USB Drive won't mount

Question

I have a Lexar 16GB USB stick and for some reason it won't mount. Ubuntu won't even recognize it.

Info about it...nothing much. I used it once as a Backtrack LiveUSB and tried to use it once as an Ubuntu Studio 12.10 LiveUSB (ended up with a Kernel Panic). So now I am trying to just reformat it (easiest/fastest way to wipe everything off) and just use it as a regular USB drive or maybe use it as a Backtrack LiveUSB again.

Is there any way I can force Ubuntu to recognize it? I know the port works as my USB mouse receiver works fine.

I'm running Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (old hardware, I'll upgrade soonish) on a Toshiba Satellite A105.

Edit:

By using this guide I was able to force-mount it, but it still doesn't show up in Places (PCManFM because I use LXDE) like it usually does. Another strange thing, neither does the Windows NTFS partition I set to automount.

It appears that my system has stopped auto-mounting things. The devices show up in their respective /media/deviceHere/ folders, but not under Places in PCManFM

---

Wierdness.

Oh well. However it was, I just had to delete/unmount anything with the name Lexar or External USB in the media folder and it is now recognized! Thanks anyways @manuel.

Edit:
Never mind, now it has disappeared again. If I want to access the /media/Lexar folder I have to be root and the Windows partition still doesn't show up.

HELP!

Solution

Ok, in a chat we haven't found a reason why PCManFM doesn't automount. So here we create an fstab entry for the stick:

1. We need to create the folder for the stick and get the device id.
   Open a terminal. The folder can be created via

   sudo mkdir /media/mystick

   In addition I would make the user the owner and give him the right to read/write:

   sudo chown [user]:[group] /media/mystick

   sudo chmod +rw /media/mystick

2. Now the fstab entry:
   

   • Install libblkid1 to see device specific information: sudo apt-get install libblkid1
   • Enter sudo blkid and look for the stick. The output could be:

     /dev/sda2: UUID="32a4b76f-246e-486e-8495-31b8a781fb4c" TYPE="swap" 
     /dev/sde1: LABEL="MAXELL" UUID="8D67-D560" TYPE="vfat" 
     

   • Then we create the fstab entry: sudo gedit /etc/fstab and append the line

     UUID=8D67-D560     /media/mystick   auto    rw,user,auto    0    0

     (and afterwards give a empty new line to avoid warnings):

To mount the stick, open a terminal and type

mount /media/mystick

auto

Comments

[RPiAwesomeness]

When would I run this?

[Manuel]

Please remove the stick, look whether the /media/[username] directory is empty and report other things here.

[RPiAwesomeness]

Ok, will do. When do I run the dmesg | tail command?

[Manuel]

Then plug in the stick, open a terminal and execute dmesg | tail. Please post the output.

[RPiAwesomeness]

ok...doing. After removing the stick it displays the Windows partition as a folder, but not in PCManFM Places. Nautilus sees it a displays it fine. Will now plug in and run the command

[RPiAwesomeness]

let us continue this discussion in chat

[SDsolar]

Have you tried pmount? : askubuntu.com/questions/88523/… - instructions for installing it.

[Manuel]

I hope so. If not, tell me.

[Kaz Wolfe]

Personally, I recommend you use UUIDs in the future. easier/faster/more reliable

[SDsolar]

This is totally cool that you posted the results determined in chat, Manuel. Thank you for doing this.

[NZ Dev]

What happens if the USB is not present on System Boot? Wont boot take a long time?