Mounting a storage device on to a file-system
-
Issue:
- I installed Ubuntu 19.10 to my desktop, which has 2 drives, a 500 GB SSD and a 1TB HDD.
- While installing Ubuntu I just chose the 500 GB SSD for Ubuntu, hence when using my computer now I just cannot see the 1TB disk available for use anywhere.
- In file explorer, if I look into Properties of the
Home
directory I see just approximately 500GB. Whereas looking into About of the Settings shows 1.5TB.
-
Groundwork:
- I checked file-systems usage with
df -h
, we see that the below sizes sum up to a ball park of 500GB.
(base) mrigank@mrigank:/etc$ df -h Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on udev 12G 0 12G 0% /dev tmpfs 2.4G 2.0M 2.4G 1% /run /dev/sdb2 457G 62G 373G 15% / tmpfs 12G 457M 12G 4% /dev/shm tmpfs 5.0M 4.0K 5.0M 1% /run/lock tmpfs 12G 0 12G 0% /sys/fs/cgroup /dev/loop3 68M 68M 0 100% /snap/sublime-text/85 /dev/loop2 4.3M 4.3M 0 100% /snap/gnome-calculator/501 /dev/loop4 161M 161M 0 100% /snap/gnome-3-28-1804/116 /dev/loop0 15M 15M 0 100% /snap/gnome-characters/495 /dev/loop5 143M 143M 0 100% /snap/code/31 /dev/loop1 164M 164M 0 100% /snap/spotify/41 /dev/loop6 55M 55M 0 100% /snap/core18/1705 /dev/loop7 150M 150M 0 100% /snap/gnome-3-28-1804/71 /dev/loop8 1.0M 1.0M 0 100% /snap/gnome-logs/93 /dev/loop9 94M 94M 0 100% /snap/core/8935 /dev/loop10 143M 143M 0 100% /snap/slack/23 /dev/loop11 1.0M 1.0M 0 100% /snap/gnome-logs/81 /dev/loop12 15M 15M 0 100% /snap/gnome-characters/317 /dev/loop13 4.4M 4.4M 0 100% /snap/gnome-calculator/704 /dev/loop14 63M 63M 0 100% /snap/gtk-common-themes/1506 /dev/loop15 55M 55M 0 100% /snap/gtk-common-themes/1502 /dev/loop17 94M 94M 0 100% /snap/core/9066 /dev/loop16 143M 143M 0 100% /snap/slack/22 /dev/loop18 55M 55M 0 100% /snap/core18/1668 /dev/loop19 141M 141M 0 100% /snap/code/30 /dev/sdb1 511M 9.1M 502M 2% /boot/efi tmpfs 2.4G 24K 2.4G 1% /run/user/124 tmpfs 2.4G 96K 2.4G 1% /run/user/1000
- As we cannot find where is my 1TB device lost with above command, we use
lsblk
, and here it is. We see a device namedsda
of ~1TB space and clearly it should be the one we are looking for.
(base) mrigank@mrigank:/etc$ lsblk NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT loop0 7:0 0 14.8M 1 loop /snap/gnome-characters/495 loop1 7:1 0 163.7M 1 loop /snap/spotify/41 loop2 7:2 0 4.2M 1 loop /snap/gnome-calculator/501 loop3 7:3 0 67.6M 1 loop /snap/sublime-text/85 loop4 7:4 0 160.2M 1 loop /snap/gnome-3-28-1804/116 loop5 7:5 0 142.9M 1 loop /snap/code/31 loop6 7:6 0 55M 1 loop /snap/core18/1705 loop7 7:7 0 149.9M 1 loop /snap/gnome-3-28-1804/71 loop8 7:8 0 956K 1 loop /snap/gnome-logs/93 loop9 7:9 0 93.8M 1 loop /snap/core/8935 loop10 7:10 0 142.2M 1 loop /snap/slack/23 loop11 7:11 0 956K 1 loop /snap/gnome-logs/81 loop12 7:12 0 14.8M 1 loop /snap/gnome-characters/317 loop13 7:13 0 4.3M 1 loop /snap/gnome-calculator/704 loop14 7:14 0 62.1M 1 loop /snap/gtk-common-themes/1506 loop15 7:15 0 54.8M 1 loop /snap/gtk-common-themes/1502 loop16 7:16 0 142.2M 1 loop /snap/slack/22 loop17 7:17 0 93.9M 1 loop /snap/core/9066 loop18 7:18 0 54.7M 1 loop /snap/core18/1668 loop19 7:19 0 140.2M 1 loop /snap/code/30 sda 8:0 0 931.5G 0 disk sdb 8:16 0 465.8G 0 disk ├─sdb1 8:17 0 512M 0 part /boot/efi └─sdb2 8:18 0 465.3G 0 part /
- The command
sudo fdisk -l
will list the the drives and their partitions for us.- Scrolling down we find device named
/dev/sda
which is of concern right now, whereas for/dev/sdb
you see the partitions information available. - We will have to create new partition for
/dev/sda
- Scrolling down we find device named
(base) mrigank@mrigank:/$ sudo fdisk -l [sudo] password for mrigank: Disk /dev/sda: 931.53 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors Disk model: ST1000DM003-1SB1 Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes Disklabel type: gpt Disk identifier: 8BBAFF6A-AC43-4365-9794-F32A35393EA3 Disk /dev/sdb: 465.78 GiB, 500107862016 bytes, 976773168 sectors Disk model: Samsung SSD 850 Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disklabel type: gpt Disk identifier: C3CADC26-E36E-4796-B118-4288464233B6 Device Start End Sectors Size Type /dev/sdb1 2048 1050623 1048576 512M EFI System /dev/sdb2 1050624 976771071 975720448 465.3G Linux filesystem
- I checked file-systems usage with
-
Creating a new partition for
/dev/sda
- We use fdisk to create partition with this command
sudo fdisk /dev/sda
- When fdisk prompts for a command,
p
would print the partition table for out hard drive, which doesn’t exist for/dev/sda
right now.
