Mounting USB HD with Multiple Partitions

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cweinhofer
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 01 Aug 2012
Posts: 10

PostPosted: Fri Aug 03, 2012 10:09    Post subject: Mounting USB HD with Multiple Partitions Reply with quote
I had posted the following in the Atheros forum under TP-Link WR-1043ND a few days ago, but since have found a solution. I have come to realize (or at least hypothesize) that problem and the solution aren't hardware specific, so I figured I would re-post here so it is easier for people to find. (My original post didn't get any response, so I think it may have gotten lost due to the thread being 112 pages long.)

Quote:
I am trying to use my 1043ND to share a USB drive with our home network. The drive will not mount using the "Automatic Drive Mount" setting, but I have successfully gotten other drives to mount.

The drive I am having trouble with is a SATA HD in a USB enclosure separated into two NTFS partitions. (The two successful drives were a smaller SATA HD in a USB enclosure that had just one NTFS partition, and a FAT32 formatted USB flash drive - partition info for all the drives is below.)

I am running v24-sp2 STD build 19519 (07/20/12).

I am fairly new to DD-WRT and especially given the recent developments with USB storage support, I am not sure if the mounting issue is due to incompatibility with this particular enclosure or maybe because the drive has two partitions.

Any help or advice would be appreciated.

* Also a side question, where is a good place for current information on USB storage with DD-WRT? I looked at the wiki article http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/USB_storage#DD-WRT_versions_with_built-in_USB_support, but the article itself says its outdated. The help menu in the DD-WRT GUI for USB is almost nothing. Searches on the internet have yielded some info, but nothing that seems definitive or comprehensive.

Thanks

Code:

==DOESN'T WORK==
Disk /dev/sdc: 2000.4 GB, 2000398934016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 243201 cylinders, total 3907029168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00054290

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdc1            2048   536872959   268435456    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sdc2       536872960  3758102527  1610614784    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

==WORKS==
Disk /dev/sdd: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders, total 312581808 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xc0bf6260

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdd1            2048   312477695   156237824    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

==WORKS==
Disk /dev/sdb: 4009 MB, 4009754624 bytes
23 heads, 23 sectors/track, 14804 cylinders, total 7831552 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xc3072e18

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1   *        8064     7831551     3911744    c  W95 FAT32 (LBA)
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cweinhofer
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 01 Aug 2012
Posts: 10

PostPosted: Fri Aug 03, 2012 10:20    Post subject: Reply with quote
So, as I began to look into it and cobble together information from various forums and blog, I came to the conclusion that it was a problem with DD-WRT not being able to auto-mount the drive because of two partitions and only one mount point. After a little playing, I came up with some commands to create two mount points and mount both drives. Having seen that they worked manually (through telnet), I loaded them into my startup script and everything seems to be working fine.

Code:
insmod /lib/modules/3.3.8-svn19518/kernel/fs/fuse/fuse.ko
mkdir /tmp/mnt
mount /tmp/mnt /mnt
mkdir /mnt/sda_part1
mkdir /mnt/sda_part2
ntfs-3g /dev/sda1 /mnt/sda_part1
ntfs-3g /dev/sda2 /mnt/sda_part2


The fuse module (first line) is the component that enables mounting of NTFS partitions. You will need to change "3.3.8-svn19518" to whatever your kernel is. You can discover that by using the command

Code:
uname -r


Will someone who is not so much of a noob please confirm this solution. Please tell us whether this is a good universal solution or just an inadvisable hack?

Also, help with a good up-to-date source of information ("side question" above) would also be appreciated. Thanks!
madman999
DD-WRT Guru


Joined: 11 Jun 2012
Posts: 1042

PostPosted: Fri Aug 03, 2012 14:00    Post subject: Reply with quote
i am interested in seeing where this heads. from what i have been working with, seems like DD-WRT has issues with hard drives and partition sizes greater than 2 TB.

the way around it should be to create a couple of smaller partitions but mounting them seems to be an issue. i have been getting the unknown file system error(using EXT3).

Also to note, seems like DD-WRT doesn;t support anything other than MBR partitions. no GPT or GUID. somebody correct me if I am wrong but that is what is limiting us to less than 2 TB.

Currently, I am working with 2 Asus RT-N16(2 USB ports) with Big builds 18777, 19342 and 19519 and 2 San Digital USB RAID Array(1.5 TB and 3TB).

I originally got the 1.5 TB array connected fine but it stopped mounting with that unknown file system error when I installed optware on a EXT2 formatted 4 GB USB Stick. trying to debug this error.

3 TB array I think I am running into the same issues as you are with regards to the multiple partitions with or without optware.
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