Mount external Hard drive in Single user mode

Do any know how to mount an external hard drive in single user mode:
I've issue the following command:
/sbin/mount -uw /
mkdir /Volumes/ex1
/sbin/mount_hfs /dev/disk2s3 /Volumes/ex1
(I've checked my external hard drive using df -k showing the device is disk2s3)
Result:
Permission denied

I seem to remember the "Permission denied" or "Device busy" coming up in some situations but not others when attempting to mount drives at this early stage in "single user" mode...
It might be worth trying to run:<pre>sh /etc/rc</pre>This is actually present among the "Tiger" messages in "Single User" mode, as the procedure to continue booting but remaining in "single user" mode. Indeed, it seems to start up the usual "services" like starting disk arbitration (so you can eg. use 'diskutil' to repair permissions, or loading "NetInfo" so you don't need to work in '-raw' mode - in the past, people had posted complicated procedures for doing these things manually.
After running the 'rc' script, try creating your mount point and and running 'mount_hfs' as usual...

Similar Messages

Mount an external hard drive in single user mode

Do any know how to mount an external hard drive in single user mode:
I've issue the following command:
/sbin/mount -uw /
mkdir /Volumes/ex1
/sbin/mount_hfs /dev/disk2s3 /Volumes/ex1
(I've checked my external hard drive using df -k showing the device is disk2s3)
Result:
Permission denied

Hi leung wai,
   I wouldn't mind knowing the answer myself. I think the problem with doing it in the manner you attempted is that the device tree hasn't been created yet so the mount command is certainly not going to work. I assume that the answer is to start up enough of the system to have the device tree created. Unfortunately, I don't know where in the startup process that occurs. You could try the following command after making the boot volume writable:
/usr/libexec/registermach_bootstrapservers /etc/mach_init.d
Then check to see if the /dev virtual filesystem has been created. Of course it wouldn't surprise me if that didn't also mount your disks. If not, try the following:
/sbin/SystemStarter
It should have been created after that because at that point almost the whole system has started.
Gary
~~~~
   You've been telling me to relax all the way here, and
   now you're telling me just to be myself?
         -- The Return of the Secaucus Seven

Mounting a usb hard drive in single user mode

I've gotten as far as connecting the hard drive at boot, but I don't know how to figure out which dev is the hard drive, and which arguments to use with the mount command. I can't do much when I login, and I'm trying to cp files from my hard drive to my external hard drive through single user mode.
Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Hi leung wai,
   I wouldn't mind knowing the answer myself. I think the problem with doing it in the manner you attempted is that the device tree hasn't been created yet so the mount command is certainly not going to work. I assume that the answer is to start up enough of the system to have the device tree created. Unfortunately, I don't know where in the startup process that occurs. You could try the following command after making the boot volume writable:
/usr/libexec/registermach_bootstrapservers /etc/mach_init.d
Then check to see if the /dev virtual filesystem has been created. Of course it wouldn't surprise me if that didn't also mount your disks. If not, try the following:
/sbin/SystemStarter
It should have been created after that because at that point almost the whole system has started.
Gary
~~~~
   You've been telling me to relax all the way here, and
   now you're telling me just to be myself?
         -- The Return of the Secaucus Seven

How to mount USB & CDROM drives from single user mode - Solaris boot disk?

Hi All,
I need to carry out ufsrestore on a single newly replaced system disk (no redundancy / mirroring) from either USB or CDROM drives from the following steps:
( i ) GRUB => e, e, cdrom –s, Enter, b (boot from Solaris 10 x86 media).
( ii ) Choose menu 1 for Install Solaris Interactive Mode to reach single user mode.Below are the commands that I have tried in single user mode without success:
mount –r –F pcfs /dev/dsk/c1t0d0p0 /cdrom (after unmount Solaris CD)
mount: /dev/dsk/c1t0d0p0 is not a DOS filesystem.
svcadm –v enable smserver
svcadm: Pattern ‘smserver’ doesn’t match any instances
svcadm enable autofs
svcadm: Pattern ‘autofs’ doesn’t match any instances
devfsadm
devfsadm: mkdir failed for /dev 0s1ed: Read-only file system
mkdir /mnt
mkdir: Failed to make directory “/mnt”; Read-only file systemPart of the problem is due to the current READ ONLY filesystems which does not allow the creation of mount point such as /mnt.
I have been able to create both / root (/dev/dsk/c1t0d0s0) and /export/home (/dev/dsk/c1t0d0s0) filesystems with newfs that are awaiting for restore using ufsrestore.
The only option I am left with is to attach a secondary disk to install Solaris 10 on either of them before bring the system to multi-user mode so that service such as volmgt, autofs, volfs are available to access USB & CDROM drives.
Any suggestion on how to resolve this issue?
Many thanks,
Jack

