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.

Similar Messages

I just bought a new Mac and I want to transfer some data (not all) from my old Mac. Basically, I want to move my itunes library, iphoto library, and a few documents. I have not even turned on my new Mac yet. Is the best way by an external hard drive?

I just bought a new Mac and I want to transfer some data (not all) from my old Mac. Basically, I want to move my itunes library, iphoto library, and a few documents. I have not even turned on my new Mac yet. Is the best way by an external hard drive?

If both have Firewire ports then you can accomplish your goal by using Target Disk Mode. If this is not possible then you can do using an external drive or if you have a local network connect both to your network and use filesharing between the two computers.
File Sharing on Macs
Mac 101- File Sharing

Best way to access external hard drives wirelessly using AX?

I have an iBook G4 with an airport card and an iMac G3 with a D-link USB wireless adapter. Both work very well with my AX in networking, printing, using airtunes and accessing the internet. I can even see my external hard drive when it's plugged into either machine and mount that drive to the other computer over the network--however the file transfer is extremely slow of course.
Here's what I'd like to do: I plan on getting another external hard drive and would like to be able to connect both computers to either drive wirelessly with good file transfer/access. From what I understand both Linksys and D-link make network storage devices that allow you to do this, but I'm wondering if I then also need a wireless bridge for the iMac?
Can someone give me a run down as to how this all works and what the easiest way to go about doing this is?
Thanks!

These will allow you to do what you want to do.
Wireless-G Media Storage Link Router with SpeedBooster
All-in-one Internet-sharing Router, Access Point, and Network Storage Link! this is an all-in-one device.
Buffalo Technology Link Station though this will also need an ethernet wireless bridge as well as would this Netgear Storage Device.
This D-Link wireless storage device seems to meet your needs specifically. With this device you still need a wireless router such as the AX.

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.

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...

Best way to add external hard drives

Hi all! I have a fairly old iMac (2008). It only has 3 USB ports on the back. One is being used by my keyboard/mouse. One is plugged directly into an external hard drive. And the third is everything else... my digital camera cable, my printer, etc. I recently bought another external hard drive. I have found that when I use it through my hub, it's extremely slow. So... is that just a hub drawback? Or is there a better hub out there? I guess my question is... is there a way to expand the number of USB ports I have without having it be super slow? Thanks.
Julie

Disk drives should not be used in hubs. If you want to connect more than one then buy drives that can be properly daisy-chained and have separate power units because USB ports may not have sufficient power for more than one or two drives.

Trouble mounting external hard drive

Hello,
I'm having a problem with my external hard drive (formatted hfs+). While the hd was connected to a computer running ubuntu, the computer crashed. Since then the drive is read-only on ubuntu and won't mount at all on mac os x 10.4.
I've tried repairing the the drive with disc utility, and get:
Invalid sibling link
Volume check failed.
Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit
1 HFS volume checked
1 volume could not be repaired because of an error
I've also tried running fsck_hfs in the terminal, with no luck. when I type:
fsck_hfs -fy /dev/rdisk1s2
I end up with:
** /dev/rdisk1s2
** Checking HFS Plus volume.
** Checking Extents Overflow file.
** Checking Catalog file.
Invalid sibling link
(4, 16531)
** Volume check failed.
I also tried -r but it didn't work either.
So before I back up and reformat the drive, does anyone have any suggestions?
Thanks.

Appears you need a stronger utility than Disk Utility. Sounds like you have directory damage.
The following are a few forum favorites. You must use the versions that are compatible w/your OS system & keep the utilities updated to avoid damaging/harming/trashing your system.
DiskWarrior
Highly recommended for *directory damage* repairs.
TechTool Pro
Multi-functional utility.
Drive Genius Multi-functional utility.
You will need to make your own decision on which to purchase. Read up on them on their websites because each does something a little different.

Mount external hard drive

My Mac crashed and when I restarted it I can only see 1 partion of my external hard drive.
I have tried going to disk utility to load the partion but it wont load
Please can anyone advise how to mount an unmounted drive?
This is what is in the log
Starting Restore…
Starting Restore…
An error (19) occurred while copying.
Mount of “Mac” succeeded
Mount of “Mac” succeeded
Starting Restore…
Starting Restore…
An error (2) occurred while copying.
Thanks for your help

If this is not the drive you are booting from, you should be able to run Disk Utility's "Repair" function without booting from the CD. Otherwise, boot from the Installer CD, but do not install. Instead, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu.
Since you booted from another Drive or the Installer CD, when you select the drive, you will be able to use the "Repair" button. Run it repeatedly until there is no change between successive passes, then (if Mac OS X is present on it) run "Repair Permissions" once. Report any unresolved errors from "Repair" here. "Repair Permissions" chatters on forever about nothing, and its messages can generally be disregarded.
Error (2) is a Bus error. It is a very serious error, which should have crashed your Mac. Error (-2) is an invalid queue element, which can be caused by directory damage.
Error (19) can be caused by a damaged System Folder. Error (-19) is a color-manager error.