(base) mrigank@mrigank:~$ sudo fdisk /dev/sda Welcome to fdisk (util-linux 2.34). Changes will remain in memory only, until you decide to write them. Be careful before using the write command. Command (m for help): p Disk /dev/sda: 931.53 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors Disk model: ST1000DM003-1SB1 Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes Disklabel type: gpt Disk identifier: 8BBAFF6A-AC43-4365-9794-F32A35393EA3
- For a new partition press
n
and themp
for primary partition. And when asked for partition number press1
- Press
Enter
for First sector and Last sector to accept the default value - Although
fdisk
confirms that it has created a 1TB Linux partition, which is partition number 1, nothing has changed on the hard drive yet. Until you givefdisk
the command to write the changes to the drive, the drive is untouched. Once you are certain you’re happy with our choices, press the letterw
to write the changes to the drive. Andq
for quitting the fdisk prompt.
(base) mrigank@mrigank:~$ sudo fdisk /dev/sda Welcome to fdisk (util-linux 2.34). Changes will remain in memory only, until you decide to write them. Be careful before using the write command. Command (m for help): n Partition number (1-128, default 1): 1 First sector (34-1953525134, default 2048): Last sector, +/-sectors or +/-size{K,M,G,T,P} (2048-1953525134, default 1953525134): Created a new partition 1 of type 'Linux filesystem' and of size 931.5 GiB. Partition #1 contains a ntfs signature. Do you want to remove the signature? [Y]es/[N]o: N Command (m for help): w The partition table has been altered. Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table. Syncing disks.
- Check is now the
fdisk
command prints the partition table for/dev/sda
(base) mrigank@mrigank:~$ sudo fdisk /dev/sda Welcome to fdisk (util-linux 2.34). Changes will remain in memory only, until you decide to write them. Be careful before using the write command. Command (m for help): p Disk /dev/sda: 931.53 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors Disk model: ST1000DM003-1SB1 Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes Disklabel type: gpt Disk identifier: 8BBAFF6A-AC43-4365-9794-F32A35393EA3 Device Start End Sectors Size Type /dev/sda1 2048 1953525134 1953523087 931.5G Linux filesystem Command (m for help): q
- Also we can now see an new partition
/dev/sda1
inlsblk
(base) mrigank@mrigank:~$ lsblk NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT . . . loop20 7:20 0 2.4M 1 loop /snap/gnome-calculator/730 sda 8:0 0 931.5G 0 disk └─sda1 8:1 0 931.5G 0 part sdb 8:16 0 465.8G 0 disk ├─sdb1 8:17 0 512M 0 part /boot/efi └─sdb2 8:18 0 465.3G 0 part /
- We use fdisk to create partition with this command
-
Create a file-system on the new Partition
- We need to create a file-system on the newly created partition
/dev/sda
, using commandmkfs
. - Be careful to write
/dev/sda1
insudo mkfs -t ext4 /dev/sda1
- The file-system created or the drive is of
ntfs
format, so the below error. We must alter our command accordingly
(base) mrigank@mrigank:~$ sudo mkfs -t ext4 /dev/sda1 mke2fs 1.45.3 (14-Jul-2019) /dev/sda1 contains a ntfs file system labelled 'BULGOGI' Proceed anyway? (y,N) N
- Instead if we use
sudo mkfs -t ntfs /dev/sda1
(base) mrigank@mrigank:~$ sudo mkfs -t ntfs /dev/sda1 Cluster size has been automatically set to 4096 bytes. Initializing device with zeroes: 4%
- After 110 minutes later 100% done
(base) mrigank@mrigank:~$ sudo mkfs -t ntfs /dev/sda1 Cluster size has been automatically set to 4096 bytes. Initializing device with zeroes: 100% - Done. Creating NTFS volume structures. mkntfs completed successfully. Have a nice day.
- We need to create a file-system on the newly created partition
-
Mounting the New Drive
- We must mount the partition
/dev/sda1
on the new drive/dev/sda
to a mount point in the file-system. - We’re going to use the
mount
command to mount the filesystem on the first partition on/dev/sdb
, at/mnt
. sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt
sudo umount /mnt
- Add
/mnt
as bookmarks in file explorer.
- We must mount the partition
- Motivated by.