[SOLVED] Error mounting a Fat32 partition

robertoprs · 2009-02-08 19:49:14

Hi, I'm new to this distro, but it looks quite neat. Unfortunately, I have an issue that I haven't been able to solve through the wiki or the man pages.

I have my main hard drive partitioned in three:
- Windows (ntfs)
- Linux (ext3)
- Data (all my files, docs, images...) (fat32)

I have problems mounting the Data partition into Archlinux.

A) Trying manually

First I tried mounting it manually to make sure I had done it right. The command

sudo mount -t vfat /dev/sda5 /media/docs

allowed me to see and read the files and write them. When I switched back to Windows, however, the OS told me there was an error in the Data partition, specifically with all the files I have changed or created using Archlinux. I ran Chkdsk and it fixed the files by deleting changes. Now, whenever I try to mount manually the partition, it mount it as a read-only file system, even when the -w or the -rw option is added.

B) Writting in /etc/fstab

Meanwhile, I tried several options in fstab to see if I could write on the disk. The lines I tried are:

/dev/sda5          /media/docs          vfat          defaults     0      0 

/dev/sda5          /media/docs          vfat          defaults,iocharset=utf8,umask=000     0      0 

/dev/sda5          /media/docs          vfat          defaults,user,dmask=000,fmask=111     0      0 

/dev/sda5          /media/docs          vfat          defaults,user,rw,umask=000,     0      0 

/dev/sda5          /media/docs          vfat          user,rw,umask=000,     0      0

/dev/sda5          /media/docs          vfat          defaults,iocharset=utf8,user,rw,umask=000,     0      0

All these options (I obviously didn't use them at the same time) mounted the partition and I could read the files, but I was never able to write to it, either as a normal user or root. I read the wiki, the man page of fstab and mount and there isn't anything much of help there.

Hope someone can help me. Thanks a lot.

R

P.D. I've been doing all these switching back and forwrad between windows and linux. I have always hibernated windows. I don't think this is the problem, but I will shut Windows down completely to see if it was the Chkdsk utility.

Last edited by robertoprs (2009-02-09 07:07:34)

robertoprs · 2009-02-09 00:44:08

I apologize if I broke any rules of the etiquette or if I asked something too simple.

robertoprs · 2009-02-09 06:33:58

Sorry, I forgot to post the answer...

So I just needed to restart Windows after using Chkdsk. Now I can read and write even when Windows is only hibernated. I'm just curious. I understand that this problem was a very stupid question, but it wasn't obvious to me that Chkdsk needed a reboot to "let go" the partition. Why is that?

Thanks for your help.

By the way, I've learned a lot with the wiki guides. This distro is getting better and better!

biagio · 2009-02-09 19:26:22

I mount the fat32 in fstab like this:

/dev/sda4 /home/biagio/Documents vfat defaults,noatime,quiet,umask=000,users,rw 0 0

and it works perfectly.

Arch Linux

#1 2009-02-08 19:49:14

[SOLVED] Error mounting a Fat32 partition

#2 2009-02-09 00:44:08

Re: [SOLVED] Error mounting a Fat32 partition

#3 2009-02-09 06:33:58

Re: [SOLVED] Error mounting a Fat32 partition

#4 2009-02-09 19:26:22

Re: [SOLVED] Error mounting a Fat32 partition

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