Maxtor OneTouch4 with Ubuntu Linux
I got the Maxtor OneTouch4 500 GB external hard drive during the Thanksgiving deal. Maxtor uses it’s own software to access/backup files from/to the external drive. I used Windows OS to setup the hard drive the first time. Maxtor installed it’s desktop software and I backed up my files using it’s software. I then booted into Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon. Ubuntu 7.10 recognized the external hard drive, but when I tried to access the files, I got a message similar to ‘cannot access the drive or you do not have permission to access the folder’.
I thought I would format the hard drive, so I backed up the Maxtor software from the external hard drive using Windows OS. I tried to format the drive in Ubuntu using QTParted and GParted (2 Linux based partition editors). QTParted didn’t even recognize the drive. GParted did recognize the drive, but the options in the right click context menu were completely grayed out except unmount. I then formatted the OneTouch4 with Partition Magic (Windows based partition editor) as NTFS. I could then access the drive, copy/paste files etc from my Ubuntu system. What a pain Maxtor is/was!!!
Funny, I have one of these drives and Ubuntu 7.10. When I plugged it in I mounted it and copied all the data off without a problem… then I unmounted and reformatted it using mke2fs and it formatted just fine.
I guess it must be with QTParted or something… the cli tools worked as they should have for me (I bought my Maxtor OneTouch 500 about 2 weeks ago).
The thing is that you can’t format a hard drive while it is mounted, so the pain it is not a Maxtor drive, but it is you.
I didn’t know you can’t format the drive when it’s mounted.
Thanks for the tip.
I still couldn’t access the files in the drive even though the permission was 777, before I formatted it.
When I plugged the drive in, it worked fine without reformatting using Ubuntu 7.10 although I think the secret was not allowing $indows to touch it.
It did not work with Edubuntu 6.06 since writing to NTFS partitions is not enabled in that edition. I am going to try and back up a Vista system next. Then we will see if Gutsy can still see it.
May be that’s the secret. I should have tried it before connecting to Windows.
I have another issue. When I start the system, the drive is detected and I could access, but the drive disappears from the list when I use the user switching in Gutsy. Any idea?
Same drive, ubuntu gutsy. When I leave a nautilus window open, pointed at the drive, directories disappear after a while. Solved with a remount, wondering if there is some funky power saving going on?
I don’t think it goes into power saving mode. From what I could notice, if I use user switching, when I switch from user1 to user2 and then come back to user1, the drive/icon is there and I could access. If I logout as user1, login as user2 and log back again as user1, then I can’t access the drive. Any idea how to mount it permanently? It’s NTFS formatted.
Hey Arun, seems this isn’t a Ubuntu issue … compare the thread: http://forums.seagate.com/stx/board/message?board.id=onetouch&thread.id=606&view=by_date_ascending&page=1
Doesn’t look good … I guess I’ll try to give it a ext3 format. Maybe that helps…
hemeschris,
I don’t have any issue now accessing the drive after I reformatted it. The only issue I have now is to permanently mount it so any user can access it. I didn’t get time to sit and try different options for mounting.
Arun,
what command do you use for mounting it? (as you say you “permanently” mount it).
I didn’t mount it yet permanently. I would like to know how to do that for ntfs with read write access.
hi to alll, my ont touch4, suddenly got balnk its not showing any of the data whcih i was backed up, i was using it with my mac mini, is it more safer if i use fire wire option drive. kindly guide me, thanking u in advance.
regards
All hard drives are prone to error. It doesn’t matter if it’s USB or Firewire.
Maxtor OneTouch 4 500, If I were to format this drive to work with our network hard drive server, would it effect the drives power saving functions? Right now I can configure the time limit for the power save through their windows software, and I realize that I would probably loose the ability to change it, but I was just wondering if the power save function would still work even though I reformatted the drive.
I believe, If you format your hard drive, then you’ll loose the power saving function.