Getting an external used Hard Drive to work?
 

I formatted a used WD 500 GB hard drive... That I intend to use as an external drive for Storage... I formatted it with the Linux Mint 18 1 64-bit distro... Cinnamon Version = 3.2.7... That came with the 4.4.-53-generic Linux Kernel...
I can not access it because it does not show up via the places button that is located in the menu...
Can anyone please tell me what it is that I am missing?

How many partitions did you create on the drive? Or did you just format the drive as one big partition? What file system did you create on the drive? Have you tried to mount the partition(s) on the external HDD with the mount command?

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Steve Stites

Open a terminal, post the results from thi.

I formatted the drive as one big partition...
Partitioning is compatible with all systems and devices (MBR / DOS)

I think the file system is NTFS But not sure and don't know how to find out...

I have never had any experience mounting a partition on a hard drive...And don't have the slightest clue how to go about doing that...

With the drive plugged, what is the output of

Post it here, being sure to surround it with "code" tags, which become available when you click the "Go Advanced" button at the bottom of the compose post window.

Running the command: sudo parted -l (Lower Case Letter L in the command) will tell you the filesystem type. If you are using Linux Mint, why would you format ntfs which is a proprietary microsoft windows filesystem?

I have been unable to find out how to post a Screen Shot on this forum... So here you are...

Disk /dev/sda: 90.0GB
Sector size (logical/physcal): 512/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Dish Flags:

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 1049kkB 86.8GB 86.8GB primary ext4 boot
2 86.8GB 90.0GB 3218MB extended
3 86.8GB 90.0GB 3218MB logical linux-swap(v1)

Error: /dev/sdb: unreconized disk label
Model: WDC WD50 00AADS-00S9B0 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 500GB
Sector size logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partion Table: unknown
Disk Flags:

Than you for responding... I have spent hours attempting to find out how to post a Screen Shot on this forum... to reply... With no joy...

This also applies to frankbell...

Most terminal emulators should support copy-and-paste; certainly on Mint. Or take a photo and attach it here. For Mate desktop looks like Alt-PrntScr for a screenshot (just tested).

I don't know what you did, but the disk ain't usable like that - hence your not seeing it. Easiest would be to install gparted and write a partition table to the disk, then create partition(s). It's a GUI, pretty self-explanatory.

Thank you... It looks like the copy-and-paste will work... I will likely not be able to get back to you until later today or tomorrow... Got other things to do that need my attention right now...

It's fairly obvious what the problem is. You formatted a raw disk and never created a partition on the drive. Partition and format the drive using gparted.
If you're not familiar with how to do that, post back and I'll attempt to walk you through it. It's really not that hard but may be a little confusing if you've never done it before.

Screenshot
 

Click the "Go Advanced" button beneath the "Compose Post" window (it's right next to the "Submit Reply" button, and you will see the dialogs for uploading and posting a screenshot underneath the "Advanced" compose post window.

The disk that I formatted had windows 7 on it... So I don't think it was raw... It shows up when I click on the Disks button in the menu.. G-Parted does not list this disk...

Attachment 25176

GParted does not recognize the 500 GB disk...

Attachment 25177