- How to manually mount a partition?
- 2 Answers 2
- Create mount point directory
- Mount the partition to the new directory
- Unmount the partition
- Script method
- How to mount disk and partition in Linux
- Steps to mount a disk or partition in Linux:
- How to Create Partitions in Linux
- Option 1: Partition a Disk Using parted Command
- Step 1: List Partitions
- Step 2: Open Storage Disk
- Step 3: Make a Partition Table
- Step 4: Check Table
- Step 5: Create Partition
- Option 2: Partition a Disk Using fdisk Command
- Step 1: List Existing Partitions
- Step 2: Select Storage Disk
- Step 3: Create a New Partition
- Step 4: Write on Disk
- Format the Partition
- Mount the Partition
How to manually mount a partition?
There are many questions on automatically mounting or problems encountered during mounting that I’ve read here. But none on how to manually mount a partition.
2 Answers 2
The first step is to list all your partitions to find the one you want to mount:
$ lsblk -o NAME,FSTYPE,LABEL,SIZE,MOUNTPOINT NAME FSTYPE LABEL SIZE MOUNTPOINT sdb 14.4G ├─sdb4 iso9660 Ubuntu 18.04 LTS amd64 1.4G /media/rick/Ubuntu 18.04 LTS amd64 ├─sdb2 1M ├─sdb5 ext4 casper-rw 6.4G /media/rick/casper-rw ├─sdb3 vfat usbboot 244M └─sdb1 ntfs usbdata 6.4G /media/rick/usbdata sr0 1024M sda 931.5G ├─sda4 ntfs WINRETOOLS 450M ├─sda2 128M ├─sda5 ntfs Image 11.4G ├─sda3 ntfs HGST_Win10 919G /mnt/d └─sda1 vfat ESP 500M nvme0n1 477G ├─nvme0n1p5 ext4 NVMe_Ubuntu_16.0 44.6G / ├─nvme0n1p3 16M ├─nvme0n1p1 ntfs 450M ├─nvme0n1p8 ext4 Ubuntu18.04 23.7G ├─nvme0n1p6 swap Linux Swap 7.9G [SWAP] ├─nvme0n1p4 ntfs NVMe_Win10 391.2G /mnt/c ├─nvme0n1p2 vfat 99M /boot/efi └─nvme0n1p7 ntfs Shared_WSL+Linux 9G /mnt/e
For this example, we will mount nvme0n1p8 which has the label Ubuntu18.04 . To credit sources, we’ll be following this article as a guide.
Create mount point directory
The next step is to create a directory under /mnt that the newly mounted partition will be referred to as:
Mount the partition to the new directory
The final step is to mount the partition to the new directory:
$ sudo mount -t auto -v /dev/nvme0n1p8 /mnt/Ubuntu18.04 /dev/nvme0n1p8 mounted on /mnt/Ubuntu18.04.
Notice we prepend /dev/ to the names provided by lsblk above.
Now let’s see what we’ve just mounted:
$ ll /mnt/Ubuntu18.04 total 24 drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Apr 26 17:00 ./ drwxr-xr-x 6 root root 4096 Apr 27 20:51 ../ drwx------ 2 root root 16384 Apr 26 17:00 lost+found/
lost_found is needed for fschk command (File System check). It is automatically created and normally we don’t have to «fiddle» with it.
Unmount the partition
When we are finished we can unmount the partition using the -l parameter which safely unmounts the partition:
$ sudo umount /dev/nvme0n1p8 -l
Script method
A script to mount partition is available in this answer:
This screen appears tailored to your unique machine environment:
How to mount disk and partition in Linux
To use the data stored on a disk or partition in Linux, you need to mount it to a folder or mount point. After it’s mounted, you can explore the filesystem and read or write files and folders.
You can choose to manually mount disks and partitions whenever necessary, or you can set them to mount automatically when your system starts by creating an entry in the /etc/fstab file. You can mount the disk or partition using its device name, label, or UUID.
