I have used a BlacX box with a number of external harddrives to store my files over the years. I have been able to access the data on these harddrives with my Linux Pop_OS with no problem. I purchased a Seagate HD and it would not be recognized so I returned it thinking it was defective. I purchased another one, 2TB, and it also was not recognized so I was pretty sure it was not formatted correctly. I have read instructions on this forum and formatted the HD using Discs. Apparently I did something wrong because it still doesn’t show up in my Files. When I find it in Discs it says “mounted at Filesystem Root.” How do I get it to live in my user section please? I am not good with terminal commands yet. I have included some screen shots.
I have some ideas.
First, confirm the file system format of your external hard drive. Open the “Disks” utility and select your external hard drive from the left-hand side panel. In the main window, look for the “Partition Type” or “File System” entry. It should indicate the file system format (e.g., NTFS, FAT32, exFAT). Note down the file system format.
Mount the hard drive in your user section: If the external hard drive is currently mounted at the Filesystem Root, try remounting it in your user section.
Open a terminal window.
Create a directory where you want to mount the external hard drive. For example, you can use the following command to create a directory named “external” in your user’s home directory:
Copy
mkdir ~/external
Next, you can try remounting the external hard drive to the directory you just created using the following command:
Copy
sudo mount -t <file_system_format> /dev/sdX1 ~/external
Replace <file_system_format> with the actual file system format of your external hard drive (e.g., ntfs, fat32) and /dev/sdX1 with the appropriate device identifier for your external hard drive. Be careful to select the correct device identifier to avoid accidentally modifying other drives.
After running the command, check if your external hard drive is accessible in your user section by opening the “Files” application and navigating to the “external” directory.
Automount the hard drive: If you want the external hard drive to be automatically mounted in your user section every time you start your computer, you can configure it to do so. Here’s how:
Open a terminal window.
Edit the /etc/fstab file using a text editor like Nano with the following command:
Copy
sudo nano /etc/fstab
At the end of the file, add a new line with the following information:
Copy
UUID= /home/<your_username>/external <file_system_format> defaults 0 0
Replace with the UUID of your external hard drive. To find the UUID, you can use the sudo blkid command. Replace <your_username> with your actual username, and <file_system_format> with the actual file system format of your external hard drive.
Save the changes (in Nano, press Ctrl+O, then Enter) and exit the text editor (in Nano, press Ctrl+X).
Restart your computer, and the external hard drive should be automatically mounted in your user section.
Thank you for your help. I immediately ran into a problem. Please see the screen shot from today. I had previously posted the wrong view on my initial post for the image I received after trying to format. All it says is “Free Space 2.0 TB”. If I look at another entry from the left hand side panel I see where I would normally find the information you refer to, such as Partition type. I also see it tells me where the contents are mounted. But I see non of this when I select this new external drive.
I can click on the “+” symbol and it will allow me to create a partition. See screenshot.
Then if I choose to create a partition of 1 GB and press Next I have the choices in the next screen shot. I did not proceed further.
Were you able to get your disk mounted? At the point you left off, I would select the EXT4 filesystem format.
Thank you Narcosis for following up. I have included a screen shot. Apparently it is now an EXT 4 file system however it is mounted at Root. How do I get it under my user profile so I can back up my files please?
If you can, bring up a Terminal and type “mount”, then “df -h” and share a screen shot of the output of those 2 commands.
