# 4G Ipod not mountable [Solved]

## tofor

When I try to mount my Ipod, I get the following message:

```
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sda,

       missing codepage or other error

       In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try

       dmesg | tail  or so
```

When I plug it in, the following shows up in dmesg:

```
usb 1-3: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 3

usb 1-3: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice

scsi1 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices

usb-storage: device found at 3

usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning

scsi 1:0:0:0: Direct-Access     Apple    iPod             1.62 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0

SCSI device sda: 39063023 512-byte hdwr sectors (20000 MB)

sda: Write Protect is off

sda: Mode Sense: 64 00 00 08

sda: assuming drive cache: write through

SCSI device sda: 39063023 512-byte hdwr sectors (20000 MB)

sda: Write Protect is off

sda: Mode Sense: 64 00 00 08

sda: assuming drive cache: write through

 sda: sda1 sda2

sd 1:0:0:0: Attached scsi removable disk sda

sd 1:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg0 type 0

usb-storage: device scan complete
```

and when I try to mount, I get in dmesg:

```
FAT: count of clusters too big (4881687)

VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev sda.
```

Relevant fstab:

```
/dev/hda2               /boot           ext2            noauto,noatime  1 2

/dev/hda4               /               reiserfs        noatime,notail  0 1

/dev/hda3               none            swap            sw              0 0

/dev/hdc                /mnt/cdrom      auto            noauto,user,ro  0 0

/dev/hdc                /mnt/dvd        auto            noauto,user,ro  0 0

/dev/sda                /mnt/ipod       auto            noauto,user,rw  0 0

/dev/sda1               /mnt/disk       auto            noauto,user,rw  0 0
```

I have been able to mount other usb disks, primarily my original Windows harddrive using ntfs-3g.

How can I get it to mount properly? Thanks!Last edited by tofor on Tue Sep 04, 2007 1:44 am; edited 1 time in total

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## NeddySeagoon

tofor,

You don't mount /dev/sda, you mount its partitions, in this case /dev/sda1

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## tofor

Ohhh, yeah, whoops.  Thanks.  Now I get a:

```
mount: I could not determine the filesystem type, and none was specified
```

when I try to mount.

I did format this ipod with a windows computer.  I was using it with Windows formerly.  I also enabled 'use as disk' or whatever the option was in itunes, though I doubt that makes a difference.Last edited by tofor on Tue Sep 04, 2007 12:40 am; edited 1 time in total

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## RaceTM

Hi tofor,

What command did you use to mount? The error message is telling you exactly what is wrong..you need to tell it what type of filesystem is on the partition.  If its a fat32 partition, use

mount -t vfat /dev/sda1

you can read the man page for the mount command

man mount

to get more info on the partition types that are available.

RaceTM

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## tofor

It should be fat32, right? I was mounting with 'mount /mnt/ipod'.  If I change the 'auto' in fstab to 'vfat' I get the same "wrong fs, bad option...etc" as in the beginning.

Edit: also, I get the same error if I try the manual command you suggest.

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## RaceTM

can you check what type of filesystem is on the partition?  I'm not familiar with Ipods or how they store data..

fdisk -l /dev/sda  (the l is an L not an i)

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## tofor

Well, that showed me the problem:

```
Disk /dev/sda: 20.0 GB, 20000267776 bytes

255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 2431 cylinders

Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System

/dev/sda1               1           5       40131    0  Empty

/dev/sda2               6        2431    19486845    b  W95 FAT32
```

So it's sda2, not sda1.  That seems to work now.  Thank you all, and if you have any idea why it's sda2 please let me know.  There are no other usb devices plugged in right now.

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## NeddySeagoon

tofor,

/dev/sda is your whole iPod storage space, its divided into two parts

/dev/sda1, which may be its control software on a non standard filesystem

/dev/sda2, which is the part you are interested in, where your music is.

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## tofor

I see, which is why I couldn't mount sda or sda1.  Thank you very much.

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