Hi JKGN,
Is the directory a located under the root filesystem. ie /a? Are there any other mount point for say USB drive as well? I am not in a position to try it out right now but will get back
to you soon on whether /a exist or not.
Btw, the last thing I managed to do on this system at the time was added a secondary 1TB internal disk with the intention to restore both / and /export/home data onto this disk while
making use of all the disk device management services such as the following services only available in a fully installed Solaris system (both single & multi-user modes) installed on the
primary disk:
# svcs smserver
STATE          STIME    FMRI
online         Jun_08   svc:/network/rpc/smserver:default
# svcs autofs
STATE          STIME    FMRI
online         Jun_08   svc:/system/filesystem/autofs:default
# devfsadm
# iostat -En
c1t0d0           Soft Errors: 0 Hard Errors: 0 Transport Errors: 0
Vendor: ATA      Product: SAMSUNG HD321KJ Revision: 0-11 Serial No:
Size: 320.07GB <320072932864 bytes>
Media Error: 0 Device Not Ready: 0 No Device: 0 Recoverable: 0
Illegal Request: 41 Predictive Failure Analysis: 0
c0t0d0           Soft Errors: 0 Hard Errors: 5 Transport Errors: 0
Vendor: PHILIPS Product: DVD+-RW DVD8801 Revision: AD21 Serial
Size: 17.54GB <17538875392 bytes>
Media Error: 0 Device Not Ready: 5 No Device: 0 Recoverable: 0
Illegal Request: 10 Predictive Failure Analysis: 0
c2t0d0           Soft Errors: 0 Hard Errors: 0 Transport Errors: 0
Vendor: JetFlash Product: Transcend 16GB   Revision: 1100 Serial No:
Size: 0.00GB <0 bytes>
Media Error: 0 Device Not Ready: 0 No Device: 0 Recoverable: 0
Illegal Request: 7 Predictive Failure Analysis: 0
# rmformat
Looking for devices...
     1. Volmgt Node: /vol/dev/aliases/cdrom0
        Logical Node: /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s2
        Physical Node: /pci@0,0/pci-ide@1f,1/ide@0/sd@0,0
        Connected Device: PHILIPS DVD+-RW DVD8801 AD21
        Device Type: DVD Reader/WriterHowever, I was disappointed that "iostat -En" has not found the secondary disk (1 TB) even though it was available earlier, for Solaris installation as the only disk on the same system.
As a result, I am left with no option but the need to rebuild this system with only a single primary disk while in single user mode. However, the single user mode that I am in is the
one from Solaris installation disk with restrictive (_cannot create folder for mount point or running disk management utilities_) capability such as those services just covered, compared to one from a completed Solaris installation system with full access to all filesystems and utilities / commands in general.
I would very much value your assistance on how to mount both CD & USB in this restrictive limited Read Only OS (assume that it is running from memory) in order to get complete access to
the blank primary disk so that full restore with ufsrestore could take place.
Thanks in advance,
Jack
Edited by: 797805 on 9/06/2012 04:15

How do i repair my hard drive in single user mode when disk is full?

