Can't mount hard drive. Ubuntu 12.04

Posted by Sam on Super User See other posts from Super User or by Sam
Published on 2012-09-19T18:57:44Z Indexed on 2012/09/20 15:41 UTC
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linux

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ubuntu

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hard-drive

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mount

I am trying to recover some pictures on my 320 GB Hard Disk, so I put in a Live Ubuntu CD and am in that right now.

In the devices list, it shows my USB drive, but not my 320 GB Hard Disk. I can see the disk in Disk Utility (it says it's on /dev/sda), but it's not mounted, and it says it has a few bad sectors but it is OK.

In Disk Usage Analyzer, it says my maximum capacity is 13.4 GB, so it's definitely not using the 320 GB Hard Disk.

I tried the following:

sudo mkdir /media/newhd (worked)

sudo mount /dev/sda /media/newhd (didn't work. it says I must specify the filesystem type)

I then tried:

fsck.ext4 -f /dev/sda (didn't work. Said: Superblock invalid, trying to backup blocks. then: Bad magic number in super-block while trying to open /dev/sda. The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2 filesystem. If the device is valid and it contains an ext2 filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else), then the superblock is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock)

Does anyone have any ideas? The whole problem started when my Windows Vista said "Can't find operating system". Any ideas on how I can get on to my hard drive at /dev/sda?

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