Linux offers flexible options for managing storage, including mounting drives manually or automatically at boot. Whether you’re using internal hard drives, SSDs, or external USB storage, understanding how to mount drives is essential for efficient system administration.

📁 What Is Mounting in Linux?

In Linux, mounting is the process of making a filesystem accessible at a certain point in the directory tree. Unlike Windows (which uses drive letters), Linux uses mount points like /mnt or /media.

🔌 How to Mount a Drive Manually

1. Identify the drive:
   
   

   sudo fdisk -l
   

   Look for something like /dev/sdb1.

2. Create a mount point:
   
   

   sudo mkdir /mnt/mydrive
   

3. Mount the drive:
   
   

   sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/mydrive
   

4. Access your files:Navigate to /mnt/mydrive to view the contents.
5. Unmount (when done):
   
   

   sudo umount /mnt/mydrive
   

🔁 How to Automount Drives at Boot (Using /etc/fstab)

1. Find the UUID of the drive:

   sudo blkid
   

2. Edit /etc/fstab:Open the file using:

   sudo nano /etc/fstab
   

3. Add an entry like this:

   UUID=xxxx-xxxx  /mnt/mydrive  ext4  defaults  0  2
   

   Replace UUID=xxxx-xxxx with your actual UUID, and ext4 with your file system type (e.g., ntfs, vfat).

4. Test the configuration:
   
   

   sudo mount -a
   

📦 Automounting External Drives with udevil or udisksctl

For desktop systems:

• GNOME and KDE automatically handle USB devices via udisks2.
• CLI tools like udisksctl or udevil can also be used.

Example:

udisksctl mount -b /dev/sdb1

✅ Best Practices

• Always unmount external drives before removing them.
• Use UUIDs in /etc/fstab instead of device names (/dev/sdb1) to avoid conflicts.
• For NTFS or FAT32, install ntfs-3g or dosfstools packages.