Attach disk on boot in linux

auto mounting partitions is very easy in linux with the disk utility which have a nice gui explaining everyting.

but now i am going to show you a staright forward process of automonting partitions by editing /etc/fstab file.

Attach disk on boot in linux

this tutorial is not solely for automounting but how to edit fstab efficiently and gaining some knowledge about it.

steps:

1. sudo gedit /etc/fstab

2. now the fstab file is open in gedit. you need to add an entry for the partition to automount it at startup.

the format of a new entry is like this:

file_system mount_point type options dump pass

you will see this in the file and you need to add your new entry under this line.

brief explanation of the above format:

1.file_system = your device id.

use this:

/dev/sdax ( you should check it with sudo fdisk -l)

it may be /dev/sdbx or /dev/sdcx if you have more than one disks connected.

2. mount_point =where you want to mount your partition.

use this:

/media/user/label

here user is your user name, label is "software", "movies" or whatever label your partiton have.

3. type=fat32,ntfs, ntfs-3g,ext2,ext4 or whatever your partition type is.

4. options =mount options for the partition(explained later).

5. dump=Enable or disable backing up of the device/partition .usually set to 0, which disables it.

6. pass =Controls the order in which fsck checks the device/partition for errors at boot time. The root device should be 1. Other partitions should be 2, or 0 to disable checking.

so for auto mounting case the above format reduces to:

/dev/sdax /media/user/label type options 0 0

(you can check the type with sudo fdisk -l)

the options field:

sync/async - All I/O to the file system should be done synchronously/asynchronously.
auto/noauto - The filesystem will be mounted automatically at startup/The filesystem will NOT be automatically mounted at startup.
dev/nodev - Interpret/Do not interpret character or block special devices on the file system.
exec / noexec - Permit/Prevent the execution of binaries from the filesystem.
suid/nosuid - Permit/Block the operation of suid, and sgid bits.
ro/rw - Mount read-only/Mount read-write.
user/nouser - Permit any user to mount the filesystem. (This automatically implies noexec, nosuid,nodev unless overridden) / Only permit root to mount the filesystem. This is also a default setting.
defaults - Use default settings. Equivalent to rw, suid, dev, exec, auto, nouser, async.
_netdev - this is a network device, mount it after bringing up the network. Only valid with fstype nfs.
now the final format reduces to (for auto mount):

/dev/sdax /media/user/label type defaults 0 0

for ntfs

/dev/sdax /media/user/label ntfs defaults 0 0

for ext4

/dev/sdax /media/user/label ext4 defaults 0 0

etc.....

you can change defaults by your own configuration, like

/dev/sdax /media/user/label ext4 rw,suid,dev,noexec,auto,user,async 0 0

etc...

you need to add entry for each partiton you want to auto mount.

3. save and exit the file then restart and see the result.