Mounting external drive while in Single-User mode

Last night, a friend of mine's hard drive was failing in his Macbook (in San Diego, I'm in Colorado). Booting into normal mode would cause a lot of errors. He booted into single-user mode and could not figure out how to mount his firewire drive. I booted into single-user mode on my Macbook and hooked up my USB drive and did an 'ls -ltr /dev' to see if the device showed up. Since it did not show up on the listing of /dev, there's no obvious way to mount it. I can't seem to find any legitimate posting out there nor here. Is there an answer to this problem?
Thanks,
Dave

Perform the mount command listed here, using a different mount tool if it's not a Mac formatted drive.
(36291)

Similar Messages

Mounting disk0s2 while in single user mode

My mac mini wont boot. The recovery mode tells that disk0s2 has I/O Error and more specificly, its a "Disk full error". To delete some files and free up space, I booted mac into single user mode. But how to month disk0s2 from here so that I can delete some files?

An I/O error indicates either a corrupted file system or a physical disk failure. If you couldn't repair the boot volume (disk0s2) in recovery mode, it's most likely the latter and you need to get your HDD replaced. If you have access to another Mac, you can attempt to mount the mini as an external hard drive using Target Disk mode to salvage data. Hopefully you have a current back up. Best of luck.
Transfer files between two computers using target disk mode

To mount a CD-ROM in Single User Mode. How?

Thank you for reading my question.
I need to run single user mode on my iMac because of a disk problem. I would like to be able to mount the cd drive while I am in single user mode. I would also like to be able to mount usb hard drives with confidence, so that I can copy off files from the internal hard drive.
I am in single user mode, which I get to by holding down Command-S on startup. I can look at the disks that are attached to my computer by executing
ls -l /dev/disk*
However this appears to be adding disks. I started with /dev/disk2 and /dev/disk2s1 etc which I understand are partitions on that external drive. Now when I list /dev/disk* I have /dev/disk3 and a couple of partitions on those devs. Is that normal? Have I not unmounted disks properly?
I have been using a directory that already exists as the mount point for my usb drives using
mount -t hfs /dev/disk1 /cores
which worked fine. Alas the disk I mounted on that directory was too small. Now I can't mount a disk on there. Do I need to unmount or fix up that assignment?
If I were to create a directory in /Volumes is that advisable? How do I make the root directory readable is that by using 'mount -uw'?
Thank you. Please if you answer my question, try to be clear on what commands to use and why. Bear in mind that other people will read this, and no one on the web seems able to write suggestions very clearly. Maybe we can be the first! If I have not been clear, please feel free to ask for clarification. i am not a total unix newbie. Rather in the 20 years since I was a sysadmin, my memory has faded.
Pete

I think you need to post this in a different forum. I think the Developer Forums would be the right choice.
In any event from the little Unix I know you can't mount a removable device until it's connected which means you need to put a CD/DVD into the optical drive. At that point if you enter 'df' you should see the device if it is mounted automatically (which I believe it does.)
In single-user mode the entire drive is readable and all files accessible. You are the 'root' user. In order to put the system into write mode you must enter 'mount -uw /'. Note the '/' at the end of the comnmand line. That makes the entire system writeable.
You do not need to create a directory in /Volumes. When the CD/DVD is recognized an entry in /Volumes will appear unless the disc is unformatted.
Now take some of the above with a grain of salt. I'm certainly no Unix expert.

Can I mount a firewire device in single user mode?

I've still got this idea I can rescue data from a hard drive that won't mount.
I put my external backup drive on another iMac to simulate what would happen. Briefly,
I plug in the drive, note the device name.
I reboot into single user mode.
The drive automatically powers off. Grrr.
I turn it back on again. It does not show up in /dev

How far did you go under "single user" mode? In "Tiger", running 'sh /etc/rc' (instructions to use this are included among the messages displayed starting up in single-user mode) starts up all sorts of things. Perhaps plugging in the drive after the script has run will have it show up in '/dev/' (I haven't tested this)...