Hi there Apple Community!
I have an old Macbook Pro 17" with an upgraded 500GB harddrive and 4GB memory. I'm running Mac OSX Lion.
Was hoping you could help me out. THis is the situation:
Long story short I spilt wine on my macbook and the screen went a bit blobby. Switched it off for a few days, removed the battery etc. etc. Opened it up cleaned out as much of the wine as possible, but unfortunately some of it came in behind the LCD, so now the screen has a nice red stain. Obviously I'm not going to try to clean that out of the LCD.
My Macbook Pro still worked for a few days after that, but then my harddrive gave up. I booted in the Recovery HD menu, verified the drive and I got the error "Keys out of order - This disk needs to be repaired, click Repair Disk." I attempted to repair the disk but got the error "Keys out of order - Disk Full Error - The volume could not be repaired".
Unfortnately of this 500GB I only have about 7GB free on it, as I have a huge iPhoto and iTunes library. I did make a TIme Machine backup of my user directory, but not the system files. I don't really want to do a clean install because:
1) I'm paranoid that there's something I did not fully back up
2) I don't want to have to download the whole Mac OSX Lion again. I should have made a USB bootable backup when I had the chance. I don't have access to a broadband connection.
What I feel are my viable options, are as follows:
1) I did buy a replacement internal 500GB harddrive, so I can probably try to make an image of the hard drive to this new drive, but not sure how. I believe it's through the Disk Utility with the "New Image" option but not sure how to go from there.
2) Start up in Single User Mode and delete some unnecessary files and re-attempt to run the fschk -fy utility again (I tried this earlier and got the same Disk Full Error). - the problem with this is, I'm not familiar with the command line and have no clue how to delete files. I don't know my way around Unix.
3) I can also probably attempt to make a Ghost Image or Acronis Image of the failed drive to this new drive, but not sure if Norton Ghost or Acronis True Image will be able to read this HFS drive - I believe it's possible as it's a simple hard drive clone.
If you can guide me in the best option - probably there is a better solution than my proposed ones above, I appreciate any feedback and comments you might have!

hi Baltwo,
So I ended up copying my user folder to another harddrive. I managed to download the whole osx lion again, reinstalled, and recovered my home folder using this discussion:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1428
I have managed to get all my files back. My iTunes library works fine, but my iPhoto library when I open it, get the following error:
iPhoto cannot be opened because of a problem.
Here's the error log
Process:         iPhoto [1540]
Path:            /Applications/iPhoto.app/Contents/MacOS/iPhoto
Identifier:      com.apple.iPhoto
Version:         8.1.2 (8.1.2)
Build Info:      iPhotoProject-4240000~8
Code Type:       X86 (Native)
Parent Process: launchd [209]
Date/Time:       2012-09-19 19:56:45.528 +0200
OS Version:      Mac OS X 10.7.4 (11E53)
Report Version: 9
Sleep/Wake UUID: 7948ABE2-5294-4F87-B6E3-777095A2F2EE
Interval Since Last Report:          4780 sec
Crashes Since Last Report:           9
Per-App Crashes Since Last Report:   9
Anonymous UUID:                      70117D38-03EA-4F9C-B810-50B743864B9E
Crashed Thread: 0
Exception Type: EXC_BREAKPOINT (SIGTRAP)
Exception Codes: 0x0000000000000002, 0x0000000000000000
Application Specific Information:
dyld: launch, loading dependent libraries
Dyld Error Message:
Library not loaded: /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/iLifeSlideshow.framework/Versions/A/iLifeSlid eshow
Referenced from: /Applications/iPhoto.app/Contents/MacOS/iPhoto
Reason: image not found
I've done an Apple Software Update but it didn't find an update for iPhoto.
One thing to note is, this library was originally created on iLife 08, upgraded to '09 and it stayed on that version. It hasn't een upgraded to iLife '11. It worked fine on my previous install of OSX Lion. How do I recover the library without upgrading to '11 ?

Mounting devices as drives in single-user mode

i am having a problem with a computer that won't start up into mac osx and i am wondering about mounting an external hard drive that shows up under /dev/ but not /volumes/. i am trying to back up some files using the tar command, but i need a drive available first before i can do so. thanks in advance for any replies!

Gary,
THANK YOU!!!
The "diskutil disableJournal /" command worked and allowed me to FINALLY mount the disk via target mode. I successfully backed up my most important files. As of now, I don't know why this has worked, despite the read-only status of the disk, but it has. Once I typed the command and hit enter, I heard the hard drive spinning and doing some work for about 15 seconds. After that, nothing happened and, for some reason, I decided to force a shut down, restart the mac in target mode, and see what happened. However, I tried trashing some stuff, which locked up both computers, but I am trying the command again and being more patient with the it to see if I can do some more back up work. Even if that was a short-lived fix, it was long enough for me to back up my honors thesis, which I worked on for two years and counting. I have been working on this problem to no avail (off and on) for the past two months, so to finally see some progress has been pretty nice (understatement). whew! yeah!
again, thanks!
neal
P.S., i will do some diagnostic stuff on the disk after i attempt another disabling of journaling (fsck or the tiger dvd diskutility app). I'll keep you posted.

