SOLVED -- Can Not Access One Hard Drive with Firefox or Thunderbird

[bobestes]

I just had to replace a hard drive and reinstall all of my Linux software.  My computer has two internal 500 GB hard drives (hda & hdb) and one external USB hard drive (sda1).  I have a dual boot configuration with Windows XP on hda and PCLinuxOS on hdb.  Sda1 is used for backups.  Both hda and sda1 are formatted NTFS.  

My problem is that with the new installation I can not access hda from either Firefox or Thunderbird.  Both programs will access sda1, and openoffice will read and write to all three drives.  Firefox, Thunderbird, and openoffice are the versions that were installed with PCLOS, and they were installed and updated on Thursday.  Any help resolving this problem will be greatly appreciated.

Bob

[kjpetrie]

Mount points? Drive models? Motherboard? How are you trying to access them?

[bobestes]

Mount points? Drive models? Motherboard? How are you trying to access them?

I'm trying to access them by reading or writing a file to the drive.

Motherboard:  Asus P4SDX
Drive models:  hda & hdb are Western Digital WD5000AAJB-00YRA0
                         sda1 is a Seagate 9BD862-560  (160 GB USB Drive)
Mount Points:  hda - /media/Windows XP PRO
                        hdb - /home
                        sda1 - /media/SEA DISK

Can I provide any other information that would be helpful?

Bob

[kjpetrie]

Well, the first thing I see is that you have directory names with spaces in them. That's generally not ideal, although it applies to sda1 which you say works.

I still don't know how you are trying to access the drives. Are you opening the dialogue box from the menu or typing the location into the address bar, for instance?

I don't use Thunderbird but I do use Firefox. Have you tried launching them from a console to see whether you get any messages? Post any messages here. they might give someone a clue.

[bobestes]

Well, the first thing I see is that you have directory names with spaces in them. That's generally not ideal, although it applies to sda1 which you say works.

I still don't know how you are trying to access the drives. Are you opening the dialogue box from the menu or typing the location into the address bar, for instance?

I don't use Thunderbird but I do use Firefox. Have you tried launching them from a console to see whether you get any messages? Post any messages here. they might give someone a clue.

From Firefox I tried to import a bookmark file located on the Windows drive and I get the following dialog:

As you can see, the Windows drive is not listed.


[attachment deleted by admin]

[kjpetrie]

Ok. Let's first confirm it's mounted. Open a console and type "ls /media/Windows\ XP\ Pro/" and 'ls "/media/Windows XP Pro/"'. I'm not sure which of these is the correct syntax for ls when there are spaces in the path. Do you get a listing?

If it just returns to a prompt without listing the contents, su to root and type "mount /dev/hda1 /media/Windows\ XP\ Pro" (or is it 'mount /dev/hda1 "/media/Windows XP Pro"'?). It will either mount the filesystem or complain of an error. I'm assuming windows is on /dev/hda1. If it's a different partition you might need to adjust the command.

[bobestes]

Ok. Let's first confirm it's mounted. Open a console and type "ls /media/Windows\ XP\ Pro/" and 'ls "/media/Windows XP Pro/"'. I'm not sure which of these is the correct syntax for ls when there are spaces in the path. Do you get a listing?

If it just returns to a prompt without listing the contents, su to root and type "mount /dev/hda1 /media/Windows\ XP\ Pro" (or is it 'mount /dev/hda1 "/media/Windows XP Pro"'?). It will either mount the filesystem or complain of an error. I'm assuming windows is on /dev/hda1. If it's a different partition you might need to adjust the command.

OK, I'm a dumb a__.  The drive was not mounted.  I didn't understand why OpenOffice would access an unmounted drive, so I did a little experimenting.  It seems like OpenOffice will automatically mount the drive where Firefox and Thunderbird will not.  How can I get the drive to mount whenever I boot up?

Bob

[kjpetrie]

Paste the contents of /etc/fstab here and I'll try to help.

[marian]

bobestes
If you type in terminal df and your mentioned partition is on the list then it is probably accessible selecting "File System" and then /mnt/yourpartition or /media/yourpartition (internal/external).

[bobestes]

Paste the contents of /etc/fstab here and I'll try to help.

Here is the entire contents of /etc/fstab.

# Entry for /dev/hdb1 :
UUID=b73dcc62-2211-4c10-a7de-bc76799402ea / ext3 defaults 1 1
# Entry for /dev/hdb6 :
UUID=43bcb5ea-14a5-46df-a689-6425d0d237c8 /home ext3 defaults 1 2
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
# Entry for /dev/hdb5 :
UUID=a46dc8c5-7b34-436d-ba5a-f5141035ef9b swap swap defaults 0 0
none /dev/pts devpts mode=0620 0 0

[kjpetrie]

Open PCC, select local discs -> manage disc partitions, read the warning and click continue. Then click on your windows partition and click the Mount points button.

Select the correct mount point, or type it in if it's not listed and click done. You will be told the fstab is about to be written to disc. Agree to everything and close out of PCC.

Now open /etc/fstab in a text editor or viewer and check there is now a line for the windows partition.

If all is well the partition should now mount at every boot.

[bobestes]

Open PCC, select local discs -> manage disc partitions, read the warning and click continue. Then click on your windows partition and click the Mount points button.

Select the correct mount point, or type it in if it's not listed and click done. You will be told the fstab is about to be written to disc. Agree to everything and close out of PCC.

Now open /etc/fstab in a text editor or viewer and check there is now a line for the windows partition.

If all is well the partition should now mount at every boot.

That did it.  Thanks a lot.

Bob

[kjpetrie]

Glad it worked.

You can now edit your first post and add SOLVED to the title so people know it's resolved.