Mount device via USB in single user mode

Hi.
Help much needed. My macbook pro appeared to be crashed with harddisk problem
at start time... unable to boot to normal login screen.
When I run in single user mode, I dont seem to see my thumbdrive, or external device.
I connected them via the USB ports on my Macbook pro (17")(Snow Leopard)
I checked /dev/disk* and saw only disk0 (disk0, disk0s1, disk0s2, disk0s3).
I never get to see disk1 no matter what I tried. (I've various MSDOs format,
or NTFS format disks).
I followed the advise here:
http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=232365
Am I supposed to be able to see the drive the moment I connect it to the
port?
Thanks.
Marc

When I insert the disk, the root prompt would come telling me the USBMSC message. So, it does know I inserted the external drive. But yet, no new refresh of the /dev.
The device should be listed in /dev after the USBMSC message whether you mounted the root file system write or not.
$ ls /dev/disk*
/dev/disk0 /dev/disk0s1 /dev/disk0s2 /dev/disk0s3
Either the boot partition table is APM or GPT with two partitions.
I went to /Volumes and able to read the directory of files that I want to copy.
You should stay out of the /Volumes directory. Reference your path like->
ls -l /Users/<your name>/Documents/
And avoid creating mount points in the /Volumes directory. It is used by diskarbitration.
At this point, I would stop running fsck_hfs on the device (or any other utility) and either try to mount the drive via firewire disk mode or have someone block copy the disk.

How to mount USB & CDROM drives from single user mode - Solaris boot disk?

Hi All,
I need to carry out ufsrestore on a single newly replaced system disk (no redundancy / mirroring) from either USB or CDROM drives from the following steps:
( i ) GRUB => e, e, cdrom –s, Enter, b (boot from Solaris 10 x86 media).
( ii ) Choose menu 1 for Install Solaris Interactive Mode to reach single user mode.Below are the commands that I have tried in single user mode without success:
mount –r –F pcfs /dev/dsk/c1t0d0p0 /cdrom (after unmount Solaris CD)
mount: /dev/dsk/c1t0d0p0 is not a DOS filesystem.
svcadm –v enable smserver
svcadm: Pattern ‘smserver’ doesn’t match any instances
svcadm enable autofs
svcadm: Pattern ‘autofs’ doesn’t match any instances
devfsadm
devfsadm: mkdir failed for /dev 0s1ed: Read-only file system
mkdir /mnt
mkdir: Failed to make directory “/mnt”; Read-only file systemPart of the problem is due to the current READ ONLY filesystems which does not allow the creation of mount point such as /mnt.
I have been able to create both / root (/dev/dsk/c1t0d0s0) and /export/home (/dev/dsk/c1t0d0s0) filesystems with newfs that are awaiting for restore using ufsrestore.
The only option I am left with is to attach a secondary disk to install Solaris 10 on either of them before bring the system to multi-user mode so that service such as volmgt, autofs, volfs are available to access USB & CDROM drives.
Any suggestion on how to resolve this issue?
Many thanks,
Jack

Hi JKGN,
Is the directory a located under the root filesystem. ie /a? Are there any other mount point for say USB drive as well? I am not in a position to try it out right now but will get back
to you soon on whether /a exist or not.
Btw, the last thing I managed to do on this system at the time was added a secondary 1TB internal disk with the intention to restore both / and /export/home data onto this disk while
making use of all the disk device management services such as the following services only available in a fully installed Solaris system (both single & multi-user modes) installed on the
primary disk:
# svcs smserver
STATE          STIME    FMRI
online         Jun_08   svc:/network/rpc/smserver:default
# svcs autofs
STATE          STIME    FMRI
online         Jun_08   svc:/system/filesystem/autofs:default
# devfsadm
# iostat -En
c1t0d0           Soft Errors: 0 Hard Errors: 0 Transport Errors: 0
Vendor: ATA      Product: SAMSUNG HD321KJ Revision: 0-11 Serial No:
Size: 320.07GB <320072932864 bytes>
Media Error: 0 Device Not Ready: 0 No Device: 0 Recoverable: 0
Illegal Request: 41 Predictive Failure Analysis: 0
c0t0d0           Soft Errors: 0 Hard Errors: 5 Transport Errors: 0
Vendor: PHILIPS Product: DVD+-RW DVD8801 Revision: AD21 Serial
Size: 17.54GB <17538875392 bytes>
Media Error: 0 Device Not Ready: 5 No Device: 0 Recoverable: 0
Illegal Request: 10 Predictive Failure Analysis: 0
c2t0d0           Soft Errors: 0 Hard Errors: 0 Transport Errors: 0
Vendor: JetFlash Product: Transcend 16GB   Revision: 1100 Serial No:
Size: 0.00GB <0 bytes>
Media Error: 0 Device Not Ready: 0 No Device: 0 Recoverable: 0
Illegal Request: 7 Predictive Failure Analysis: 0
# rmformat
Looking for devices...
     1. Volmgt Node: /vol/dev/aliases/cdrom0
        Logical Node: /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s2
        Physical Node: /pci@0,0/pci-ide@1f,1/ide@0/sd@0,0
        Connected Device: PHILIPS DVD+-RW DVD8801 AD21
        Device Type: DVD Reader/WriterHowever, I was disappointed that "iostat -En" has not found the secondary disk (1 TB) even though it was available earlier, for Solaris installation as the only disk on the same system.
As a result, I am left with no option but the need to rebuild this system with only a single primary disk while in single user mode. However, the single user mode that I am in is the
one from Solaris installation disk with restrictive (_cannot create folder for mount point or running disk management utilities_) capability such as those services just covered, compared to one from a completed Solaris installation system with full access to all filesystems and utilities / commands in general.
I would very much value your assistance on how to mount both CD & USB in this restrictive limited Read Only OS (assume that it is running from memory) in order to get complete access to
the blank primary disk so that full restore with ufsrestore could take place.
Thanks in advance,
Jack
Edited by: 797805 on 9/06/2012 04:15