Format Hard Drive in Single User Mode

Hi All-
I'm having some issues with my MacBook with a bad B-Tree. I've read a lot about how to use DiskWarrior to repair it. I'm not really interested in recovering my data, but I would like to install OS X.
Those who've had a catalog issue or B-tree issue knows that fsck doesn't repair it.
I'm having an issue with the Disk Utility on the start up disk. It's having trouble reading the disk and hangs at "Gathering disk information". I would like to boot into single user more and repartition the disk, I just don't know how.
I have not had any success in finding my answer on the web, and am hoping that you can help out.
Thanks!
john

John,
Disk Utility is also available at the command line. Open Terminal and type:
<pre style="overflow:auto; font-family: 'Monaco'; font-size: 10px">man diskutil</pre>
then press <RETURN> to view the man pages. I suggest that you give those man pages a good read, then come back here if you have further questions. If you cannot get to the man pages (if you don't have a working installation of OS X), I could give you a specific command to run, but I'll need to know absolutely everything about what results you want (just "repartition" is WAY too vague).
Also, you might want to give Disk Utility another try, and give it plenty of time to handle the broken file system. Sometimes, a broken file system will become available for formatting, but only after an extended period of time (several minutes to an hour).
Scott

Mounting external drives in single-user mode?

Sigh. What were the odds of the HD on my month-old MacBook Pro and the HD on my somewhat older one (which was filling in for the moment as a backup) failing on the same night? Pretty low, I'm guessing, but that's what has happened. The Genius Bar has confirmed that the new drive is completely toast, and Apple is replacing it now, but of course they can't salvage the data. As for the old drive, while it won't boot and isn't visible to other machines in target disk mode, I am able to mount it in single-user mode and even view text files. What I can't seem to do is mount my external FireWire/USB2 drive so that I can try actually copying the files off.
I've re-read the man page for "mount" in hopes of discovering the correct incantation, but so far it has eluded me. I've been trying things like "/sbin/mount -w /dev/disk1 /Volumes" and "/sbin/mount -w /dev/disk1 /Volumes/rescue", which return "Permission denied" and "No such file or directory" respectively...not sure that's the right device, but finding an acceptable mount point seems to be an issue regardless. Hoping someone can point me in the right direction, and thanks for reading.

Thanks, macbig...no joy yet, but definitely a helpful link.
I've confirmed via System Profiler on laptop #3 that my external USB drive is formatted as MS-DOS FAT32, so mount_msdos seems like the right utility to use. (The drive shows up there as /dev/disk1s1.) Meanwhile, "ls /dev/disk*" on the problem machine returns the following:
/dev/disk0 /dev/disk0s1 /dev/disk0s2 /dev/disk1 /dev/disk1s1 /dev/disk1s2 /dev/disk1s3 /dev/disk2 /dev/disk2s1
I've created /Volumes/rescue as a mount point and tried most of those devices with "/sbin/mount_msdos [device] /Volumes/rescue", with the following results:
/dev/disk1:
mount_msdos: Unsupported sector size (0)
/dev/disk1s1:
mount_msdos: Unsupported sector size (1)
/dev/disk1s2:
mount_msdos: /dev/disk1s2: Bad file descriptor
/dev/disk1s3:
mount_msdos: Unsupported sector size (0)
/dev/disk2:
mount_msdos: Unsupported sector size (64543)
/dev/disk2s1:
kextload: cannot resolve dependencies for kernel extension /System/Library/Extensions/msdosfs.kext
error loading extension /System/Library/Extensions/msdosfs.kext
mount_msdos: msdos filesystem is not available
Based on this, I'm guessing that disk2s1 is the device I want. Unfortunately, when I try to poke around in /System/Library/Extensions, I'm getting I/O errors...gah. I have a bad feeling about this.

How can I mount a CD Drive in Single User?

