Fstab – How to Mount a New Drive on Startup

fstab

I have recently installed a new hard drive to my Ubuntu 10.0.4 box. I used System -> Administration -> Disk Utils to format the disk (ext4 file type) – but did not create a partition (is this advisable?).

I have manually mounted the drive as /mydata.

I want to have the machine automatically mount the device on startup/reboot. How may I do this?

[[Update]]

This is the output from running sudo fdisk -l on my system:

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000858bf

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1       59334   476595200   83  Linux
/dev/sda2           59334       60802    11789313    5  Extended
/dev/sda5           59334       60802    11789312   82  Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/sdb: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/sdb doesn't contain a valid partition table

Disk /dev/sdc: 16.0 GB, 16026435072 bytes
254 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1956 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16002 * 512 = 8193024 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdc1               1        1955    15641929    c  W95 FAT32 (LBA)

Best Answer

First of all your /dev/sdb isn't partitioned. I am assuming this is the disk you want to mount.

WARNING: THIS WILL DESTROY ANY DATA ON YOUR TARGET DISK

Run sudo fdisk /dev/sdb

  1. Press O and press Enter (creates a new table)

  2. Press N and press Enter (creates a new partition)

  3. Press P and press Enter (makes a primary partition)

  4. Then press 1 and press Enter (creates it as the 1st partition)

  5. Finally, press W (this will write any changes to disk)

Okay now you have a partition, now you need a filesystem.

  1. Run sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdb1

  2. Now you can add it to fstab

    You need to add it to /etc/fstab use your favourite text editor

    Be careful with this file as it can quite easily cause your system not to boot.

    Add a line for the drive, the format would look like this.

    This assumes the partition is formatted as ext4 as per mkfs above

    #device        mountpoint             fstype    options  dump   fsck

/dev/sdb1    /home/yourname/mydata    ext4    defaults    0    1

Then on the next reboot it will auto mount.

This web page has a lot of useful info on fstab

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