Automount of external hard disk

Question

I have an Intenso 6002560 1TB Memory Station - an external hard disk. This hard disk gets connected via Y-USB cable. When I connect both USB-ends to my Notebook, it gets recognized by my Ubuntu 10.04.4 LTS system:

moose@pc07:~$ lsusb
[...]
Bus 002 Device 005: ID 13fd:1840 Initio Corporation 
[...]

and

Disk /dev/sda: 320.1 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00065e10

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1       37810   303704064   83  Linux
/dev/sda2           37810       38914     8864769    5  Extended
/dev/sda5           37810       38914     8864768   82  Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/sdc: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0d6ea32a

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdc1               1      121601   976759008+   c  W95 FAT32 (LBA)

But it did not get mounted:

moose@pc07:/dev$ mount -l
/dev/sda1 on / type ext4 (rw,errors=remount-ro,user_xattr)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
none on /sys type sysfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
none on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw)
none on /sys/kernel/debug type debugfs (rw)
none on /sys/kernel/security type securityfs (rw)
none on /dev type devtmpfs (rw,mode=0755)
none on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,noexec,nosuid,gid=5,mode=0620)
none on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
none on /var/run type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,mode=0755)
none on /var/lock type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
none on /lib/init/rw type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,mode=0755)
binfmt_misc on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
gvfs-fuse-daemon on /home/moose/.gvfs type fuse.gvfs-fuse-daemon (rw,nosuid,nodev,user=moose)

However, I could mount it manually with

mount -t vfat /dev/sdc1 /mnt/sdc1

as you can see here:

moose@pc07:~$ mount -l
/dev/sda1 on / type ext4 (rw,errors=remount-ro,user_xattr)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
none on /sys type sysfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
none on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw)
none on /sys/kernel/debug type debugfs (rw)
none on /sys/kernel/security type securityfs (rw)
none on /dev type devtmpfs (rw,mode=0755)
none on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,noexec,nosuid,gid=5,mode=0620)
none on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
none on /var/run type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,mode=0755)
none on /var/lock type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
none on /lib/init/rw type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,mode=0755)
binfmt_misc on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
gvfs-fuse-daemon on /home/moose/.gvfs type fuse.gvfs-fuse-daemon (rw,nosuid,nodev,user=moose)
/dev/sdc1 on /mnt/sdc1 type vfat (rw)

edit: Another command:

moose@pc07:~$ sudo blkid -o list
device                     fs_type    label       mount point                    UUID
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/dev/sda1                  ext4                   /                              45eb611b-517e-425b-8057-0391726cccd5
/dev/sda5                  swap                   <swap>                         e9dc42f3-594c-4b62-874a-305eda5eed41
moose@pc07:~$ blkid -o list
device                     fs_type    label       mount point                    UUID
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/dev/sda1                  ext4                   /                              45eb611b-517e-425b-8057-0391726cccd5
/dev/sda5                  swap                   <swap>                         e9dc42f3-594c-4b62-874a-305eda5eed41
/dev/sdc1                                         /mnt/sdc1                      

edit: another command:

moose@pc07:~$ ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid/
total 0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 2012-09-30 09:31 45eb611b-517e-425b-8057-0391726cccd5 -> ../../sda1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 2012-09-30 09:31 e9dc42f3-594c-4b62-874a-305eda5eed41 -> ../../sda5

Here is a link to a Launchpad question about this problem.

But I would like it to mount automatically. What do I have to do?

Solution 1

It's an old question but I figured this might still help someone.

I've had the same problem with this hdd. The source turned out to be the initial format of the partition. Reformatting as NTFS using the Disks (gnome-disks) tool made it behave like any other usb hdd.

Solution 2

Here you have a good guide on how to mounting drives.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AutomaticallyMountPartitions

You should add your drive to the /etc/fstab file which controls the mounted devices, with parameters such as

• the mounting drive,
• the mounting point
• used filesystem
• and several other options

good luck!

EDIT: If you modify fstab manually instead of using some interface, be careful with the lines you change. Do a backup of the file first or you could make your system to not boot properly.

Comments

[Martin Thoma]

@user81022: it outputs only the two partitions of my internal hdd, see edited post.

[bob]

I think since the drive is fat32, you should mount it as sdb type (not sdc). So, first sudo umount /dev/sdc1 and then re-mount it (/dev/sdb1). I wish I could help more.

[Martin Thoma]

/dev/sdb1 does not exist (mount: special device /dev/sdb1 does not exist ). If I try to mount /dev/sdb it says mount: no medium found on /dev/sdb. By the way, chkdisk on a windows machine did not reveal any errors. It worked on Windows out of the box.

[Martin Thoma]

it seems not to have a UUID (see my edit). What do I do now? (and why isn't the device displayed when I run blkid with sudo?)

[Martin Thoma]

This did the trick! Thank you so much! Do you know if there is a MATE tool with which this can be done?