[SOLVED] Mounting 2 identical USB drives to different mount points

darkduck · 05-11-2014, 03:43 PM

Hello,
I have 2 identical USB HDD drives connected to my Linux machine (Debian Wheezy).
They have absolutely identical UUID.

Code:

$sudo blkid
[sudo] password for darkduck: 
...
/dev/sdb1: LABEL="Elements" UUID="1ADC8962DC893951" TYPE="ntfs" 
/dev/sdc1: LABEL="Elements" UUID="1ADC8962DC893951" TYPE="ntfs"

/etc/fstab contains records for /dev/sdb1 -> /mount_point_A and /dev/sdc1 -> mount_point_B.
However, sometimes they got mounted other way round, /dev/sdb1 -> mount_point_B. I have to reboot the system (maybe even several times) to make things right.
Is there a way to ensure that mounting goes to right point every time? I read about using UUID for that, but, as I said, that is not an option with identical UUIDs.

michaelk · 05-11-2014, 05:30 PM

At the moment the first drive found will be assigned to /dev/sdb1. You will need to write udev rules based on any other unique identifier like serial number or manufacture. You can find their attributes via the udevadm utility

frankbell · 05-11-2014, 09:00 PM

You could give them separate labels and mount them by label.

http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/rhel-ce...rtition-label/

Precisely what command to use to change the label depends on the file system on the partition on the drive.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RenameUSBDrive

It's quite easy to change the label from the command line. I've done it several times, mostly to make the label (e. g., MY PASSPORT, which becomes "MY\ PASSPORT" on the Linux command line) easier to work with (e.g., "passport")

darkduck · 05-12-2014, 01:04 AM

Thanks, Frankbell. Sounds like an easy solution.
The quick question, though.
Does re-labelling erase the disk content? I hope not.

michaelk · 05-12-2014, 04:16 AM

No. it will not erase any data.

darkduck · 05-12-2014, 05:04 PM

It appeared easier to boot into Windows and change label for NTFS drives from there.

Thanks for the hint anyway.
I now changed fstab records to look like

Code:

LABEL=my_label	/mountpoint		ntfs-3g	0	0

All mounts right. However, command mount still refers to /dev/... path, not to the label.

Code:

/dev/sdb1 on /mountpoint type fuseblk (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_id=0,group_id=0,allow_other,blksize=4096)

Is it all right?

michaelk · 05-12-2014, 05:11 PM

Yes that is normal.