[SOLVED] Partition not mounted automatically

[yBfj3nbmn7]

Hi!

I recently migrated from Windows to Ubuntu, but I made some mistakes in the installation that I'm paying for. My main problem is this:

When Ubuntu partitioned my hard drive, I thought that it would be a wise decision to partition it into four drives:
1. Linux-swap (8Gb)
2. Windows NTFS (28Gb)
3. Ubuntu (28Gb)
4. A FAT32 drive which could be accessed from both OS. (402Gb)

But after I had installed everything, I could not read the FAT32 drive from either Windows nor Ubuntu. I was finally able to solve this by installing GParted, and I could change the FAT32 into a ext3 system. The problem is that after I did this, the drive does not mount automatically. So every time I start Ubuntu, I have to start GParted and mount the drive manually.

How can I solve this? I've got four partitions right now. In GParted, they are listed as:
/dev/sda1 linux-swap 8.01G
/dev/sda2 ntfs /windows 27.95G
/dev/sda3 ext3 / 27.94G
/dev/sda4 ext3 /media/commonfiles 401.87G

[Too Late]

You have to edit your /etc/fstab file. Post its contents here if you are unsure what to do.

Also, post the output of this command:

sudo blkid

[yBfj3nbmn7]

My /etc/fstab file is as follows:

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
# /dev/sda3
UUID=11ca1e6d-6c38-41ee-88f3-9344542c34dc / ext3 relatime,errors=remount-ro 0 1
/dev/sda4 /media/commonfiles vfat utf8,umask=007,gid=46 0 1
# /dev/sda2
UUID=3EBC58C0BC5873FD /windows ntfs defaults,umask=007,gid=46 0 1
# /dev/sda1
UUID=f7eb7e32-e78b-4460-a3d0-fded3ff8e5a9 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0


sudo blkid returns the following information:

/dev/sda1: TYPE="swap" UUID="f7eb7e32-e78b-4460-a3d0-fded3ff8e5a9"
/dev/sda2: UUID="3EBC58C0BC5873FD" LABEL="HDD" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/sda3: UUID="11ca1e6d-6c38-41ee-88f3-9344542c34dc" TYPE="ext3"
/dev/sda4: UUID="23d944be-155e-4498-9ef6-17c7096176f7" TYPE="ext3"
/dev/sdb1: LABEL="My Book" UUID="3717-D230" TYPE="vfat"

[Too Late]

Ok, let's look at this line:

/dev/sda4 /media/commonfiles vfat utf8,umask=007,gid=46 0 1

Because the partition is not FAT32 anymore, it should be like this:

/dev/sda4 /media/commonfiles ext3 relatime 0 2
Alternatively (and maybe preferably), you can use the UUID number to identify your partition:

UUID=23d944be-155e-4498-9ef6-17c7096176f7 /media/commonfiles ext3 relatime 0 2
Lines starting with # are comments, they do nothing.

[yBfj3nbmn7]

Okay, I tried to change the file as you suggested, but I got the following error message:

"Could not save the file /etc/fstab. You do not have the permissions necessary to save the file. Please check that you typed the location correctly and try again."

[Too Late]

Yes, you have the root permissions to edit that file. Go to terminal and type:

gksudo gedit /etc/fstab

It's always a good idea to make backups before editing important system files, just in case:

sudo cp /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.backup

[yBfj3nbmn7]

Wow! I made the change that you suggested, and now it mounts automatically! Thank you, Too Late!