to fix your partition.

[ThatOneGuy]

@Rinzwind your information provided me the answers i needed. thank you.

[Fabby]

@Rinzwind: Could you please convert that to an answer so that schmucks like me who go around hunting for unanswered questions don't have to look at this one any more. ;-) (And I'll upvote if you drop me a note as the 2 answers below are not very good!!!)

[Rinzwind]

@fabby sure :-)

[David Foerster]

OP isn't looking for more convenient methods to mount the drive. The issue is, that it cannot be mounted at all with his usual methods.

[user3113723]

@DavidFoerster I understand, but this might work. Problem might not actually be in the automounter itself but whatever OP is using to trigger it. If the above works, it's preferable to going all mount(8) on the problem. Wait for OP to say "Yeah, same error."