Thank you for reading my question.
I need to run single user mode on my iMac because of a disk problem. I would like to be able to mount the cd drive while I am in single user mode. I would also like to be able to mount usb hard drives with confidence, so that I can copy off files from the internal hard drive.
I am in single user mode, which I get to by holding down Command-S on startup. I can look at the disks that are attached to my computer by executing
ls -l /dev/disk*
However this appears to be adding disks. I started with /dev/disk2 and /dev/disk2s1 etc which I understand are partitions on that external drive. Now when I list /dev/disk* I have /dev/disk3 and a couple of partitions on those devs. Is that normal? Have I not unmounted disks properly?
I have been using a directory that already exists as the mount point for my usb drives using
mount -t hfs /dev/disk1 /cores
which worked fine. Alas the disk I mounted on that directory was too small. Now I can't mount a disk on there. Do I need to unmount or fix up that assignment?
If I were to create a directory in /Volumes is that advisable? How do I make the root directory readable is that by using 'mount -uw'?
Thank you. Please if you answer my question, try to be clear on what commands to use and why. Bear in mind that other people will read this, and no one on the web seems able to write suggestions very clearly. Maybe we can be the first! If I have not been clear, please feel free to ask for clarification. i am not a total unix newbie. Rather in the 20 years since I was a sysadmin, my memory has faded.
Pete

I think you need to post this in a different forum. I think the Developer Forums would be the right choice.
In any event from the little Unix I know you can't mount a removable device until it's connected which means you need to put a CD/DVD into the optical drive. At that point if you enter 'df' you should see the device if it is mounted automatically (which I believe it does.)
In single-user mode the entire drive is readable and all files accessible. You are the 'root' user. In order to put the system into write mode you must enter 'mount -uw /'. Note the '/' at the end of the comnmand line. That makes the entire system writeable.
You do not need to create a directory in /Volumes. When the CD/DVD is recognized an entry in /Volumes will appear unless the disc is unformatted.
Now take some of the above with a grain of salt. I'm certainly no Unix expert.

Can I mount a firewire device in single user mode?

I've still got this idea I can rescue data from a hard drive that won't mount.
I put my external backup drive on another iMac to simulate what would happen. Briefly,
I plug in the drive, note the device name.
I reboot into single user mode.
The drive automatically powers off. Grrr.
I turn it back on again. It does not show up in /dev

How far did you go under "single user" mode? In "Tiger", running 'sh /etc/rc' (instructions to use this are included among the messages displayed starting up in single-user mode) starts up all sorts of things. Perhaps plugging in the drive after the script has run will have it show up in '/dev/' (I haven't tested this)...

To mount a CD-ROM in Single User Mode. How?

Thank you for reading my question.
I need to run single user mode on my iMac because of a disk problem. I would like to be able to mount the cd drive while I am in single user mode. I would also like to be able to mount usb hard drives with confidence, so that I can copy off files from the internal hard drive.
I am in single user mode, which I get to by holding down Command-S on startup. I can look at the disks that are attached to my computer by executing
ls -l /dev/disk*
However this appears to be adding disks. I started with /dev/disk2 and /dev/disk2s1 etc which I understand are partitions on that external drive. Now when I list /dev/disk* I have /dev/disk3 and a couple of partitions on those devs. Is that normal? Have I not unmounted disks properly?
I have been using a directory that already exists as the mount point for my usb drives using
mount -t hfs /dev/disk1 /cores
which worked fine. Alas the disk I mounted on that directory was too small. Now I can't mount a disk on there. Do I need to unmount or fix up that assignment?
If I were to create a directory in /Volumes is that advisable? How do I make the root directory readable is that by using 'mount -uw'?
Thank you. Please if you answer my question, try to be clear on what commands to use and why. Bear in mind that other people will read this, and no one on the web seems able to write suggestions very clearly. Maybe we can be the first! If I have not been clear, please feel free to ask for clarification. i am not a total unix newbie. Rather in the 20 years since I was a sysadmin, my memory has faded.
Pete

I think you need to post this in a different forum. I think the Developer Forums would be the right choice.
In any event from the little Unix I know you can't mount a removable device until it's connected which means you need to put a CD/DVD into the optical drive. At that point if you enter 'df' you should see the device if it is mounted automatically (which I believe it does.)
In single-user mode the entire drive is readable and all files accessible. You are the 'root' user. In order to put the system into write mode you must enter 'mount -uw /'. Note the '/' at the end of the comnmand line. That makes the entire system writeable.
You do not need to create a directory in /Volumes. When the CD/DVD is recognized an entry in /Volumes will appear unless the disc is unformatted.
Now take some of the above with a grain of salt. I'm certainly no Unix expert.

