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Mounting a USB Drive on Ubuntu

After inserting the USB drive into an Ubuntu system, one may unintentionally start staring blankly at the screen.

Then it hits you that Ubuntu is an operating system that requires you to "mount" disks manually.

Check Where the Disk Is

Before mounting the disk, you first need to confirm whether the system has detected it.

  1. Open the terminal and run the following command:

    sudo fdisk -l

    This command will list all the available disks and partitions in the system.

    Locate the disk you want to mount, usually named something like /dev/sdb or /dev/sdc, with partition names such as /dev/sda1 or /dev/sdc1.

    tip

    You can also use the lsblk command, depending on your personal preference.

  2. Check the file system type of the disk:

    Assuming the disk found is /dev/sda1, you can check its file system type with the following command:

    sudo blkid /dev/sda1 | grep TYPE

    This command will display the file system type of the partition, such as ext4, ntfs, or exfat, helping you decide the appropriate mounting method.

Create a Mount Directory

Before mounting the disk, you need a directory to serve as the mount point.

Here, we'll assume the path is /mnt/mydisk and run the following command:

sudo mkdir -p /mnt/mydisk
tip

You can choose any directory name you like, as long as the directory exists and is empty.

Mount the Disk

Choose the appropriate mount method based on the disk's file system type.

ext4

Run the following command to mount the disk to the target directory:

sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/mydisk

Check if the mount was successful:

df -h

If successful, you should see /mnt/mydisk in the output.

NTFS or exFAT

If the disk uses NTFS or exFAT file systems, you may need to install the necessary tools.

  1. Install the required tools:

    sudo apt update
    sudo apt install ntfs-3g exfat-fuse exfat-utils
  2. Mount the NTFS or exFAT partition (using exFAT as an example):

    sudo mount -t exfat /dev/sda1 /mnt/mydisk

Common Issues

  1. Insufficient Permissions After Mounting:

    Some file systems (like NTFS or exFAT) do not support native Linux permission modification commands (such as chmod or chown). If you encounter this issue, you can specify the appropriate permissions when mounting.

    Unmount first:

    sudo umount /mnt/mydisk

    Remount and specify permissions:

    sudo mount -t exfat -o uid=1000,gid=1000,fmask=0022,dmask=0022 /dev/sda1 /mnt/mydisk

    The meaning of each parameter is as follows:

    • -t exfat: Specifies the file system type.
    • uid=1000: Specifies the UID of the file owner.
    • gid=1000: Specifies the GID of the file group.
    • fmask=0022 and dmask=0022: Set the default permissions for files and directories.

    Verify if the permissions are correct after mounting:

    ls -l /mnt/mydisk
    tip

    The 0022 is an octal number, corresponding to 755 permissions.


  1. Mount Directory Not Created:

    If the mount directory does not exist, the mount command will fail. Make sure the directory is created:

    sudo mkdir -p /mnt/mydisk

  1. Don't Know the UID and GID:

    You can use the following command to find the UID and GID of the current user:

    id

    Example output:

    uid=1000(username) gid=1000(username)

    Here, uid is the user ID, and gid is the group ID.


  1. Automatically Mount the Disk:

    To automatically mount the disk on every boot, you can configure it in the /etc/fstab file.

    Open the /etc/fstab file with a text editor:

    sudo vim /etc/fstab

    Add the following line at the end of the file (modify it according to the actual disk information):

    /dev/sda1 /mnt/mydisk ntfs-3g defaults,uid=1000,gid=1000 0 0

    After saving and exiting, verify the configuration with:

    sudo mount -a

    If no error message appears, the configuration is successful.


  1. Unmount the Disk:

    To unmount the disk, use the following command:

    sudo umount /mnt/mydisk

    If the disk is in use, you may encounter an error. In this case, use the -l option to force the unmount:

    sudo umount -l /mnt/mydisk

    After unmounting, you can confirm with the following command:

    df -h

  1. Disk Not Formatted:

    A new disk may need to be formatted before use. Use the mkfs command to format the disk:

    sudo mkfs -t ext4 /dev/sda1

    This command will format /dev/sda1 as the ext4 file system. To use a different file system, change the -t option.

    warning

    Formatting the disk will erase all data, so make sure to back up important files in advance.

Conclusion

In summary, mounting a disk on Ubuntu is not complicated. Once you master the basic commands and keep the necessary precautions in mind, you can easily complete the process.

This is a simple record of the disk mounting process, and we hope it helps you.