To use a drive on Linux, you need to mount it first. Follow these instructions:
The simple way:
1.
Go to Red Hat menu > System Tools > KDiskFree
2.
Connect the drive (you should see the drive appear in a new row)
3.
Right‐click the drive and choose Mount Device
4.
When you’re done with the drive, right‐click it and choose Unmount Device before unplugging it
The Power User way:
If you don’t know what the label name is, or if there are multiple partitions, check out the system log:
1.
Login as root: su
2.
Enter your password
3.
Display the system log interactively: tail –f /var/log/messages
4.
Plug in the drive again
The system log will show you the device name ( /dev/sdk1 or similar)
& it might also show you the label name ( /mnt/usbdisk1 or similar).
If there are multiple partitions, the will be numbered sequentially (/dev/sdk1, /dev/sdk2, etc.)
5.
Press Ctrl+C to interrupt the system log.
6.
If the label name appears, mount it: mount /mnt/<label name>
If you can see the device name, but not the label name, create a mount point and then mount:
1.
Go to the mount directory: cd /mnt
2.
Create a mount point (the directory where the drive will appear): mkdir <drive_name>
Example: mkdir /mnt/usbdisk
3.
Mount the drive’s device name onto the mount point: mount /dev/<device_name> <mount_point_you_just_created>
example: mount /dev/sdk1 usbdisk
4.
The drive contents appear at the mount point
If you don’t have write access to the drive, change its permissions:
•
Type chmod ‐R 777 <mount_point_name> example: chmod –R 777 /mnt/usbdisk
To check the size and space remaining on your drives:
•
Type df –h
Unmounting a Drive
Before you unplug a drive, you need to unmount it. Make sure that all programs and windows accessing the device are closed beforehand. You can use KDiskFree (see above) or use a shell.
To unmount a drive:
•
Type umount <mount_point> Example: umount /mnt/usbdisk
Mounting a CD‐Rom
•
Type mount /mnt/cdrom
Reformatting a Drive
In order to write to a drive, you may need to reformat it. Linux has different levels of support for different drives. Here is a rundown of the different filesystems:
For best compatibility, you may want to reformat a new external drive to the Linux filesystem (ext3).
This section assumes you’re using a new NTFS‐formatted drive with a single partition.
To format a drive in ext3 format:
1.
Login as root: su
2.
Display the system log interactively: tail –f /var/log/messages
3.
Plug in the drive
4.
Look in the messages log to find the device name. The device name is usually /dev/sdk1 or similar.
5.
Press Ctrl+C to interrupt the system log.
6.
Create the ext3 filesystem with a proper label name.
/sbin/mkfs.ext3 ‐L <label name you want> /dev/<partition_name>
example: /sbin/mkfs.ext3 –L MyDrive /dev/sdk1
7.
Mount the drive (see above).
Reading an ext3 (Linux) formatted drive on Windows
You cannot mount a Linux drive by default on Windows. There is a great little control panel called ext2ifs that will help you do this. Get it at http://www.fs-driver.org/.
1.
Install ext2ifs on the windows system
2.
Plug in the drive. It should appear in My Computer. If not, use the control panel to assign a drive letter.
Note that this only works if the drive has previously been properly unmounted. |
