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Old 06-29-2017, 10:11 AM   #1
mani01
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Post Mount of external hdd on a linux operating system


am trying to mount an external hdd on an existing linux operating system.
i have already attached the hdd on the machine but can not
successfully mount it
 
Old 06-29-2017, 12:58 PM   #2
rtmistler
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Hi mani01 and welcome to LQ.

It will help to know your level of experience with Linux, drives under Linux, and the command line.

First: What Linux distribution and version do you have?
Second: What are the system specifications for your computer?
Third: This external hdd is a magnetic drive? solid state drive? other type? Is it attached over USB?
Fourth: What do you know about this drive? Is it a Windows drive? A brand new drive? Or something else?

What are you trying now? Are you examining the drives found using the command line? Have you checked the system log to see how it gets detected when you plug it in?

What parts of these questions are blocking you where you need more information?

Some general mount information:
  • Typically Linux distributions can support automatic mounting, but there are many varieties which will not. Further, if the drive has no file system at all, then it will not be mounted
  • The mount command, as done using the command line, also known as the terminal, requires root privileges. Typically users use the sudo command modifier to make that happen.
  • The type of file system is important to know to aid the mount command with it's actions, such as ext2, ext4, fat32, or other type.
  • The discovered drive letter is also important. For instance, Linux typically assigns resources under the /dev file system and hard drives it usually makes them /dev/sd<letter> where the letter starts with a and continues to z. I myself do not now what comes beyond z, if that's ever needed and probably have only ever seen enough complexity to go as high as maybe /dev/sdh
Giving us some more information and helping us understand your experience level will be helpful.
 
Old 06-29-2017, 03:51 PM   #3
sundialsvcs
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Look at your system logs (e.g. /var/log/syslog to see if, upon inserting the drive, the computer subsequently recognized that a new drive has been added. (You might see a device such as /dev/sdb.

Next, what disk format does this drive use? Microsoft FAT? Microsoft NTFS? Some Apple format? Linux? Your machine might need some driver.

Furthermore, /etc/fstab might need an entry which identifies the hardware device, the type of filesystem, and the location where the disk should be mounted, and whether-or-not it should be auto-mounted at startup. (See man fstab.)
 
Old 06-29-2017, 07:03 PM   #4
AwesomeMachine
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The drive might be mounted already. Run the command "mount". That shows you all your mounted drives. Look down toward the end for /dev/sdb or /dev/sdb1 mounted somewhere in the /media directory.

Otherwise,


Try this:
Code:
$ ls /dev/sd*
to see the drives on the system. The internal drive should be /dev/sda. The external drive should be /dev/sdb. There might be some entries like /dev/sdb1. If there is, try from a terminal
Code:
$ sudo mount /dev/sdb1
 
  


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