Formatting second hard drive

[alan_uk]

I have just installed a second hard drive for photo and video files. How can I format it so that I can create folders and make it use able?

[taurus]

Use gparted in System -> Administration (install it if you don't have it) to create a partition and format your second harddrive. It's probably best to use ext3 filesystem. Once you are done, edit /etc/fstab and add entry in there so the second harddrive would mount automatically each time you boot. Of course, you need to create a new mount point for it. The, you just need to change the ownership of the mount point for your second harddrive from root to your login name so you can write to it anytime you want without using sudo or gksudo.

So, the first step you need to do is to create a partition and format your new harddrive.

[alan_uk]

Thanks Taurus

[jerrykenny]

I like ext2 for video files, especially if i'm using torrent programmes . . . . perhaps i'm superstitious but i think it saves a bit of workload for the drive.

Agree on using ext3 partition for photos 'though, since they've often sentimental value you'll want to have them secure.

Incidentally, you might want to put your swap-space, or perhaps even migrate /tmp to this drive (spead the workload over two hd's ?

[alan_uk]

Thanks but I am getting error messages. I created a partition and formatted your second harddrive using ext3 filesystem.

In the terminal I put: /etc/fstab/dev/sdc1

and got /etc/fstab/dev/sdc1: Not a directory

A bit unsure what to do next

[psusi]

Thanks but I am getting error messages. I created a partition and formatted your second harddrive using ext3 filesystem.

In the terminal I put: /etc/fstab/dev/sdc1

and got /etc/fstab/dev/sdc1: Not a directory

A bit unsure what to do next

You want to EDIT /etc/fstab and add a line to it saying to mount /dev/sdc1 into a directory somewhere, like /media/sdc1 ( which you need to create ).

[alan_uk]

Thanks
created a folder in home folder called media then created another in that called sdc1.

then in terminal
edit/etc/fstab/mount/dev/sdc1/media/sdc1

but still got:
No such file or directory

[taurus]

Try this. Open a terminal and type in


gksudo gedit /etc/fstab
Then, scroll all the way down to the end of that file and add this line to it.


/dev/sdc1 /media/sdc1 ext3 defaults 0 2
Save it and exit gedit editing window. Then, create a new mount point and mount it.


sudo mkdir /media/sdc1
sudo mount -a
df -h

[Elfy]

You have to edit the file - I would make a backup first, might be best to mount the folder in /media - but if you've made on in /home then use it - where it says user - change to your username


sudo cp /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.0512
gksudo gedit /etc/fstab

Assuming that the folder has been created you just need to add it

something like


##dev/sdc1
/dev/sdc1 /home/user/media/sdc1 ext3 user 0 2

You'll need to set permissions, I use 770


sudo chown user.user /home/user/media/sdc1
sudo chmod 770 /home/user/media/sdc1

Be aware that the path in fstab and in the chown/chmod commands must match what you have. Personally I always put my mounts in /mnt as I don't want them on the desktop, you could make symbolic links to a folder in /home.

But the choice, as they say, is yours :)

[alan_uk]

Thanks but even though I have formated the discs and mounted them I cannot access them. I reinstalled Ubuntu and used /media instead of the Home folder.
I just got I do not have permission and then 'The permissions of "disk" could not be determined. The permissions belong to the root

[Elfy]

Can you run thes and post the results please


sudo fdisk -l
cat /etc/fstab
df -h
ls -al /media

[taurus]

Thanks but even though I have formated the discs and mounted them I cannot access them. I reinstalled Ubuntu and used /media instead of the Home folder.
I just got I do not have permission and then 'The permissions of "disk" could not be determined. The permissions belong to the root

You need to change the ownership of /media/disk (assuming that is where you mount your /dev/sdc1) from root to your login name. Assuming your login name is alan, run


sudo chown -R alan:alan /media/disk
ls -al /media

[alan_uk]

Hey thanks for all your help with this

alan@alan-desktop:~$ sudo fdisk -l
[sudo] password for alan:

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xdf95df95

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 18701 150215751 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 18702 19457 6072570 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 18702 19457 6072538+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/sdb: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000001

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 30401 244196001 83 Linux

Disk /dev/sdc: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xdf95df96

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 1 60801 488384001 83 Linux
alan@alan-desktop:~$ cat /etc/fstab
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
# /dev/sda1
UUID=14150144-83ba-471c-abd5-8ad80ac20a38 / ext3 relatime,errors=remount-ro 0 1
# /dev/sda5
UUID=f24af01f-7196-4d3a-a976-fd9f07d03002 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0
alan@alan-desktop:~$ df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1 142G 2.9G 131G 3% /
tmpfs 1013M 0 1013M 0% /lib/init/rw
varrun 1013M 104K 1013M 1% /var/run
varlock 1013M 0 1013M 0% /var/lock
udev 1013M 2.7M 1010M 1% /dev
tmpfs 1013M 144K 1012M 1% /dev/shm
lrm 1013M 2.0M 1011M 1% /lib/modules/2.6.27-9-generic/volatile
/dev/sdb1 230G 188M 218G 1% /media/disk
/dev/sdc1 459G 199M 435G 1% /media/disk-1
alan@alan-desktop:~$ ls -al /media
total 24
drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 4096 2008-12-06 17:15 .
drwxr-xr-x 20 root root 4096 2008-12-06 16:59 ..
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 6 2008-12-06 16:03 cdrom -> cdrom0
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2008-12-06 16:03 cdrom0
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 2008-12-06 17:06 disk
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 2008-12-06 17:12 disk-1
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 120 2008-12-06 17:15 .hal-mtab
-rw------- 1 root root 0 2008-12-06 17:15 .hal-mtab-lock
alan@alan-desktop:~$

[alan_uk]

Thank you both - both discs working and on-line !