Linux - Newbie This Linux forum is for members that are new to Linux.
Just starting out and have a question?
If it is not in the man pages or the how-to's this is the place! |
Notices |
Welcome to LinuxQuestions.org, a friendly and active Linux Community.
You are currently viewing LQ as a guest. By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics, receive our newsletter, use the advanced search, subscribe to threads and access many other special features. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today!
Note that registered members see fewer ads, and ContentLink is completely disabled once you log in.
Are you new to LinuxQuestions.org? Visit the following links:
Site Howto |
Site FAQ |
Sitemap |
Register Now
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you need to reset your password, click here.
Having a problem logging in? Please visit this page to clear all LQ-related cookies.
Get a virtual cloud desktop with the Linux distro that you want in less than five minutes with Shells! With over 10 pre-installed distros to choose from, the worry-free installation life is here! Whether you are a digital nomad or just looking for flexibility, Shells can put your Linux machine on the device that you want to use.
Exclusive for LQ members, get up to 45% off per month. Click here for more info.
|
 |
01-03-2010, 06:54 PM
|
#1
|
LQ Newbie
Registered: Jan 2010
Posts: 3
Rep:
|
How do I detect and mount an external hard drive through my router?
I just purchased a Western Digital My Book World Edition External hard drive and need to mount and format. My router sees the connection but I am now unsure how to proceed. Will linux detect the new device through my wireless connection? I know very little about Unix based or Linux commands. Please advise as to how to proceed.
|
|
|
01-03-2010, 07:26 PM
|
#2
|
Member
Registered: Nov 2009
Location: Chicago
Distribution: Arch and OpenBSD
Posts: 104
Rep:
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by Buckeye1999
I just purchased a Western Digital My Book World Edition External hard drive and need to mount and format. My router sees the connection but I am now unsure how to proceed. Will linux detect the new device through my wireless connection? I know very little about Unix based or Linux commands. Please advise as to how to proceed.
|
I'm not sure if you can mount it. You could try to ssh into it though.
|
|
|
01-03-2010, 07:46 PM
|
#3
|
Member
Registered: Mar 2004
Distribution: debian testing/unstable, devuan, raspberrypi OS
Posts: 68
Rep:
|
Hi,
Open any browser you have on your system and type in the IP address of the external drive. It should give you some kind of prompt for a username/password to be able to access it. Does that work?
Alternatively, you could hook it up directly to your pc, and see what shows up in /media or /mnt if you have some kind of automounting utility running. Then add the partitions to /etc/fstab by ip address or assigned name if already entered in /etc/hosts.
Quote:
//external_drive/PUBLIC /home/username/mnt/external_drive/PUBLIC cifs username=username,password=password,users,noauto,exec,nounix,umask=000 0 0
|
Forgot to ask if you have LinNeighborhood, PyNeighborhood, or some such LAN browser? That should help you find the name and partitions of the netdrive.
Last edited by titetanium; 01-03-2010 at 07:50 PM.
Reason: Forgot to answer about detecting it.
|
|
|
01-03-2010, 08:49 PM
|
#4
|
LQ Newbie
Registered: Jan 2010
Posts: 3
Original Poster
Rep:
|
Thank you for the response!
I have successfully accessed the external hard drive through the IP address and have defined the necessary user accounts.
I have added the device via pyNeighborhood. Now how do I mount the device? Do I need to format first?
|
|
|
01-03-2010, 09:07 PM
|
#5
|
Member
Registered: Mar 2004
Location: Montreal, Canada
Distribution: Linux MX 23 KDE "Libretto"
Posts: 235
Rep:
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by Buckeye1999
Thank you for the response!
I have successfully accessed the external hard drive through the IP address and have defined the necessary user accounts.
I have added the device via pyNeighborhood. Now how do I mount the device? Do I need to format first?
|
That drive is not an ordinary empty usb drive, it is specially made as a network drive, a bit like the drobo. Part of the price (cost) is the software that comes with it for (windozz and mac). If you format it, you will end up with just another (rather expensive) external drive.

Last edited by Davno; 01-03-2010 at 10:00 PM.
|
|
|
01-03-2010, 09:15 PM
|
#6
|
LQ Newbie
Registered: Jan 2010
Posts: 3
Original Poster
Rep:
|
Understood.
So I need to setup a Samba client with smbfs to communicate with the installed software?
Is this done within pyNeighborhood or will I need to manage the Samba client through the interface terminal?
|
|
|
01-03-2010, 09:57 PM
|
#7
|
Member
Registered: Mar 2004
Distribution: debian testing/unstable, devuan, raspberrypi OS
Posts: 68
Rep:
|
Hmm, I forgot for a moment exactly how I did it in pyNeighborhood. After you add the drive in the network browser, click on the arrows next to the drive till you get to the folder you want to access. Then click the connect/mount icon next to the refresh icon in the left pane window. You should get a prompt to mount it, click the arrow next to mountpoint and put a checkmark in individual mountpoint and you can specify where you want to mount it at. Then you open your file browser (thunar, pcmanfm, nautilus, rox-filer, etc) and open it at the mount point. You can then copy, paste, drag/drop files to and fro the mounted partition on the net drive.
To unmount it when your done, click the disconnect button and you're done.
|
|
|
01-04-2010, 11:00 AM
|
#8
|
Member
Registered: Jul 2004
Location: Netherlands
Distribution: fedora core 8, suse 10.3, ubuntu 7.10, kamikaze 7.09
Posts: 515
Rep:
|
It depends on your distro, modern distros use cifs
mount -t cifs //server/share /mnt --verbose -o user=username
|
|
|
01-04-2010, 02:05 PM
|
#9
|
Moderator
Registered: Jan 2005
Location: Central Florida 20 minutes from Disney World
Distribution: SlackwareŽ
Posts: 13,976
|
Hi,
Setting up 'SMB' will work for the network drive.

|
|
|
01-05-2010, 05:55 AM
|
#10
|
LQ Newbie
Registered: Jul 2009
Location: out there
Distribution: debian/ubuntu
Posts: 9
Rep:
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by Buckeye1999
Understood.
So I need to setup a Samba client with smbfs to communicate with the installed software?
Is this done within pyNeighborhood or will I need to manage the Samba client through the interface terminal?
|
I guess you need to use samba because that product as many others is tought for being use with a Windows PC, it is running some kind of linux most likely, but it thinks your network is a Windows network
|
|
|
01-12-2010, 10:54 PM
|
#11
|
Member
Registered: Apr 2003
Posts: 128
Rep:
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by scrooge74
I guess you need to use samba because that product as many others is tought for being use with a Windows PC, it is running some kind of linux most likely, but it thinks your network is a Windows network
|
well everyone supports smb/cifs, you could use a mac or game-console whatever
|
|
|
All times are GMT -5. The time now is 08:13 AM.
|
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing
Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute
content, let us know.
|
Latest Threads
LQ News
|
|