Linux – How to mount an external USB drive on Linux read-only

linuxmountread-only

I need to restore a directory on a Linux (CentOS) file server from an external USB drive. It's the only copy, and I don't want to risk any of the data being altered on it by some mistake with rsync or whatever.

How can I mount an external USB drive on Linux in read-only, just for the temporary purposes of copying the files off of it?

This is how it looks normally in /etc/fstab:

/dev/usblaciexl1        /backup     ext3    noauto,defaults 0 0

Best Answer

mount /dev/usblaciexl1 /backup -o ro

should be sufficient.

You can also do (do not confuse if and of, read man dd carefuly)

dd if=/dev/usblaciexl1 of=/home/user/backup
mount /home/user/backup /backup

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UNIX – mount: only root can do that

When mounting a volume as a regular user, you only need to provide the mount point name, i.e.:

mount /mnt/sdcard

The /etc/fstab file provides the device that will be used.

Linux – Detect and mount external usb drive – Linux (Debian)

Mounting external hard drive on boot can be very tricky, troublesome operation. First, it adds delay to the boot sequence, then the drive has to be recognized and mounted. Imagine, if for some reason, the OS can't find the drive. It will get stuck at its boot sequence, waiting for the user to tell it to continue or not. You don't want this to happen.

What you need is autofs. Just apt-get install autofs and configure automounts -> create an entry for this drive in /etc/auto.master.

Example: /mnt /etc/auto.mnt --timeout=120 --ghost; Then in /etc/auto.mnt put: ``backup -fstype=ntfs,rw UUID=

Best Answer

Related Solutions

UNIX – mount: only root can do that

Linux – Detect and mount external usb drive – Linux (Debian)

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