Steps to mount a disk or partition in Linux:
$ lsblk NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT loop0 7:0 0 55.4M 1 loop /snap/core18/1944 loop1 7:1 0 55.4M 1 loop /snap/core18/1932 loop2 7:2 0 217.9M 1 loop /snap/gnome-3-34-1804/60 loop3 7:3 0 219M 1 loop /snap/gnome-3-34-1804/66 loop4 7:4 0 64.8M 1 loop /snap/gtk-common-themes/1514 loop5 7:5 0 51M 1 loop /snap/snap-store/518 loop6 7:6 0 62.1M 1 loop /snap/gtk-common-themes/1506 loop7 7:7 0 51M 1 loop /snap/snap-store/498 loop8 7:8 0 31.1M 1 loop /snap/snapd/10707 loop9 7:9 0 31.1M 1 loop /snap/snapd/10492 sda 8:0 0 20G 0 disk ├─sda1 8:1 0 1M 0 part ├─sda2 8:2 0 513M 0 part /boot/efi └─sda3 8:3 0 19.5G 0 part / sdb 8:16 0 20G 0 disk └─sdb1 8:17 0 20G 0 part sr0 11:0 1 1024M 0 rom
$ blkid /dev/sdb1 /dev/sdb1: UUID="ccab0f8d-3b5b-4189-9da3-23c49159c318" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="c088a647-01"
$ sudo mount -t ext4 /dev/sdb1 disk [sudo] password for user:
$ df -h Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on tmpfs 391M 1.8M 389M 1% /run /dev/sda3 20G 7.1G 12G 39% / tmpfs 2.0G 0 2.0G 0% /dev/shm tmpfs 5.0M 0 5.0M 0% /run/lock tmpfs 4.0M 0 4.0M 0% /sys/fs/cgroup /dev/sda2 512M 7.8M 505M 2% /boot/efi tmpfs 391M 112K 391M 1% /run/user/1000 /dev/sdb1 20G 45M 19G 1% /home/user/disk
/dev/sdb1 /home/user/disk ext4 defaults 0 0
$ df -h Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on tmpfs 391M 1.8M 389M 1% /run /dev/sda3 20G 7.1G 12G 39% / tmpfs 2.0G 0 2.0G 0% /dev/shm tmpfs 5.0M 0 5.0M 0% /run/lock tmpfs 4.0M 0 4.0M 0% /sys/fs/cgroup /dev/sda2 512M 7.8M 505M 2% /boot/efi tmpfs 391M 112K 391M 1% /run/user/1000 /dev/sdb1 20G 45M 19G 1% /home/user/disk
Author: Mohd Shakir Zakaria
Mohd Shakir Zakaria, a proficient cloud architect, is deeply rooted in development, entrepreneurship, and open-source advocacy. As the founder of Simplified Guide, he combines these passions to help others navigate the intricate world of computing. His expertise simplifies complex tech concepts, making them accessible to everyone. Discuss the article:
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How to Create Partitions in Linux
Creating disk partitions enables you to split your hard drive into multiple sections that act independently.
In Linux, users must structure storage devices (USB and hard drives) before using them. Partitioning is also useful when you are installing multiple operating systems on a single machine.
In this step-by-step tutorial, you will learn how to create a partition using the Linux parted or fdisk command.
- A system running Linux
- A user account with sudo or root privileges
- Access to a terminal window / command line (Activities >Search >Terminal)
Option 1: Partition a Disk Using parted Command
Follow the steps below to partition a disk in Linux by using the parted command.
Step 1: List Partitions
Before making a partition, list available storage devices and partitions. This action helps identify the storage device you want to partition.
Run the following command with sudo to list storage devices and partitions:
The terminal prints out available storage devices with information about:
- Model – Model of the storage device.
- Disk – Name and size of the disk.
- Sectorsize – Logical and physical size of the memory. Not to be confused with available disk space.
- PartitionTable – Partition table type (msdos, gpt, aix, amiga, bsd, dvh, mac, pc98, sun, and loop).
- DiskFlags – Partitions with information on size, type, file system, and flags.
- Primary – Holds the operating system files. Only four primary partitions can be created.
- Extended – Special type of partition in which more than the four primary partitions can be created.
- Logical – Partition that has been created inside of an extended partition.
