Here's how to mount a USB hard disk drive (ie; external storage) on a Linux server, through the command line.
First, attach the hard disk and turn it on. Then look in /var/log/messages for a message similar to the ones shown in bold. This will tell you the device-location of your recently attached hdd.
server#: tail -f /var/log/messages -n 25 -- MARK -- kernel: usb 4-1: new high speed USB device using ... kernel: usb 4-1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice kernel: scsi9 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices kernel: SCSI device sde: 586072368 512-byte hdwr sectors (xx MB) kernel: sde: Write Protect is off kernel: SCSI device sde: 586072368 512-byte hdwr sectors (xx MB) kernel: sde: Write Protect is off kernel: sde: sde1 kernel: sd 9:0:0:0: Attached scsi disk sde -- MARK --
The external storage can be found in /dev/sde1, as shown in the message-log (the last lines).
Make a new directory, and mount the device to that point.
# mkdir /mnt/usb-storage # mount /dev/sde1 /mnt/usb-storage
And now you can navigate to /mnt/usb-storage and find your content of the external storage
Hi
thanks for the help you offer.
I am trying to mount an external storage device.
The result of the mount command
[..... mnt]# mount /dev/sdb/ /mnt/backup/
mount: “please specify filestyem type” (my traslantion).
What should I do?
Thanks
mario
[root@mario mnt]#
@Mario; you can specifiy the filesystem using the “-t” parameter.
Should become something like: mount -t ntfs /dev/sdb /mnt/backup
Replace “ntfs” with the filesystem you have.
Mount will usually “auto guess” the filesystem, and mount it accordingly. If it’s an external drive previously mounted in Windows, there’s a chance it will state a “corrupt filesystem”. Best to attach it to a Windows desktop first, and choose the “Safely remove hardware” functionality to remove to external drive.
thx a lot
that worked for a usb disk that doesn’t automatically mount on my ubuntu server.
I get a blank message box on xfce when trying to access the drive trought the desktop icon.
Dude you are truly elite! Thanks honorable guru, you helped me out of a major jam :D
thank you, that was very helpful. All the circles of forum hell gaily instruct us to
mount /dev/sda1
for the new USB drive, without giving any inkling of how to come up with the /dev/sda1 mount point. in particular, mine already had a device there, so I knew that could not be the right one..
The article is quite helpful but it is not a solution for my problem, my question is as folows
I have an external hard drive at /dev/sdda1
it has 2 folders
/abc/data1
/abc/data2
All I need is to mount these 2 folders on my machine as
/data1
/data2
but the question is how to?
Quick response is requested.
Regards.
Are you sure about the “/dev/sdda1″ partition? It looks odd, but I’ll continue this example as such.
You dan to it as follows to mount your disk.
mkdir /mnt/usbdisk
mount /dev/sdda1 /mnt/usbdisk
then symlink to your locations
ln -s /mnt/usbdisk/data1 /data1
ln -s /mnt/usbdisk/data2 /data2
Thanx moti,
the idea sems god
i have issued following command on console
ln -s /sdda1/cis2bu/gad/ /gad
it is mapped but the problem is
when I issue ls -lrt in /gad folder
instead of showing the contents of /sdda1/cis2bu/gad i.e. folder1. folder2 and folder 3
it shows me gad
meas I have to issue
cd /gad/gad to chk the contents
where as I need onl to issue cd /gad and ls comand to chk all the contents
You need a trailing slash:
ls -lrt in /gad/
Dear Matti
I was giving ls -lrt in /gad/ and it is showng me gad,
I removed the link and also /gad folder and then
now what I have done is, I have issued thee following command
ln -s /sdda1/cis2bu/gad/ /
and now it is working fine
THANK you very much for your kind help.
Name correction
Matti
sorry for spell error
Thank you Matti for your help
it is done
thanks for the heads up on the log messages, that helps…
However my log messages does not specify a location for my external hard drive. It says:
kernel: sd 9:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
kernel: sd 9:0:0:0: [sdb] Mod Sense:00 00 00 00
kernel: sd 9:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache:write through
kernel: sdb:
kernel: sd 9:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI disk
can u recommend anything??
regards!
Try:
Or see if you can mound that /dev/sdb device directly.
Hi,
Thanks a lot for your valuable suggestion.
It just craved me out of vain for mounting a USB in an Ubuntu Server machine.
– Harsh –
Thanks for valuable info here.
If I installed Ubuntu using external HD as primary, and now need to transplant the HD to a headless server (no VGA/keyboard/etc), is there a change to a file that I can make to ensure that on next reboot (in the headless server) that the HD mounts as the primary drive (not external)?
Any insight would be appreciated!