@sdetweil Wow, that was a bit to take in but makes sense (I think).

So if I unmount it how do I get the information off it?
what are the steps here?

@sdetweil so do I run e2fsck -f -v /dev/sda1 or e2fsck -f -v /dev/sda2
or does it not matter?

I’m struggling here to the bigger picture so can’t see the logic of the steps.

@sdetweil so I’ve run sudo umount /dev/sda1 and the same for sda2 and both folders have disappeared off the home screen.

which e2fsck do I run if i had to unmount 2 drives?

so should i also run sudo umount /dev/sda2 before running sudo e2fsck -f -v /dev/sda2?

@sdetweil I’m a little confused (I’d imagine thats pretty clear at this point).

i run sudo fdisk -1
and get
Disk /dev/ram0 through to Disk /dev/ram15
the list then has
Disk/dev/mmcblk0: 7.4GiB (my thinking is this is the current/new sd card)

Device
/dev/mmcblk0p1
/dev/mmcblk0p2

Disk /dev/sda:59.69 GiB (I again assume this is the old SD with my original MM setup)

Device
/dev/sda1
/dev/sda/2

end of the list.

does any of that make sense/ is any of it what I’m looking for? I’ve obviously taken out several lines under each of those headers just for space and time typing.

@sdetweil on the home screen I have 2 drive icons under the wastebasket.
one is boot
the other is rootfs

i then have the option to eject these in the file manager

@sdetweil I run sudo umount…
and get
umount:… not mounted,

then run
sudo e2fsck -f -v /dev/sda
and get
e2fsck 1.46.2 (28-feb-2021)
/dev/sda is in use
efsck: connot continue, aborting.

@sdetweil when i run e2fsck…
I get
e2fsck: permission denied while trying to open /dev/sda
you must have r/w access to the filesystem or be root.

so I run the command sudo umount /dev/sda
and get
umount: /dev/sda: not mounted.

so should now go,
e2fsck -f -v /dev/sda
not the original
e2fsck -f -v mmcblk0p2

?

@sdetweil sorry to be dense how do I know what I’m unmounting?
am I unmounting /dev/mmcblk0p1?? it says thats mounted on /boot.

edit to add,
after re running sudo fdisk -l it would appear the old memory card (with my previous MM setup on) is on Disk /dev/sda

thats classed as Disk Model: storage device (as it’s mounted in the usb drive atm) does this seem correct? is this the one which needs unmounting?