External HDD problem with XP & linux

[WoodPeckr]

I have a external drive I use for both Windows and Ubuntu. I used to be able to use it to view/play windows files on linux with no problems until recently. Now when I try to open the ex HDD on Ubuntu an error message comes up saying it can't mount it on linux anymore?

It's a USB Ex HDD and I run XP Pro and Ubuntu as a dual boot setup on this desktop. It worked fine for months on both OSs and made no changes that I recall. The only thing I did different recently was plug it into my new laptop with Vista Home Prem and it worked fine with this laptop to. I did download some music files off the newsgroups using the laptop and sent them to the Ex drive with no problems. XP shows/plays them but when I run Ubuntu the Ex drive won't mount this Ex drive any longer with Ubuntu.

Could something in Vista have farked things up?

 

[Anynym]

Any details with the error message? Have you tried stepping through the mounting manually, or just automatically? What's in your /etc/fstab file?

 

[WoodPeckr]

Here's the error message

Cannot mount volume.
Unable to mount the volume 'SCSI'

Details:
$LogFile indicates unclean shutdown (0, 0) Failed to mount '/dev/sdb1': Operation not supported Mount is denied because NTFS is marked to be in use. Choose one action:
Choice 1: If you have Windows then disconnect the external devices by clickingb on the 'safely Remove Hardware' icon in the Windows taskbar then shutdown Windows cleanly.
Choice 2: If you don't have Wondows then you can use the 'force' option, your own responsibility. For example type in the command line: mount -t ntfs-3g/dev/sdb1/media/SCSI -o force Or add the option to the relevant row in the /etc/fstab file: /dev/sdb1/media/SCSI ntfs-3g defaults, force 0 0

All is OK now.
I carefully followed the Choice 1 option again and all is well. Everything is working as was before. Must have had an unclean shutdown.
If I had to follow Choice 2, I would be lost since I almost never use the terminal anymore.

This is the first time having this kind of problem with Ubuntu. Everything usually automatically goes through problem free.