If you plug in an external hard drive with a Linux filesystem, it will automount and show up on your desktop, just like any external media. But what if you have an
internal hard drive or partition with a Linux filesystem? Well, that's what this tutorial is about.
Warning: The tutorial on this page is for an internal drive that will serve as an extra
data partition. If you would like to mount a separate drive or partition as /home instead, you want
a different tutorial.
First you have to determine what the partition is called and what filesystem it is. One quick way to do it if you know what filesystem you formatted the drive as (Ext3, for example) is to just type the terminal command
sudo fdisk -l
Here's how it could come out:
Disk /dev/sda: 8589 MB, 8589934592 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1044 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000eb4baDevice Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 524 4208006 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 525 1044 4176900 83 Linux
As you can see, I'm able to locate that /dev/sda2 is my Linux partition, but in
System, I don't find out if it's Ext3, Ext4, Reiserfs, or what it is. If I happen to know it's Ext4, cool.
But let's say I didn't know. Well, one way to find out for sure is to install GParted and find out:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gparted gksu
gksudo gparted
You can go to System > Administration > GParted and enter your password to get it started.
Ah, now I can definitely see it's Ext4 for sure. Under
Partition I see it's /dev/sda2, and under
Filesystem, I see it's Ext4.
If you have a second physical hard drive (not just another partition), you might have to click on the top-right corner to focus on the second hard drive. (Click on the down-pointing arrow to get the drop-down menu.)
So now I'll create a mount point for that partition:
sudo mkdir /storage
Next, I want to determine the UUID of my partition.
***
ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid
and I get back this output:
total 0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 2010-04-26 12:00 20bfd80a-a96b-461c-a63d-c96ff8e95872 -> ../../sda1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 2010-04-26 19:19 d1d0cf46-958f-4a12-a604-0ac66040648b -> ../../sda2
Then I'll edit my /etc/fstab file:
sudo cp /etc/fstab /etc/fstab_backup
sudo nano /etc/fstab
Once in there, I should add in this line:
UUID=d1d0cf46-958f-4a12-a604-0ac66040648b /storage ext4 defaults 0 0
Then I can save (Control-X), confirm (Y), and exit (Enter).
Since we've made changes to the /etc/fstab file, we need to have Ubuntu acknowledge those changes:
sudo mount -a
Now I need to give it the proper permissions. Let's just assume, for this example, that my username is
jessica.
sudo chown -R jessica:jessica /storage
sudo chmod -R 755 /storage
Now the partition is mounted in the /storage folder and is ready for use!
*** Yes, I could just use the name of it (/dev/sda2), but UUID is more precise. It's unlikely that I'll unplug my internal drive, plug in a new internal drive, and then plug back in my original internal drive so that the partition names are reassigned. Still, it's safer to use the exact partition identifier in /etc/fstab.
COMMAND LINE PARTITIONING
You'll be using "fdisk" to accomplish this. Refer back to the logical name you noted from earlier. For illustration, I'll use /dev/sdb, and assume that you want a single partition on the disk, occupying all the free space.
If the number of cylinders in the disk is larger than 1024 (and large hard drives always have more), it could, in certain setups, cause problems with:
- software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO)
- booting and partitioning software from other OSs (e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK)
Otherwise, this will not negatively affect you.
1) Initiate fdisk with the following command:
2) Fdisk will display the following menu:
3) We want to add a new partition. Type "n" and press enter.
Command action
e extended
p primary partition (1-4)
4) We want a primary partition. Enter "p" and enter.
Partition number (1-4):
5) Since this will be the only partition on the drive, number 1. Enter "1" and enter.
Command (m for help):
If it asks about the first cylinder, just type "1" and enter. (We are making 1 partition to use the whole disk, so it should start at the beginning.)
6) Now that the partition is entered, choose option "w" to write the partition table to the disk. Type "w" and enter.
The partition table has been altered!
7) If all went well, you now have a properly partitioned hard drive that's ready to be formatted. Since this is the first partition, Linux will recognize it as /dev/sdb1, while the disk that the partition is on is still /dev/sdb.
To format the new partition as ext3 file system (best for use under Ubuntu):
To format the new partition as fat32 file system (best for use under Ubuntu & Windows):
As always, substitute "/dev/sdb1" with your own partition's path.
Modify Reserved Space (Optional)
When formatting the drive as ext2/ext3, 5% of the drive's total space is reserved for the super-user (root) so that the operating system can still write to the disk even if it is full. However, for disks that only contain data, this is not necessary.
NOTE: You may run this command on a fat32 file system, but it will do nothing; therefore, I highly recommend not running it.
You can adjust the percentage of reserved space with the "tune2fs" command, like this:
sudo tune2fs -m 1 /dev/sdb1
This example reserves 1% of space - change this number if you wish.
Using this command does not change any existing data on the drive. You can use it on a drive which already contains data.
Create A Mount Point
Now that the drive is partitioned and formatted, you need to choose a mount point. This will be the location from which you will access the drive in the future. I would recommend using a mount point with "/media", as it is the default used by Ubuntu. For this example, we'll use the path "/media/mynewdrive"
Now we are ready to mount the drive to the mount point.
Mount The Drive
You can choose to have the drive mounted automatically each time you boot the computer, or manually only when you need to use it.
AUTOMATIC MOUNT AT BOOT
You'll need to edit /etc/fstab:
Add this line to the end (for ext3 file system):
Add this line to the end (for fat32 file system):
/dev/sdb1 /media/mynewdrive vfat defaults 0 2
The defaults part may allow you to read, but not write. To write other partition and FAT specific options must be used. If gnome is being used, use the right-click, mount method. Then launch the mount command from terminal, no options. The last entry should be the FAT drive and and look something like: /dev/sda5 on /media/mynewdrive type vfat
(rw,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=hal,shortname=mixed,uid=1000,utf8,umask=077,flush)
-
All of the parts between the parenthesis are the mount options and should replace "defaults" in the fstab file. The "2" at the end instructs your system to run a quick file system check on the hard drive at every boot. Changing it to "0" will skip this. Run 'man fstab' for more info here.
You can now run "sudo mount -a" (or reboot the computer) to have the changes take effect.
If you want to allow a normal user to create files on this drive, you can either give this user ownership of the top directory of the drive filesystem: (replace USERNAME with the username)
or in a more flexible way, practical if you have several users, allow for instance the users in the plugdev group (usually those who are meant to be able to mount removable disks, desktop users) to create files and sub-directories on the disk:
The last "chmod +t" adds the sticky bit, so that people can only delete their own files and sub-directories in a directory, even if they have write permissions to it (see man chmod).
MANUALLY MOUNT
Alternatively, you may want to manually mount the drive every time you need it.
For manual mounting, use the following command:
sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /media/mynewdrive
When you are finished with the drive, you can unmount it using:
sudo umount /media/mynewdrive
That's it
