Can't see my partitions in external hard drive

[drfelip]

I've got a problem!

I want to partition and format my old Linux box. I took its IDE hard drive (Seagate ST380021A, 80 GB), inserted it into an USB 2.0 case and connected it to my main box (running MEPIS) so as to store there my valuable data. But now I can't see the partitions.

It has 1 reiserfs, 1 ext3 and 1 fat32 partitions. cfdisk /dev/sda tells thereis only 1 partition, 80025.27 MB, and filesystem OnTrackDM6, quite strange. QTParted tells there are 3 partitions: number 01 (/dev/sda-1), type "free", size=0.00 MB; number 02 (/dev/sda), type unknown, size=74.53 GB, and number 03 (/dev/sda-1), type "free", size=0.48 MB.

I'd like to access my old partitions and data! Is there any non-destructive way?
Thanks in advance.

[hard candy]

Have you tried mounting it?
mount /dev??? /mnt/externalhd (you'll need to make a directory)
Also, look around if you get errors on the mount command, you make have to specify the types and as maybe "readonly".
Search these forums, there are other threads about external hd's.

[mdwatts]

Did hotplugging load the usb-storage module when you plugged in the external USB drive?

/sbin/lsmod (list your loaded modules)

[drfelip]

Thanks for your suggestions. I'm now in progress of solving it... The Microsoft way. Using Windows XP and Explore2fs I can see my partitions and copy the files. Sadly I didn't find the Linux way, but what's important is to have things done. Thanks.