How to support Exfat external hard drive on Centos 6.4 ?

[Samy-DT]

Hello,

I'm new in Linux and CentOS 6.4. I would like to mount an exfat external hard drive but it doesn't work. I found some solutions for older versions of CentOS but not for the 6.4.

Can you guide me to find the right way to do it ? Which repository ? which packages ?

Maybe this problem is linked with the fact that I have issues connecting internet on CentOS too...

Thanks for help.
Samy

[TrevorH]

First step: identify the device name of the external device so run `dmesg | less` and scroll to the end and look for messages about the disk and its device name - e.g. /dev/sdb or /dev/sdh. Next step, run `fdisk -l /dev/sdh` to list the partitions on the right device name. Once you know the correct partition on the correct device name, run

[code]
mount -t vfat /dev/sdh1 /mnt
[/code]

[Samy-DT]

Hi,

'dmesg | less' does not show me something like /dev/sdb or /dev/sdh. At the end of the message, I have some lines about sd 9:0:0:0: [sdb] and stuff that don't help me recognize any device name.

When I run fdisk -l /dev/sdb, I think it is about the internal device in Fat32 and not my external one which is in exfat.

Any precisions to find the exfat device ?

Thanks

[TrevorH]

In the `dmesg` output you should see some lines like this

[quote]
usb 7-1: new high-speed USB device number 5 using ehci-pci
usb-storage 7-1:1.0: Quirks match for vid 0bc2 pid 3010: 8000
scsi19 : usb-storage 7-1:1.0
scsi 19:0:0:0: Direct-Access Seagate FreeAgent Pro 400A PQ: 0 ANSI: 4
sd 19:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg9 type 0
sd 19:0:0:0: [sdh] 976773168 512-byte logical blocks: (500 GB/465 GiB)
sd 19:0:0:0: [sdh] Write Protect is off
sd 19:0:0:0: [sdh] Mode Sense: 1c 00 00 00
sd 19:0:0:0: [sdh] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
sdh: sdh1
sd 19:0:0:0: [sdh] Attached SCSI disk
[/quote]

That would be /dev/sdh and on my system that has only one partition on it, hence the line saying "sdh: sdh1".

[Chiefahol]

Tried On CentOS 7.0. No luck. Very frustrating that centOS is the only linux distro I've ever played with that struggles so much with ExFat out-of-the-box...

First step: identify the device name of the external device so run `dmesg | less` and scroll to the end and look for messages about the disk and its device name - e.g. /dev/sdb or /dev/sdh.

From what you explained in a later i post, i take it my device name is: sdb1 ???

(Note for other noobs: This also returned about ¬10,000 lines that aren't numbered properly on my system, your gonna get insanely tired after holding the down key for 5 minutes, just press "end" on your keyboard to jump to the end.)

Code: Select all

[29364.579758] sd 4:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
[29364.584000] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] 15659008 512-byte logical blocks: (8.01 GB/7.46
 GiB)
[29364.586017] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
[29364.586032] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 23 00 00 00
[29364.587561] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Write cache: disabled, read cache: enabled, doe
sn't support DPO or FUA
[29364.618892]  sdb: sdb1
[29364.623686] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk
[29364.959408] SELinux: initialized (dev sdb1, type vfat), uses genfs_contexts
[29426.801865] sdb: detected capacity change from 8017412096 to 0
[29430.580260] usb 1-2: USB disconnect, device number 4

Next step, run `fdisk -l /dev/sdh` to list the partitions on the right device name. Once you know the correct partition on the correct device name, run

Code: Select all

[stack@localhost bin]$ sudo fdisk -l /dev/sdb1
[sudo] password for stack: 

Disk /dev/sdb1: 750.2 GB, 750153367552 bytes, 1465143296 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 label type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

This doesn't look like a partition table
Probably you selected the wrong device.

     Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1p1   ?  4294967295  8589934589  2147483647+  ff  BBT
/dev/sdb1p2   ?  4294967295  8589934589  2147483647+  ff  BBT
/dev/sdb1p3   ?  4294967295  8589934589  2147483647+  ff  BBT
/dev/sdb1p4   ?  4294967295  5035196669   370114687+  ff  BBT

Code: Select all
mount -t vfat /dev/sdh1 /mnt

This is where everything falls apart and nothing works..

Code: Select all

[stack@localhost bin]$ sudo mount -t vfat /dev/sdh1 /mnt
mount: special device /dev/sdh1 does not exist
[stack@localhost bin]$ sudo mount -t vfat /dev/sdh1 /sdb1p1
mount: mount point /sdb1p1 does not exist
[stack@localhost bin]$ sudo mount -t vfat /dev/sdb1p1 /mnt
mount: special device /dev/sdb1p1 does not exist

[TrevorH]

One: don't fdisk -l on a partition on the device. You need to fdisk -l /dev/sdb not /dev/sdb1.

Two: mount the correct device. Yours is /dev/sdb1 so no point in trying to use /dev/sdh.

Exfat support is in the nux-dextop repo for CentOS 6.