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Category : software

Do you have a second partition you want to automount a boot? Then this is the place for you. I’ll be using the same VM as in other tutorials.

Software used:

1. Creating a mount point

What is a mount point? A typically empty directory, accessible on the current filesystem where an additional filesystem is mounted.

Just open a terminal (Ctrl + Alt + T) and type:

mkdir <name>

Remember the name, we will use it later. This creates a directory in your home folder.

2. Identifying the partition

Next, type:

sudo fdisk -l

And identify the partition you want to mount.

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In my case the partition is /dev/sdb1.

3. Writing a fstab entry

What is fstab?

The configuration file /etc/fstab contains the necessary information to automate the process of mounting partitions. In a nutshell, mounting is the process where a raw (physical) partition is prepared for access and assigned a location on the file system tree (or mount point). More info: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Fstab

First I highly recommend creating a backup:

cp /etc/fstab fstab.bk

This creates the backup file fstab.bk in your current directory.

Now, open it up for editing:

sudo nano /etc/fstab

 

The line I added for my drive:

/dev/sdb /home/tzeny/DriveMount ext4 defaults 0 2

Tells fstab to:

  • Try to mount a partition located at /dev/sdb
  • Mount it to /home/tzeny/DriveMount (I created DriveMount in my home directory; if you do the same change this to /home//DriveMount)
  • Partition filesystem type is ext4 (Modify this if you have another filesystem)
  • Use default options
  • The first 0 is for dump backup utility, leave it to 0
  • The 2 means check this partition for defects every reboot (a highly recommended option)

Now reboot, and type:

mount

This should show you all of the mounted devices, including the one you just added.

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And as you can see our drive is mounted.