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I'm having a problem with my external hard drive when using it on my linux system. I am running ubuntu with kde, and I have a 1tb hard drive (formatted in ntfs, I think). I was working perfectly when I was using it on a windows machine, on windows xp up to 8.1, but when I plugged it into my linux pc, all the files were different. Instead of the files that were meant to be on the hd, it was appearing with folders like bin and boot, like a linux system drive. After unplugging it, I plugged it into my windows pc, where it could not be seen, not at all, despite working fine before plugging it into linux. I had the same problem with a 4gb flash drive. Please help, as I need the files on that external hard drive.

EDIT: External hard drive doesn't work on my pc running windows 8.1 either, but is still seen by linux. Files still display differently, though.

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  • What linux & what programs are you using to open the drives? Debian/Ubuntu/Mint doesn't overwrite any plugged in drives without some effort.
    – Xen2050
    Dec 20, 2014 at 10:20
  • I am using Ubuntu an the linux pc, tried with both the default desktop and file manager, and kde and dolphin. On the windows pc, I have tried on windows 7 and xp, both with default file browser. prior to plugging it into linux, it also worked on windows 8.1 with defalut file brower, but I have tried it after using it on the linux pc yet. Dec 21, 2014 at 12:06
  • Check on the partitioning and filesystem format (you said "I think" NTFS) for the external drive.
    – mpez0
    Dec 25, 2014 at 18:22
  • @mpez0 I remember formatting it to ntfs, but df -T on linux shows up as ext4. Jan 20, 2015 at 5:36
  • Do you recognize any of the files? Is it a copy of your ubuntu partition, or a fresh ubuntu install? Can you hook the drive up to one of you windows machines and use a hex editor or something to look at the data? That might tell you whether it's still there or been overwritten.
    – TMN
    Jan 20, 2015 at 18:48

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You'll need extra Windows software to read or use ext4. If you want to shuttle files back and forth you probably want to back up all data on the external drive and reformat as NTFS. Then copy the files back.

Do be sure to copy all the data, though; you may have partitioned the disk and have different filesystems on different partitions.

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  • ok, I used ext volume manager to mount it on windows and reformat it into ntfs. Thanks for your help guys! Jan 21, 2015 at 14:53

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