Mount USB Device in Single User Mode

Hi All,
Can anyone give me any assistance of mounting a USB stick in single user mode?
I am trying to use the command:
$ mount -uw /dev/disk2s1 /Volumes/usb
But it get the error:
--specified device does not match mounted device
If I put the USB stick in normal OSX mode, then run 'df -k' in terminal, it is mounted by automounter, but I can't seem to get it to mount in single user mode.
Thanks,
Nik

Hi Nik,
   I don't believe that there are enough services started in Single User Mode to do this; you'll have to start the services yourself. However, I haven't tested this so I don't know. Wanna be a Guinea Pig?
   If your going to need to write to the boot drive, mount it read/write with:
/sbin/mount -uw /
Next, start the basic services, including diskarbitrationd:
/usr/libexec/registermach_bootstrapservers /etc/mach_init.d
The above should be one line, modulo wrapping. Then start diskarbitrationd:
/sbin/SystemStarter start Disks
You should probably check /dev and see what disks are already mounted. (without the USB stick) I assume that the services that mount removable media are now started so insert the stick and see if it appears mounted in /Volumes. Otherwise, check /dev and see if there's a new disk. If it only appears in /dev, you can use the standard mount command to mount it. If it doesn't appear in /dev then you might reboot into Single User Mode and repeat the procedure with the USB stick already inserted. If none of that works then this must not be the right method and you have my apologies.
Gary
~~~~
   Computers are like air conditioners. Both stop working
   if you open windows.
      -- Adam Heath

Data back up from Single User Mode

Hello,
I have a problem with my 700 MHz iBook, dual USB, with OS X 10.3.9.
Unfortunately the OS doesn't start up because of "overlapped extent allocation" problem...
I would like to re-install the complete OS but before doing it, I would like to back up some directories.
Is it possible to save some data, by connecting an Ipod or some sort of external peripheral, from the Single User mode?
If yes, how can I do it?
Thank you in advance from your kind support.

Before giving up the ghost check out these:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25770.
Manually fix Overlapped Extent Allocation Errors without Disk Warrior
Overlapped overlapped extent allocation errors can be the bane of any Mac user's existence. Often, these errors go unnoticed until the problem becomes visible: your Mac might refuse to boot, crash unexpected, or worse, critical data might disappear from the Finder. Disk Utility can detect, but not fix overlapped extent allocation errors, and certain third-party utilities, such as Alsoft Diskwarrior, can fix them, but generally without reporting the consequences.
Overlapped extent allocation error occur when the file system thinks that two files are occupying the same area on the hard disk, hence overlapping on the same "inode," which is the structure which holds the location of the data blocks the file occupies, and also file permissions and flags.
Clearing the "overlapped" or "overallocated" extent allocation essentially means that you'll have to lose some data, because the only way to remove the overlap is to delete the file that's occupying the inode. So, if you suspect, or find out, that the guilty file is a critical system file that resides in one of the hidden system directories such as /etc /var /usr/ or visible system directories such as /System or /Library, and you don't want to reinstall the whole OS (which might not fix the overlapped extent allocation anyway), it's good to have another disk available to copy the files back to your original disk if necessary: a second bootable hard drive or a firewire drive connected to your Mac when you remove the misbehaving file. Just make sure that when you copy the file back to your boot disk that the permissions are correct, so it's best to use the "ditto" command, so that all sticky bits, flags, and permissions are preserved.
In case you didn't know, you don't have to boot from an install CD in order to check for overlapped extent allocations. All you need to do is restart your Mac, while holding down command + S to boot in "single-user mode."
At the command prompt that appears, type:
$ fsck -fy
If you have an overlapped extent allocation, you'll see:
"Overlapped Extent Allocation" (File 123456d)
No matter how many times you run fsck -fy, you'll never be rid of the error.
So, simply issue the following command:
find / -inum 123456 -print
Note the "d" was dropped, or any extra letter that appears after the inode number.
