Disable automount for USB drive

[New2Ubunt]

Ubuntu v9.10
I have a damaged HDD which I want to clone using ddrescue.
I want to attach it via USB connection, otherwise Linux hangs on startup.
I don't want the O/S to attempt to mount the drive.
I would be happy to disable mounting of all external USB drives.
How can I achieve this?

[byStanderone]

...open a browser window (places), clik edit>preference>media...check never prompt or start program on media insertion.

[New2Ubunt]

Thanks for your response.

I tried this, and I also unchecked Browse media when inserted
The partition still seems to have been mounted - icon on Desktop, folder in /media
This is not while using the damaged drive, I'm using a different USB ext HDD to see what happens.

[rbc]

Alt + F2, then type in gconf-editor, and hit Enter. When that window comes up, navigate to apps-->nautilus-->preferences, then uncheck media automount

[New2Ubunt]

Thanks very much, rbc.

That worked fine.

[byStanderone]

...thanks as well, rbc

[tugsy]

Is there a way to turn this off when the Desktop is not installed, running command line only. Ubuntu as server 10.4
me scenario.
I have a Smart Card reader that uses a USB device that is set as a Serial reader (virtual via USB) works great normally, but if I reboot at startup with a card in the reader it fails and it won't work unless i reboot without the card in the reader. once its rebooted, insert the card and it starts working again. Hence the need to stop the automount as it is trying to mount a smart card.

[Chemtox]

Is there a way to turn this off when the Desktop is not installed, running command line only. Ubuntu as server 10.4

A bit late to the party, but I just had to do this myself. You can apply the above solution from the CLI with gconftool-2 --set /apps/nautilus/preferences/media_automount --type bool false. This will only work if it's indeed Nautilus (or Gnome Volume Manager/whatever they use this year) what is mounting your card. If you don't have gconf2 installed, then something else is doing it (also through dbus or directly in fstab?), and this solution won't help you.

[cdaringe]

...open a browser window (places), clik edit>preference>media...check never prompt or start program on media insertion.

Yahtzee! Thx.