my daily use distro is bodhi 5.0 which is based on ubuntu 18.04. my western digital my passport 259d works just fine with bodhi. i can acces, create and execute. i use it for clonezilla backups so it is also just fine working with that live (i believe clonezilla is debian-based) environment. the issue is that i am unable to access the files in ubuntu mate 18.04.
the screenshot below is the error message i get when i try and open the external in ubuntu mate. ls -l lists my user as owner and group. permissions are 777. i was able to cd into the directory and ls the contents, but there i ran into the input/output error: âls: cannot access âbinâ: Input/output errorâ. interestingly i get that same error here in the terminal in bodhi, but it doesnât seem to affect file manager access
also interesting is the fact that i finally thought to try accessing the drive on my debian 9 install and it is good to go there as well.
i could keep adding details, but as i have yet to understand the underlying issue i am not sure what to add that might be helpful so i will post and see if anyone else has any good ideas
Terminal is what counts. So we count this as âit doesnât work in either, Bodhi and mUbuntuâ.
Good to go, meaning no error at all?
sudo fdisk -l | grep -A 7 /dev/sd # find the device identifier here
sudo apt install -y smartmontools # installing tools needed for the following command
sudo smartctl -x /dev/sdb # assuming the disk in question is "/dev/sdb"
Print the output of the last command by appending it to your OP.
all manner of files. mostly the drive is my backup. it has the clonezilla image files for my two systems, personal files like photos, music and whatnot.
the external is ntfs. bodhi and mubuntu are both ext4.
i donât think i explained the terminal error in enough detail. the âls: cannot access âbinââ error did not prevent the files and directories from being listed in either terminal. i didnât drill down into any particular directory (i can do so in a bit) to see if further access was possible. i just thought the error message was something to note.
i can jump back in there in a bit to check. there was no error message when accessing through the file manager. i didnât try terminal access in debian. just checked to see if i had the desired file manager rwx access which it did.
gotta head out for a while. will return to address the other questions/points.
Thatâs the issue right there. At first I thought we are talking about the bin folder you canât access. But now what I get from what you are saying is that you are listing the directory above bin, getting the mentioned error.
If you back up stuff from Linux to NTFS, there can be I/O errors, that is ânormalâ. If it is e.g. a hard link sitting on NTFS, then I think the only thing fixing this would be reformatting the whole drive, which implies a deletion of all files on the disk. Donât mix NTFS with Linux, especially not for system backups. The only thing Linux can reliably deal with when counting in NTFS are photos, videos and stuff like that. When it comes to system files, it just canât handle that file system.
There a few reasons why these (seem like a great idea) external HDDâs are not suitable for Linux use.
They are designed either for M$ or Fruit use.
USB 3 connector to computer but a USB 1 or 2 connector to the disk (slow data transfer speed)
Can not format to Ext4
My cousin throw his 6TB WD in the bin when I pointed out the above flaws
Bodhi has 4.15 kernel, Debian has 4.09, thus wonât co-operate
Use back ports 4.19 Linux-image for Debian, might overcome this issue
Also add (Install) LVM2 & cryptsetup to Debian, may help.
I have heard it is possible to transfer Linux files to M$ file systems and vice versa, but I find that not to be the case, I have transferred original Linux generate video files between M$ and Linux, (especially during the weaning off with my old man). I did notice M$ had overwrite or corrupted the video file while in Linux.
I had this problem some time ago, because theyâre set up for windows. If you have access to windows it is a simple repair and you will be able to view everything again in Linux systems as well. I did it this way. 1. Plug in your external hard disk .
2. Open File Explorer by pressing the Windows keys button + E.
3. Go to This PC.
4. Right-click your external hard disk under Devices and drives .
5. Select Properties.
6. Go to Tools tab.
7. Under Error checking, click Check.
Let it do itâs job and then remove it and everything will be okay.
You totally resolve this from happening again, but only do this if you really have your files safe. (I have 4 back up drives) by formatting the drive so that will only accept linux files, think that EXT4 but check and then just use it for that. I have one that I just use for Mint. I did the above first then transferred the files I wanted to my laptop which had Mint on them and then transferred them back to external drive. It is a bit of a pain to do it, but Iâve not had problems with either since.
i believe i read this question incorrectly because i was incorrectly interpreting what i was seeing in the initial error. i thought the error was indicating that there was a bin (as in linux binary file) error. i was confused as to why that would be an issue with accessing an ntfs drive.
because that was just some random file on the drive and it is generally buried below the folder icons that i normally work with, i had no idea it was even there. now i feel a bit silly for posting that error. it is just a corrupted file that canât be deleted or read.
adding the solution at the top (explanation below): i switched file managers from caja (the one installed with ubuntu mate) to pcmanfm (the one i use in bodhi and debian lxde) and was able to access the drive as usual.
aaaaand the culprit isâŚcaja, mubuntuâs stock file manager. after reading through Akitoâs first few questions again, i wanted to check in mubuntu to see if i could access subdirectories in the terminal. for whatever reason that got me thinking forward just a bit to doing the same in debian next. that train of thought made a brief (mostly non-sequitur) stop in a station apparently labeled âdoesnât debian use pcmanfm like bodhi?â
a quick install later, i was able to access my wd external as i normally do in bodhi. for whatever reason after caja runs into that corrupt bin file, it throws a popup window error and either canât access (even after i close the popup) the other files on the external or gets caught in a loop as the loading circle just keeps spinning away.
i appreciate everyone who stopped by to offer helpful thoughts and tips. for budgetary reasons i will be sticking with the externals i have for the time being. i will consider reformatting at some point (if that is possible), but as ElectricDandySlider mentioned i will have to juggle some stuff as i donât have any other externals with that much space.
edit: for whatever reason i am not able to choose this (or any post in this thread) as the solution. any chance one of the other mods can if they see this? i looked in other threads and most (please introduce yourself also does not) have the solution checkbox as a choice. this one does not for me.
at first blush that answer seemed to make sense, but on further reflection i got to wondering, âare hardware issues not solvable?â iâm not sure i understand the distinction.
@01101111 We donât disagree, because I agree with you. I am just saying how the Discourse forum sees it. So we agree both and both disagree with Discourse.
