Help with HD mounting

[BugsyMalone]

I'm new to Linux and I've been trying to get my extra storage drive mounted. I went to Computer->Disks and the drive shows up there, but when I click on it I get this message. "Unable to mount the selected volume - - mount: dev/hdb already mounted or /mnt/hdb busy." This is the only place I could find to access the drive. If I've done something wrong, or there's another place to access the files on the drive please let me know.

I love Ubunta BTW...

[Vulc]

do this

sudo mkdir /mnt/shared

sudo pico /etc/fstab

then add a line sort of like this

/dev/hdb# /mnt/shared vfat ro,umask=000 0 0

then sudo mount /dev/hdb#

# is the parition number (was 5 in my case since my paritition was extended
should be good to go after that

[FLeiXiuS]

If its already in use, then why would you want to mount it again?

BugsyMalone
I recommend to do this..

First, find which drives are mounted and where they are mounted to.

df -h

Second, If the drive is not mounted, then your going to need to know the hd letter and the hd number, IE hda - hda0

To determine these,

fdisk -l

Once you've gather all of your info, then its time to procede into some of what Vulc was talking about. He wasn't too explanatory. So allow me to be brief.

/etc/fstab is the file that will auto-mount partitions to linux distrobutions.

To edit this file, open it as root. Start a terminal then type:

sudo gedit /etc/fstab

At the end of the file, create a few spaces and type the following information.
(You will need to correct some of it in order to fit your system.)

#Manual Mounted Drives
/dev/hd# /mount/path fs ro,auto,uid=0000,gid=0000,umask=0000 0 0

Replace 'hd#' with your correct letter and number as mentioned above.

Replace '/mount/path' to the path where you would want to mount this to. Usually you can create a folder called whatever in your home directory (as standard user) and mount it there. "IE: /home/fleixius/drives/hda1"

Then replace 'fs' with the file system of the partition your mounting.

File Systems
vfat (fat32)
ntfs
reiserfs
ext2
ext3
...etc..etc..etc...

Once your done that, you will need permissions to access this newly mounted partition. Replace uid=0000 with uid=userIDnumber and gid=0000 with gid=groupIDnumber. If there is only 1 user on the system by default the uid=1000 and the gid=1000. So replace them respectively.

If this is not the first account created...

sudo gedit /etc/passwd
sudo gedit /etc/groups

You will find them there...Once your finished editing the /etc/fstab SAVE immediately and then type

mount -a

This will remount all of the partitions located in /etc/fstab.

I hope this has helped.. if you want to check your mount status type:

df -h

I hope I have clearly explained all of the above to you, this is basics of mounting. Enjoy Ubuntu its fantastic and welcome to Ubuntu Forums! See Yah Around!

[BugsyMalone]

FLeiXiuS, thanks for the advice. I don't think I worded my previous post correctly. I wasn't trying to mount the drive again, I was just trying to access the data on the drive. I clicked the "Disks" section because that was the only place I could see the drive. Anyway,,,

I still can't get to the files on the drive I need, although I did manage to get my windows drive mounted. Here's what I did:

I ran the "df -h" command and only the Linux drive was mounted.

I knew the drive in question had only one partition and it was named hdf. I created a folder in the /home/kelly directory named "shared" then one within "shared" named "hdf."

I did "sudo gedit /etc/fstab" and with the alterations to the "/dev/hd# /mount/path fs ro,auto,uid=0000,gid=0000,umask=0000 0 0"

I'm the only user, so I entered "/dev/hdf /home/kelly/shared/hdf vfat ro,auto,uid=1000,gid=1000,umask=0000 0 0"

I saved the file then went back into terminal and entered "sudo mount -a." I got this message: mount: /dev/hdf already mounted or /home/kelly/shared/hdf busy." It's the same one I got before.

I hadn't intended to mount my Windows drive, since I keep all the important files on the other drive, but I decided to do it to see if the same thing happened. I made a folder within the "shared" folder and named it "hda1." I made an entry in the fstab file: "/dev/hda1 /home/kelly/shared/hda1 vfat ro,auto,uid=1000,gid=1000,umask=0000 0 0" and then ran the "mount -a" command. The drive mounted immediately and it's in the home directory. I'm really confused about what's happening with this drive. Any advice would be more than appreciated...

[FLeiXiuS]

The hdf drive needs a partition label.

IE: hdf0

I would try editing the /etc/fstab and mount the /dev/hdf0 then reply with what happens.

[BugsyMalone]

I changed the name in both the fstab and the destination folder to hdf0 and I got this message, "mount: special device /dev/hdf0 does not exist."

[hoosfoos]

Very nice directions FLeiXiuS! You are the first guru who I've seen in a Linux forum who takes time to explain things thoroughly instead of some cryptic, curt response.
Thanks.

[FLeiXiuS]

Originally Posted by BugsyMalone I changed the name in both the fstab and the destination folder to hdf0 and I got this message, "mount: special device /dev/hdf0 does not exist."

To get the hard drives mount ID...

fdisk -l