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...

Can I use airport time capsule 2tb the same way as an external hard drive

I would like to know if I can use it as I would an external hard drive by dragging certain files or folders over to my Mac computer and not just as a backing up device. Where as I would only be able to completely add all files and folders without a choice of particular ones. Can anyone please help me. I would like to purchase it but don't know if I should just go with a simpler external hard drive. I do like the features of the airport but I have noticed a few reviews of people claiming they were not able to select one folder to add or remove. Thanks for the help!

Jmoto110 wrote:
I would like to know if I can use it as I would an external hard drive by dragging certain files or folders over to my Mac computer and not just as a backing up device.
Yes.

Can I mount external hard drive to Time Capsule and use it as external storage?

I have a 500GB external hard drive that I'd like to use on the Time Capsule as a hard drive to store mp3 and mp4 files. Can I attach it to the Time Capsule and use it like this? Or does it just give an additional 500GB worth of back ups from my iMac?

Can I attach it to the Time Capsule and use it like this?
Yes, if the drive has been formatted in Mac OS Extended (Journaled)...preferable....or FAT32. Access to the files will somewhat slower than if you had the drive attached directly to your computer.
Have you given some thought as to how you will keep this drive backed up?
Time Machine will not be able to back up the drive that is attached to the Time Capsule's USB port.
But, it would be able to back up the drive if you connected it directly to your Mac and the drive was formatted in Mac OS Extended (Journaled).

Can't mount external Hard drive and Can't change the ownership and permiss.

Hello everyone, got a problem and maybe someone here will know. Apple care can't help because this is due to an external piece. I have a hard drive external. I partitioned it into two hard drives. Long ago, I opened the information window for one of my partitioned drives. And changed the ownership and permission to "no access". I do this all the time to keep my files from being read if its not the administrator (me). Just recently I plugged in my hard drive (firewire and USB). Only one drive mounts on the desk top. I cannot see my other partitioned hard drive and I can' access it to change the ownership and permission with "apple key and I".. I can see a trace of the two partitioned hard drives when I use disc utility. But again it won't let me change the ownership so I can mount this again. How do I access my harddrive without refomatting? I have tried to mount this with both of my apple laptops..no luck yet. Please help, anyone.

Hi, Donnie. Welcome to the Discussions.
What part of "No Access" was unclear?
"No Access" means no access for anyone.
To fix this:
1. Launch Terminal, which resides in the Macintosh HD > Applications > Utilities folder.
2. At the Terminal prompt, type the following command:
sudo chmod a+rwx "/Volumes/partition_name"
where: partition_name is the name of the affected partition.
3. Press Return.
4. Type your Admin password when prompted, then press Return.
5. At the Terminal prompt, type exit and press Return.
6. Quit (Command-Q) Terminal.
7. Relaunch Finder: Press and hold the Option key, click and hold mouse button 1 on the Finder icon in the Dock, select "Relaunch" from the Finder icon's contextual menu.
You should then see the volume, or be able to use Disk Utility to Unmount it, then Mount it and see it.
Reset the permissions for Group and Other on the partition as desired. Do not change the permissions for Owner.
If you want a volume / partition unmounted at startup, see:
• this tip Mac OS X Hints, or...
• this tip on the OSX86 Project forums.
Good luck!
Dr. Smoke
Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X

Trouble mounting external hard drives to my Macbook after restoring it to factory settings. Solutions??

I just restored my Macbook Version 10.4.11 to factory settings because I heard that it is good to do that to clean it up. I had saved everything on a WD My Book 1110 Media, but now when I try to retrieve the stuff on there, the WD won't even mount.
The whole reason I was needing to make room on my macbook is the computer was freezing up and acting really slowly. I'm about to do a recording project using Protools and needed the macbook to be fast. I thought restoring it would help. Instead, it now won't mount my Glyph, which I need to run protools.
Then was when I tried to mount the WD hard drive and it wouldn't mount either!!!! I'm guessing the problem is with the mac, since both hard drives would not mount. The glyph is connected with a firewire, and the WD is connect by USB. I'm clueless as to what to do. I definitely need to recover the stuff on the WD hard drive.
One other thing: the drives do show up in Disk Utility, but the mount button is gray so I can't do that. Here is the info:
Name :           WD My Book 1110 Media
          Type :           Disk
          Disk Identifier :           disk1
          Media Name :           WD My Book 1110 Media
          Media Type :           Generic
          Connection Bus :           USB
          Connection Type :           External
          USB Serial Number :           574D41563530363834343732
          Partition Type :           Apple_partition_scheme
          Writable :           Yes
          Ejectable :           Yes
          Mac OS 9 Drivers Installed :           No
          Location :           External
          Total Capacity :           465.1 GB (499,405,291,520 Bytes)
          S.M.A.R.T. Status :           Not Supported
          Disk Number :           1
          Partition Number :           0
Do I need to install Mac OS 9 Driver? If so, how can I do that with out losing any data from my WD hard drive.
I'm clueless. Any help would be much appreciated.