The find will return a file name that matches with the inode number, and the path to that file. If you remove the file then the fsck will not return this error next time you run it.
However, before you can delete the file(s) in single-user mode, you'll need to mount the file system. Type:
$ mount -uw /
When done, issue the "sync" command, and that will flush the write cache so that all pending writes are written from memory to the disk. Also, since most OS X 10.3 Macs use the HFS+ Journaled file system, it might be a good idea to disable the journal before booting into single-user mode by typing:
$ sudo diskutil disableJournal /
then re-enable it when done fixing the overlapped extents and rebooting normally:
$ sudo diskutil enableJournal /
Chris Anderson is a long-time Linux propellerhead who just got his first Mac, an ibook G4, and can't keep his hands off of it. He currently works as a "The Architect" and general visionary for a maker of world-class collectibles.
If you own Disk Warrior then it should be able to repair a drive with overlapped extents.
There are two backup utilities included in Unix - psync and rsync. You will find them in the /usr/bin/ directory. For documentation simply enter: man psync or man rsync. In order to write data while in single-user mode you need to issue the command: /sbin/mount/ -uw / (Note: there is a "space" between the "uw" and the "/".) To mount an external drive you will need to provide the mountpoint for it in place of the "/", e.g., "/Volumes/volname") without the quotes.

Can I access Terminal from Single User Mode?

So I have an early 2011 MBP that is having the graphics switiching problem that's been well documented in some other threads recently:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4766577?start=120&tstart=0
http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/10/14/apples-2011-macbook-pro-lineup-sufferi ng-from-sporadic-gpu-failures
Basically, I cannot boot because it goes to a white screen after the apple logo.
I found these terminal commands that will shut off the discrete graphics card so that only the integrated graphics will run, which would be an ok solution because I mainly use the computer for Recording/Mixing etc with Logic Pro, so I don't really need the more powerful graphics.
http://forums.appleinsider.com/t/160161/apples-2011-macbook-pro-lineup-suffering -from-sporadic-gpu-failures/80#post_2420378
But I of course can't access Terminal because I can't get past startup. Is there a way to get to terminal and/or enter these commands while in Single User Mode?

Are you referring to these
You can move the kext out with these commands:
> mkdir DisabledExtensions
> cd /System/Library/Extensions
> sudo mv ATIRadeonX****.kext ~/DisabledExtensions (replace asterisks with your model's numbers)
> sudo touch /System/Library/Extensions
If so there is nothing to take, the commands are physically removing system files. Once those files are moved there is no way for them to go back unless you put them back or you do an install of the OS.
But I am surprised that Safe mode does not work for you. In Safe mode the system only uses the onboard graphics. Are you certain you ere booted into Safe mode? When in Safe mode the words Safe Boot will appear in red letters at the top of the login screen. Did you see that? I ask because it is easy to mistime the Shift key press during boot and not actually get into Safe mode.
Perhaps you problem something different?

HT1492 Does anyone knows how to change the keyboard layout in single user mode, please ?

Hello,
The question is in the title.
Thank you.

The only way you might do it is use one of the Unix editors to edit the plist file it gets the settings from once it boots in the GUI mode. 'vi' is present in all Macs, and you might have pico, nano, emacs, or ed depending on what was installed. The keyboard layout while in single user mode itself I think is generic to where the Mac was bought and what keyboard was ordered with it, when it came from the store. Since you posted in the 10.3 or earlier forum, chances are if this has changed, few people would know for certain. If you have a newer Mac, say 2006 or later, you should really post in the correct forum:
http://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-2463

Burning a disc in single-user mode?

Is it possible to burn a CD/DVD while in single-user mode?
I can't log in normally and I want to make a copy of a few files if I can.

Oops, sorry, I posted this in the wrong section.

Single-user mode: How to mount and access an external USB drive?