In our example, there are two storage devices ( /dev/sda and /dev/sdb ):
Note: The first storage disk ( dev/sda or dev/vda ) contains the operating system. Creating a partition on this disk can make your system unbootable. Only create partitions on secondary disks ( dev/sdb , dev/sdc , dev/vdb , or dev/vdc ).
Step 2: Open Storage Disk
Open the storage disk that you intend to partition by running the following command:
Always specify the storage device. If you don’t specify a disk name, the disk is randomly selected. To change the disk to dev/sdb run:
The dev/sdb disk is open:
Step 3: Make a Partition Table
Create a partition table before partitioning the disk. A partition table is located at the start of a hard drive and it stores data about the size and location of each partition.
Partition table types are: aix, amiga, bsd, dvh, gpt, mac, ms-dos, pc98, sun, and loop.
The create a partition table, enter the following:
mklabel [partition_table_type]
For example, to create a gpt partition table, run the following command:
Type Yes to execute:
Note: The two most commonly used partition table types are gpt and msdos. The latter supports up to sixteen partitions and formats up to 16TB of space while gpt formats up to 9.4ZB and supports up to 128 partitions.
Step 4: Check Table
Run the print command to review the partition table. The output displays information about the storage device:
Note: Run help mkpart command to get additional help on how to create a new partition.
Step 5: Create Partition
Let’s make a new 1854MB-partition using the ext4 file system. The assigned disk start shall be 1MB and the disk end is at 1855MB.
To create a new partition, enter the following:
mkpart primary ext4 1MB 1855MB
After that, run the print command to review information on the newly created partition. The information is displayed under the Disk Flags section:
In a gpt partition table, the partition type is the mandatory partition name. In our example, primary is the name of the partition, not the partition type.
To save your actions and quit, enter the quit command. Changes are saved automatically with this command.
Note: The “You may need to update /etc/fstab file” message signals that the partition can be mounted automatically at boot time.
Option 2: Partition a Disk Using fdisk Command
Follow the steps below to partition a disk in Linux by using the fdisk command.
Step 1: List Existing Partitions
Run the following command to list all existing partitions:
The output contains information about storage disks and partitions:
Step 2: Select Storage Disk
Select the storage disk you want to create partitions on by running the following command:
The /dev/sdb storage disk is open:
Step 3: Create a New Partition
1. Run the n command to create a new partition.
2. Select the partition number by typing the default number (2).
3. After that, you are asked for the starting and ending sector of your hard drive. It is best to type the default number in this section (3622912).
4. The last prompt is related to the size of the partition. You can choose to have several sectors or to set the size in megabytes or gigabytes. Type +2GB to set the size of the partition to 2GB.
A message appears confirming that the partition is created.
Step 4: Write on Disk
The system created the partition, but the changes are not written on the disk.
1. To write the changes on disk, run the w command:
2. Verify that the partition is created by running the following command:
As you can see, the partition /dev/sdb2 has been created.
Format the Partition
Once a partition has been created with the parted of fdisk command, format it before using it.
Format the partition by running the following command:
Note: Check out our guide and learn how to format and mount disk partitions in Linux using ext4, FAT32, or NTFS file system!
Mount the Partition
To begin interacting with the disk, create a mount point and mount the partition to it.
1. Create a mount point by running the following command:
2. After that, mount the partition by entering:
sudo mount -t auto /dev/sbd1 /mt/sdb1
The terminal does not print out an output if the commands are executed successfully.
3. Verify if partition is mounted by using the df hT command:
Note: If you have NTFS partitions on your hard drive, check out our article on how to mount NTFS partitions in Linux.
After following this step-by-step tutorial, you should have a better understanding on how to partition a disk in Linux by using the parted or fdisk command.
For more Linux commands, see our Linux Commands Cheat Sheet.
Dejan is the Head of Content at phoenixNAP with over 8 years of experience in Web publishing and technical writing. Prior to joining PNAP, he was Chief Editor of several websites striving to advocate for emerging technologies. He is dedicated to simplifying complex notions and providing meaningful insight into data center and cloud technology.
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