The OS 9 Driver would only be applicable if you were to use OS X
and OS 9 from the external drive; it is not necessary for OS 9 files
to be stored on an external drive, only if you were to use Classic
or OS 9 on there.
So it would be unable to host an OS 9.2.2 system for Classic or
any applications that would require read-write on external HDD.
{What of the WD HDD's driver update, in link? Do Not update
Western Digitals 'firmware' as it also is available, & wipes HD.}
The linked driver download, for the WD drive itself, may (or not) be
installable without harming data on the drive. I read where that driver
can support back to OS X Tiger 10.4.11, so it would support Tiger final.
Do you have an original source for the Glyph & Pro-
Tools, outside of the saved content of the WD HDD?
Another idea, could be the enclosure of the WD may have failed while the drive inside is OK. Would not be the first time, so that may be something to consider. If you get another enclosure, be sure if there are any jumper changes for WD drive to be compatible, they match. You may be able to get one of those cables to use instead of the enclosure, that allows the external drive itself to run; they usually include a power adapter, but the WD may not have had an external. However the cable set to run a bare drive often includes one.
Hopefully you can restore access to the external drive
& then find a better backup scheme, in duplicate.
Good luck & happy computing!

Not mounting external hard drives

Hi all,
Amoungst a million other problems with my MacBook at the moment, as well as the infamous turning itself off problem, my MacBook Fails to recognise either my Iomega 100GB portable hard disk via USB or my LaCie 160GB external hard disk via firewire or USB. My iomega drive worked when I first got my cursed MacBook, the LaCie Drive is brand new and now mounts when i startup with the drive connected. Other peripherals work via my USB ports however I also have a problem with USB keys.
System profiler recognises both devices, however neither mount onto my desktop. I tried to reformat using disk utilities however the drives were not seen by the program. I therefore reformatted the iomega portable drive from FAT32 to Mac OS extended using a G4 iBook, and even after that it failed to mount.
Hope you guys can help.
Many thanks,
A frustrated MacLover

I've noticed the Firewire bus to be less stable under Intel chips, but I'm not positive. It may be that my devices are just getting tired.
Anyhow... troubleshooting (when was the last time you cleared the PRAM?)
1. Turn off your MacBook (not restart, power off)
2. Turn it back on, wait for it to fully startup
3. With the power connected and the drive turned on, connect the Firewire drive
If it still doesn't work, can you try a different Firewire cable? I'm guessing the cable probably works fine on your iBok G4, right? If it still doesn't work, it would seem that the Firewire port is not working properly. You can also try booting up with your install DVD and see if Disk Utility can read your Firewire drive. If it does then you might need to reinstall OS X.
USB portable drive
Repeat steps 1 and 2 above
3. Plug your MacBook into AC power (my USB drive will not mount unless I plug into AC power)
4. Connect your USB drive
Again, I'm guessing this drive too works fine with your iBook?
You could try accessing the drive while booting up from the install DVD too. This should rule out whether it is a software or hardware problem.
It's a hardware problem if you can't access either the Firewire or USB drive (on AC power) while booting up from your install DVD. It's a software problem if you can.
Good luck
Greg

Best way to repartition external hard drive to give Time Machine more space

I have my external 2 TB hard drive segmented into 2 equal 1 TB partitions. The first partition is my time machine back-ups. The second is media files.
I also have approx 500GB of storage left on my 1 TB internal Mac HD. I keep receiving an error message that Time Machine cannot complete because it needs more file size. I have 185 GB available and it needs 225 GB.
I realize TM needs additional space to process back-ups; but what is my best option for re-partitioning my external HD since my first partition is used for TM? Or can I make TM work without repartitioning? Any suggestions?

Debonya1 wrote:
I have my external 2 TB hard drive segmented into 2 equal 1 TB partitions. The first partition is my time machine back-ups. The second is media files.
I also have approx 500GB of storage left on my 1 TB internal Mac HD. I keep receiving an error message that Time Machine cannot complete because it needs more file size. I have 185 GB available and it needs 225 GB.
See the pink box in #C4 of [Time Machine - Troubleshooting|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Troubleshooting.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).
It sounds like there ought to be room on the TM partition, though. Are you sure there's nothing else there, besides the backups for that Mac? See #A1 in Troubleshooting for a handy widget that will display the backup messages from your logs. Navigate to the first time it failed, copy and post them here.
Repartitioning will be tricky. How much stuff is on the second partition? It's possible you can split it, copy the data from it to the new partition, then delete the second one and expand the TM partition into the empty space. See #4 in [Formatting, Partitioning, Verifying, and Repairing Disks|http://web.me.com/pondini/AppleTips/DU.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of the +Using Snow Leopard+ forum).

Proper way of mounting external hard drive - fstab rules?

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