My MacBook Pro HD is acting up. Cannot boot normally or into "safe mode". Cannot reinstall OS without wiping out the HD. Need to recover some critical files but DiskUtil First Aid and Restore options cannot successfully complete. Problem traced down to "invalid node structure" which means I either have a hardware problem or my filesystem partition directory structure is corrupted. I need to recover some files that are not backed up (timin issue with my regular backup process).
I can boot into single-user mode, mount the root file system (/sbin/mount -uw /) and can see/navigate the rot filesystem structure via good UNIX command line. Here's what I would like to do (in single-user mode):
1. Mount an external USB drive (250 GB already formatted as Mac OS X Extended)
2. Copy various files and/or directories from my HD to the external USB drive (UNIX cp command)
I realize I could go spend $$ for the Disk Warrior or Data Rescue products (or something similar) that SHOULD help me recover my HD or files, but it seems silly to do this when I can see, touch and taste them from within single-user mode....
Comments? Suggestions?
TIA --
Trent
P.S. Once I've recovered my files, I'll try to reformat the HD and then reinstall the OS. And THEN go have Apple look at my machine (thank goodness for AppleCare coverage)!

Resolution:
1) Boot system in single-user mode (SUM) with external HD attached.
2) Execute the following UNIX CLI commands once SUM boot process is completed:
# fsck -fy
# mount -uw /
# mkdir /Volumes/target_directory
# mount -t hfs -w /dev/diskXXX /Volumes/target_directory
# cp -RXv /source_directory /Volumes/target_directory
Where XXX is the device-level name for your external HD's data partition. In my case this was /dev/disk1s2. It may take some experimentation to identify this device name if your system has multiple HD's.
3) Verify contents were successfully copied onto the /Volumes/target_directory.
Comments and observations:
- Do NOT use "/" as your source directory - cp will make a second (redundant) copy of /volumes/target_directory
- I was able to successfully copy ALL files off my HD despite the fsck command's "invalid node structure" error message with this simple procedure. YMMV, depending on the state of your HD.
- The repeated disk0s2: I/O error warnings displayed during the SUM boot process did not seem to have a negative effect on this procedure. I also received this same error warning intermittently as I navigated the mounted filesystem did not seem to be a problem, either. Again, YMMV.
Commercial software:
I downloaded ProSoft Engineering's Data Rescue 3 product (trial version) before spending $99 to attempt to recover my "bad" HD's data via mounting to a good system with FW target mode. It could not successfully complete its "QuickScan" process and immediately hung on block 0 of 390M during its "Deep Scan" process. The product did seem to function properly on an operational system. ProSoft's technical support was responsive and helpful but had no answer for my "Deep Scan" error.
I did not attempt to use Alsoft's Disk Warrior 4 product. I could not find any trial software available and was reluctant to spend $100 based upon the mixed reviews and comments on this discussion forum as well as other reviews. Alsoft does claim to address the "invalid node structure" error in their marketing materials. Hindsight being 20/20 - I saved $100 by using this simple procedure.
Final note:
Neither Leopard nor Snow Leopard's installation DVD could recognize the bad internal HD when trying to do a reinstall. While DiskUtil was able to "see" the bad internal drive it immediately failed when I tried to do an "erase and format". Took the system to my local Apple store and the Genius ran a tool called "SMART Utility" from Volitans Software (www.volitans-software.com). SMART utility confirmed that my HD was bad so it was replaced. AppleCare pays for itself (once again!).

Mounting external drives in single-user mode?

Sigh. What were the odds of the HD on my month-old MacBook Pro and the HD on my somewhat older one (which was filling in for the moment as a backup) failing on the same night? Pretty low, I'm guessing, but that's what has happened. The Genius Bar has confirmed that the new drive is completely toast, and Apple is replacing it now, but of course they can't salvage the data. As for the old drive, while it won't boot and isn't visible to other machines in target disk mode, I am able to mount it in single-user mode and even view text files. What I can't seem to do is mount my external FireWire/USB2 drive so that I can try actually copying the files off.
I've re-read the man page for "mount" in hopes of discovering the correct incantation, but so far it has eluded me. I've been trying things like "/sbin/mount -w /dev/disk1 /Volumes" and "/sbin/mount -w /dev/disk1 /Volumes/rescue", which return "Permission denied" and "No such file or directory" respectively...not sure that's the right device, but finding an acceptable mount point seems to be an issue regardless. Hoping someone can point me in the right direction, and thanks for reading.

