Sharing a Second Hard Drve with Windows using Samba

Question

I installed Ubuntu 12.10 32bit with the intention of using it to share hard drives across an office of Windows 7 computers. I've set up an initial share on the hard drive Ubuntu was installed from with no issues - Windows can see, read and write to this drive. I did this using the GUI (Right click > Properties > Share) and a small amount of editing Samba's preferences.

My problem came when I added a second drive. I've formatted it as ext4 and mounted it, and shared it through the right click menu as before. However, though Windows can see the folder, when I try to access it I get a "Windows cannot access..." permissions message. This only happens on the second drive.

If it's of any help, here's my fdisk -l:

    Disk /dev/sda: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders, total 1953525168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000b4feb

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *        2048  1928376319   964187136   83  Linux
/dev/sda2      1928378366  1953523711    12572673    5  Extended
/dev/sda5      1928378368  1953523711    12572672   82  Linux swap / Solaris

WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/sdb'! The util fdisk doesn't support GPT. Use GNU Parted.


Disk /dev/sdb: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders, total 1953525168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1               1  1953525167   976762583+  ee  GPT

It's the disk at "dev/sdb1" I'm attempting to share.

I also tried manually adding this to my fstab, but this doesn't change things one way or the other:

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a
# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices
# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
# / was on /dev/sda1 during installation
UUID=8aea5b44-a5f0-4d0e-8e22-53c3838a8ede /               ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       1
# swap was on /dev/sda5 during installation
UUID=5d4ac6d9-a9a1-4ed6-bee5-ab72fed15b12 none            swap    sw              0       0
/dev/sbd1 /media/revolution/data ext4 defaults 0 0

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Solution

Find the UUID for /dev/sdb1 with

blkid

Then edit your fstab and add the UUID and the mount options rw,auto,user,exec.

# /media/revolution/data was on /dev/sdb1
UUID=xxxxxxxxxxxxx  /media/revolution/data  ext4   rw,auto,user,exec   0      2

• rw = read/write
• auto= automount at boot
• user= any user can mount/access the directory
• exec= allows executables to run

Comments

[Admin]

/dev/sbd1? What is that in your fstab? Don't you mean /dev/sdb1?

[CamArmstrong]

That fixed it - thanks for your help, and your clear explanation of what each option does.

[Organic Marble]

What does this add to the existing accepted answer?

[Franj]

I cant add a comment on the answer, and the command its not complete.