NTFS signature is missing

[saptech]

I'm trying to plug in an 8gb USB thumb drive formatted in NTFS format, I formatted it using Windows XP a few days ago, and it works fine with XP.

Today I tried plugging it in and it doesn't seem to be noticed by Mga2. I've upgraded from mga1 to mga2. I've also got a 500gb external hard drive formatted as NTFS and it seems to work fine.

Here is the results of what I've tried:

Code: Select all

[root@saptech ~]# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 40.0 GB, 40020664320 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4865 cylinders, total 78165360 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: 0xed11349a

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *          63    37206539    18603238+  83  Linux
/dev/sda2        37208064    75839487    19315712   83  Linux
/dev/sda3        75839488    78163967     1162240   82  Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/sdb: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 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: 0x2cc14aee

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1            2048   976773119   488385536    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

Disk /dev/sdc: 8019 MB, 8019509248 bytes
247 heads, 62 sectors/track, 1022 cylinders, total 15663104 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

[root@saptech ~]#
-------------------------------------------------
[root@saptech ~]# mount /dev/sdc /run/media/saptech/usbthumb -t ntfs -o nls=utf8,umask=0222
NTFS signature is missing.
Failed to mount '/dev/sdc': Invalid argument
The device '/dev/sdc' 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?
[root@saptech ~]#
-------------------------------------------------


The fdisk command show it listed as Disk /dev/sdc, but not much as far as format. Using ntfs-3g command also give the same or similar results.

Any ideas what is going on and any solutions?

Thnx.

[doktor5000]

You could try testdisk on it to see if it can access the files.
Also, it would be nice to know for sure if this is really NTFS or not maybe possibly exfat?

[saptech]

I'll check out Testdisk and see what happens. I was at work using Windows XP and I had to force it to format as NTFS. I guess I could format it as Fat32 because I believe that was the original format when I bought the drive and it worked without issues on Mga1.

On another distro, SalixOS, fdisk -l show it as "Disk /dev/sdb doesn't contain a valid partition table", so something may be wrong with the drive. I hope not.

I'll plug it in at work Tues. night when I go in and see if it works there also.

Thnx.

[doktor5000]

If you have any question regarding testdisk, just ask, i've used it often to recover files from damaged partitions, or to repair partition tables and stuff. It works a little different than fdisk, as it scans the disk for partition / file system signatures, also it scans deeply it you tell it to. Actually it's pretty easy and straightforward to use, and they have good documentation around, f.ex: http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step
All can docs can be found here: http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

[saptech]

I have already reformatted the drive. I wish I had heard of Teskdisk before then.

Now i'm back at work and it seems the drive is getting corrupt or something because under Win XP, it say the drive is not formatted. I'm going to format it again using NTFS and when I get home see if Mga2 will read/write to it. If not, I'll format it using Fat32 and see what happens.

Thnx.

[saptech]

I'm home and plug the drive into Mga2 machine and it's being seen but show odd partitions, it was formatted with one big partition as NTFS.

Code: Select all

# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 40.0 GB, 40020664320 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4865 cylinders, total 78165360 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: 0xed11349a

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *          63    37206539    18603238+  83  Linux
/dev/sda2        37208064    75839487    19315712   83  Linux
/dev/sda3        75839488    78163967     1162240   82  Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/sdb: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 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: 0x2cc14aee

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1            2048   976773119   488385536    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

Disk /dev/sdd: 8019 MB, 8019509248 bytes
247 heads, 62 sectors/track, 1022 cylinders, total 15663104 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: 0x69205244

This doesn't look like a partition table
Probably you selected the wrong device.

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdd1   ?   218129509  1920119918   850995205   72  Unknown
/dev/sdd2   ?   729050177  1273024900   271987362   74  Unknown
/dev/sdd3   ?   168653938   168653938           0   65  Novell Netware 386
/dev/sdd4      2692939776  2692991410       25817+   0  Empty

Partition table entries are not in disk order
~ #


Win XP sees the drive as normal after unmounting and remounting it.

[doktor5000]

I'd suggest testing the drive physically via http://www.hdat2.com/ (can be found together with many other useful tools on Hiren's BootCD, available via http://www.hirensbootcd.org/download/ ) or via the appropriate tool from the hardware manufacturer. As a quick check i suggest to install smartmontools or gsmartcontrol and check the S.M.A.R.T. data for problems. If unsure, post a full log here.

BTW: Did you do a full format or only a quick format? Normally you would still have access to the old data, if you haven't wiped (overwritten) the disk, formatting is not enough to clear the data.

[JoesCat]

When you unplug the USB drive, do you simply unplug it? or do you use the unmount before unplugging the drive?

I recall that if you simply unplug a drive on windows, the unfinished/unsaved data will remain on the XP machine until you get back and reload the USB, and then unmount it. Doing an unmount will flush any leftover files onto the USB stick and tidy-up, then you should see a balloon indicating it's safe to unplug the USB stick.

In linux, you should also do an unmount before unplugging the USB drive so that it does a cleanup as well.

If you simply unplug the drive, you are probably running into the problem that not everything is completely written and finished writing to the USB drive before you unplug it.

[saptech]

Thanks to all who replied. I believe the main issue may be with the device itself. One other thing, which I haven't tried yet, is to format the drive with Fat32 format. I'll leave that for another time.

Do all the thumb drives come preformated with Fat32 new?

For now the drive is being read/write but not sure how dependable it is on Mga2.

To Joes Cat, yes I normally do all of those suggestions you mention about mounting and unmounting.


Thnx again.

[JoesCat]

If you're unmounting the drive, then I'd assume the drive itself is having problems. The other possibility is perhaps unmounting too fast. Some SD card classes are rather slow and would probably benefit from a lazy umount. man umount has more info about this.

For now the drive is being read/write but not sure how dependable it is on Mga2

...thinking out loud ...about the possibility of if the lazy umount could be a cure (if you're problem is a slow drive).

For manufacturers, I think Fat32 is a format with the least issues since a large portion of their purchasers are going to be running some form of windows. Fat32 should cover Win9X and up. However, although it's a safe choice for 2 or 4GB USB drives, you start running into possible problems with users that have larger USB drives. When you start looking at 8GB, 16GB, 32GB, or higher, there is going to be some users that will attempt (and fail) to put some sort of data files that is going to be larger than 2GB (signed 32bit), or 4GB (unsigned 32bit) and run into save problems - then blame the drive, and therefore the manufacturer for a "defective" USB drive, when it's really a limitation of the file system. Since the majority of users are Windows users, the likelihood is that you will see larger drives in probably the NTFS format. MAC and Linux are a minor group, therefore would have to adapt, or reformat the drives. If you want to reformat a USB stick, they can be formatted in another filesystem format, but they won't get recognized by windows, or other devices (example cameras, MP3 players, etc. unless they were setup in advance to recognize those other formats).

[doktor5000]

Thanks to all who replied. I believe the main issue may be with the device itself.

Ok, so what did the testing tell you - what was actually wrong?