Mount device via USB in single user mode

Hi.
Help much needed. My macbook pro appeared to be crashed with harddisk problem
at start time... unable to boot to normal login screen.
When I run in single user mode, I dont seem to see my thumbdrive, or external device.
I connected them via the USB ports on my Macbook pro (17")(Snow Leopard)
I checked /dev/disk* and saw only disk0 (disk0, disk0s1, disk0s2, disk0s3).
I never get to see disk1 no matter what I tried. (I've various MSDOs format,
or NTFS format disks).
I followed the advise here:
http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=232365
Am I supposed to be able to see the drive the moment I connect it to the
port?
Thanks.
Marc

When I insert the disk, the root prompt would come telling me the USBMSC message. So, it does know I inserted the external drive. But yet, no new refresh of the /dev.
The device should be listed in /dev after the USBMSC message whether you mounted the root file system write or not.
$ ls /dev/disk*
/dev/disk0 /dev/disk0s1 /dev/disk0s2 /dev/disk0s3
Either the boot partition table is APM or GPT with two partitions.
I went to /Volumes and able to read the directory of files that I want to copy.
You should stay out of the /Volumes directory. Reference your path like->
ls -l /Users/<your name>/Documents/
And avoid creating mount points in the /Volumes directory. It is used by diskarbitration.
At this point, I would stop running fsck_hfs on the device (or any other utility) and either try to mount the drive via firewire disk mode or have someone block copy the disk.

Mounting external hard drive at start up

Hello, I have a G5 and I recently purchased an ethernet external hard drive. I also have a PC and two powerbooks. Since I have so many computers and so many different users I want to be able to centralize my music collection and also all the files like pictures and movies. The problem is that the other users at my house hate mounting the external hard drive each time they turn their computer on, or bring it back from sleep mode. In windows I have the HD mapped and each time the computer starts the drive is mounted automatically. I would like to do the same thing on OS X. As soon as I start any of the mac computers and they finish booting up, I want to be able to see the external HD mounted without having to click any buttons or type in any passwords. Anybody knows how to do this? Thank you so much for your help
G5 Mac OS X (10.4.5)

sounds like you should set up a file server with OSX server software...

Mount external hard drive on boot

I have a Mac mini run on SL, I want to set it up as a samba server with a external hard drive which formatted in NFS format.
I tried to write a plist in LaunchDaemons to call a script to mount the hard drive, but it does not work.
Here is my plist
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Label</key>
<string>com.kg.mount</string>
<key>RunAtLoad</key>
<true/>
<key>ProgramArguments</key>
<array>
<string>/System/Library/script/com.kg.mount</string>
</array>
</dict>
</plist>
It get loaded at the start, if I user command 'launchctl list', I can see the service is loaded, but the disk is not mounted. If I run the plist manually after boot, the disk will be mounted.
Does somebody know how to mount a disk at boot time?
Thanks

The OS automatically mounts storage devices when they come online. If that doesn't happen, you need to fix the problem.
First back up the disk, if you haven't already done that.
Get rid of the script and the launchd item. Unload it first -- I assume you know how to do that.
Launch Disk Utility and select the "EX" volume, then run "Repair Disk." If any errors are reported, repeat until there are no more.
If the disk is now mounted, unmount it. Check the /Volumes directory for any empty subdirectories named "EX", "EX-1", or some such. If present, delete them.
Unplug the drive, then plug it in again. If it still doesn't mount, plug it into a different port (if it's USB.) If it still doesn't mount, try it on a different Mac.

Proper way of mounting external hard drive - fstab rules?

I have an external hard drive with all my music on it, and I want MPD to play this music. Now I was wondering how best to mount my external, such that MPD can actually access the music.
I was told to create an fstab entry with the UUID of my external to have it being mounted to a fixed spot. But this only works during boot up, correct?
What should I do, if I plug in the external after boot up? Is there a way to have it automounted to the same fixed spot as defined in fstab (maybe even using fstab)?

As iBertus mentioned, you can use the automount features of different desktops. XFCE includes the Thunar file manager which can also be used in other lightweight desktops.
If on the command line, pmount will let you mount the drive as a normal user, and without any fstab entries. This command will mount USB device sdb1 to /media/Stalafin.
pmount /dev/sdb1 Stalafin]
The cool thing about pmount is that if the drive/partition is encrypted with LUKS, you can throw other options at it and it will decrypt and mount at the same time.

Mount external Hard drive in Single user mode

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