How to Mount a Drive in Linux

adding a new hard drive or accessing an external USB drive, mounting a drive in Linux is a basic yet essential skill. Mounting a drive means making its file system accessible to the operating system. In this post, we’ll walk through the steps of mounting a drive in Linux, step-by-step.

What Does Mounting a Drive Mean?

In Linux, mounting is the process of attaching a storage device (like a hard drive, USB stick, or external drive) to a specific directory, known as the mount point. After mounting, you can access the files on that drive just like any other directory on your system.

Step 1: Find the Drive

Before you can mount the drive, you need to identify it. You can use the lsblk command, which lists all block devices (disks and partitions) connected to your system.

Run the following command in the terminal:

lsblk

You might see something like this:

NAME   MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda      8:0    0  100G  0 disk 
├─sda1   8:1    0  100G  0 part /mnt/mydrive
sdb      8:16   0  500G  0 disk 
├─sdb1   8:17   0  500G  0 part 

In this example:

• sda and sdb are the drives.
• sda1 and sdb1 are partitions on those drives.
• The MOUNTPOINT column shows where the drive or partition is mounted (if it’s already mounted).

Step 2: Create a Mount Point

Next, you’ll need a directory where the drive will be mounted. This is known as a mount point. You can create a new directory using the mkdir command:

sudo mkdir /mnt/mydrive

In this case, we’ve created a directory called mydrive in /mnt. You can choose any path and name that fits your preference.

Step 3: Mount the Drive

Now you’re ready to mount the drive. Use the mount command to mount a partition (e.g., sdb1) to the mount point directory (/mnt/mydrive):

sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/mydrive

After running this command, the partition sdb1 is now accessible at /mnt/mydrive. You can navigate to this directory and interact with the files stored on the drive.

Step 4: Verify the Mount

To check if the drive has been successfully mounted, you can use the df -h command, which displays all mounted file systems:

df -h

You should see something like this:

Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1        50G   20G   30G  40% /mnt/mydrive

This confirms that the drive is mounted and available.

Step 5: Unmount the Drive

When you’re done using the drive and want to safely remove it, you should unmount it. Use the umount command followed by the mount point or the device name:

sudo umount /mnt/mydrive

Alternatively, you can use the device name:

sudo umount /dev/sdb1

After unmounting, you can safely disconnect the drive from your system.

Step 6: Automate Mounting (Optional)

If you want the drive to mount automatically every time your system boots, you can edit the /etc/fstab file. This file lists all file systems that should be mounted automatically.

1. Open the file in a text editor:sudo nano /etc/fstab
2. Add a line for your drive at the end of the file. For example:/dev/sdb1 /mnt/mydrive ext4 defaults 0 2 This assumes that the drive is formatted with the ext4 file system. If you’re using a different file system (like ntfs or vfat), replace ext4 with the appropriate type.
3. Save and close the file. Now, every time the system boots, the drive will automatically be mounted to /mnt/mydrive.