Thanks, macbig...no joy yet, but definitely a helpful link.
I've confirmed via System Profiler on laptop #3 that my external USB drive is formatted as MS-DOS FAT32, so mount_msdos seems like the right utility to use. (The drive shows up there as /dev/disk1s1.) Meanwhile, "ls /dev/disk*" on the problem machine returns the following:
/dev/disk0 /dev/disk0s1 /dev/disk0s2 /dev/disk1 /dev/disk1s1 /dev/disk1s2 /dev/disk1s3 /dev/disk2 /dev/disk2s1
I've created /Volumes/rescue as a mount point and tried most of those devices with "/sbin/mount_msdos [device] /Volumes/rescue", with the following results:
/dev/disk1:
mount_msdos: Unsupported sector size (0)
/dev/disk1s1:
mount_msdos: Unsupported sector size (1)
/dev/disk1s2:
mount_msdos: /dev/disk1s2: Bad file descriptor
/dev/disk1s3:
mount_msdos: Unsupported sector size (0)
/dev/disk2:
mount_msdos: Unsupported sector size (64543)
/dev/disk2s1:
kextload: cannot resolve dependencies for kernel extension /System/Library/Extensions/msdosfs.kext
error loading extension /System/Library/Extensions/msdosfs.kext
mount_msdos: msdos filesystem is not available
Based on this, I'm guessing that disk2s1 is the device I want. Unfortunately, when I try to poke around in /System/Library/Extensions, I'm getting I/O errors...gah. I have a bad feeling about this.

Single User Mode - mount external drive and make it r/w

How can I access a USB disk and make it read/write?
I can't +mount -uw /Volumes/"Time Machine Backups"+ because it says that the disk is a special type.
Can I just use chmod because the disk is automounted?
When I attempt to chmod my USB disk, I get this message:
chmod: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups: Read-only file system
chmod: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/.autodiskmounted: Read-only file system
I know that I can cp from the internal disk, since I can cat the pictures to the terminal. But I can't make the external hard disk writeable.
I need to do this from single user mode, because the machine won't boot from the DVD.
-Michael

Just got back from the apple store. The genius found these things:
* My DVD is fine. It loaded in another computer
* My computer is mostly fine, except for the hard disk. It was able to boot off of an external Firewire disk.
* The DVD drive is fine. When the computer was booted off the external disk, it was able to mount my DVD.
* The internal HD is definitely bad. Drag/drop copy to an external HD was going to take 3 hours for about 30 files. Disk Utility shows it in red.
* He suspects that the failing HD prevented the machine from being able to load a DVD. (?)
His advice:
1 Buy a new 2.5" SATA disk at Frys.
2 Buy a USB sled for the old disk
3 Replace the failing HD in the laptop with the new, unformatted disk
4 Boot from the OS X DVD
5 Install the OS from the DVD
6 Reboot from the internal HD
7 Insert the failing HD in the sled, and connect it to the computer once it's booted off the new HD. Copy everything from the /users directory
8 But a new HD for the sled and use it for Time Machine backups
9 Teach the daughter the importance of regular backups
Let's hope this works.

Mount an external hard drive in single user mode

Do any know how to mount an external hard drive in single user mode:
I've issue the following command:
/sbin/mount -uw /
mkdir /Volumes/ex1
/sbin/mount_hfs /dev/disk2s3 /Volumes/ex1
(I've checked my external hard drive using df -k showing the device is disk2s3)
Result:
Permission denied

Hi leung wai,
   I wouldn't mind knowing the answer myself. I think the problem with doing it in the manner you attempted is that the device tree hasn't been created yet so the mount command is certainly not going to work. I assume that the answer is to start up enough of the system to have the device tree created. Unfortunately, I don't know where in the startup process that occurs. You could try the following command after making the boot volume writable:
/usr/libexec/registermach_bootstrapservers /etc/mach_init.d
Then check to see if the /dev virtual filesystem has been created. Of course it wouldn't surprise me if that didn't also mount your disks. If not, try the following:
/sbin/SystemStarter
It should have been created after that because at that point almost the whole system has started.
Gary
~~~~
   You've been telling me to relax all the way here, and
   now you're telling me just to be myself?
         -- The Return of the Secaucus Seven

Mounting external drive while in Single-User mode

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for