How to mount USB drive in Linux

Mounting USB drive is no different than mounting USB stick or even a regular SATA drive. The video example below will illustrate the entire process of mounting USB drive on Linux system. To gain more understanding, read the subsequent paragraphs. In Linux, you can mount all file systems including ext4, FAT, and NTFS.

In this tutorial, we explain how to mount USB drives in a Linux system using terminal and shell command line. This allows you to mount a USB drive of any file system, to some mount point on your system. If you are using desktop manager, you will most likely be able to use it to mount USB drive for you.

In this tutorial you will learn how to:

• Detect your USB drive
• Create a custom mount point
• Mount USB in Linux
• Access USB drive’s data

Software Requirements and Conventions Used

Software Requirements and Linux Command Line Conventions

Category	Requirements, Conventions or Software Version Used
System	Any GNU/Linux Distribution
Software	mount, fdisk
Other	Privileged access to your Linux system as root or via the sudo command.
Conventions	# – requires given linux commands to be executed with root privileges either directly as a root user or by use of sudo command $ – requires given linux commands to be executed as a regular non-privileged user

Video Example on how to mount USB in Linux

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1. Detecting USB hard drive

   After you plug in your USB device to the USB port, Linux system adds a new block device into /dev/ directory. At this stage, you are not able to use this device as the USB filesystem needs to be mounted before you can retrieve or store any data. To find out what name your block device file have you can run fdisk -l command.

   NOTE
   fdisk command requires administrative privileges to access the required information, thus, from this reason, the commands needs to be executed as a root user or with sudo prefix.

   # fdisk -l 
   OR
   $ sudo fdisk -l
   

   Upon executing the above command you will get an output similar to the one below:

   Disk /dev/sdc: 7.4 GiB, 7948206080 bytes, 15523840 sectors
   Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
   Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
   I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
   Disklabel type: dos
   Disk identifier: 0x00000000
   
   Device     Boot Start      End  Sectors  Size Id Type
   /dev/sdc1  *     8192 15523839 15515648  7.4G  b W95 FAT32
   

   The above output will most likely list multiple disks attached to your system. Look for your USB drive based on its size and filesystem. Once ready, take a note of the block device name of the partition you intent to mount. For example in our case that will be /dev/sdc1 with FAT32 filesystem.

2. Create mount point

   Before we are able to use mount command to mount the USB partition, we need to create a mount point. Mount point can be any new or existing directory within your host filesystem. Use mkdir command to create a new mount point directory where you want to mount your USB device:

   # mkdir /media/usb-drive

3. Mount USB Drive

   At this stage we are ready to mount our USB’s partition /dev/sdc1 into /media/usb-drive mount point:

   # mount /dev/sdc1 /media/usb-drive/
   

   To check whether your USB drive has been mounted correctly execute mount command again without any arguments and use grep to search for USB block device name:

   # mount | grep sdc1
   /dev/sdc1 on /media/usb-drive type vfat (rw,relatime,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=437,iocharset=utf8,shortname=mixed,errors=remount-ro
   

   If no output has been produced by the above mount command your USB partition is not mounted. Alternatively, double-check whether you have used a correct block device name in the above command.

4. Accessing USB Data

   If all went well, we can access our USB data simply by navigating to our previously created mount point /media/usb-drive:

   # cd /media/usb-drive
   

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USB Unmount

Before we are able to unmount our USB partition we need to make sure that no process is using or accessing our mount point directory, otherwise we will receive an error message similar to the one below:

umount: /media/usb-drive: target is busy
(In some cases useful info about processes that
use the device is found by lsof(8) or fuser(1).)

Close your shell or navigate away from USB mount point and execute the following linux command to unmount your USB drive:

# umount /media/usb-drive

Permanent USB Mount in Linux

In order to mount your USB in Linux permanently after reboot add the following line into your /etc/fstab config file:

/dev/sdc1       /media/usb-drive           vfat    defaults        0       0

For any other file system type simply set correct type. For example the bellow command will mount USB driver with NTFS file system:

/dev/sdc1       /media/usb-drive           ntfs    defaults        0       0

From this reason it is recommend to use partition UUID instead of a raw block device name. To do so, first locate a UUID of your USB drive:

# ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid/*
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Mar 27 23:38 /dev/disk/by-uuid/2016-08-30-11-31-31-00 -> ../../sdb1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Mar 27 23:38 /dev/disk/by-uuid/3eccfd4e-bd8b-4b5f-9fd8-4414a32ac289 -> ../../sda1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Mar 27 23:38 /dev/disk/by-uuid/4082248b-809d-4e63-93d2-56b5f13c875f -> ../../sda5
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Mar 28 01:09 /dev/disk/by-uuid/8765-4321 -> ../../sdc1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Mar 27 23:38 /dev/disk/by-uuid/E6E3-F2A2 -> ../../sdb2

Based on the above ls command output we can see that the UUID belonging to block device sdc1 is 8765-4321 thus our /etc/fstab mount line will be:

/dev/disk/by-uuid/8765-4321    /media/usb-drive         vfat    defaults   0   0

Run mount -a command to mount all not yet mounted devices.

# mount -a

Closing Thoughts

In this tutorial, we saw how to mount a USB drive on a Linux system in order to access its data and store new data onto it. Linux makes it possible to either temporarily mount a USB drive that we insert, or make a persistent mount of storage devices that we don’t plan on removing. Whether you have a small thumb drive or a huge external drive, the commands here should be able to mount your USB storage device.

Troubleshooting Common USB Mount Error Messages on Linux

• No Medium Found

  You may receive the following error when you attempt to mount a USB stick:
  Error message:

  mount: /mnt/usb: no medium found on /dev/sdx.

  Solution:
  Ensure that the USB drive is properly connected and that you are using the correct device file. Sometimes, reconnecting the USB drive or using a different USB port can resolve the issue.

• NTFS Filesystem Unsupported

  When attempting to mount an NTFS USB drive, you may encounter this error:
  Error message:

  mount: /mnt/usb: unknown filesystem type 'ntfs'.

  Solution:
  Install the ntfs-3g package to add support for NTFS file systems on your Linux system. Use your package manager to install it, for example, sudo apt-get install ntfs-3g.

• Generic Mount Error

  A generic error that can occur for various reasons:
  Error message:

  mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sdx1, missing codepage or helper program, or other error.

  Solution:
  Verify the file system type and ensure you have the necessary support installed. For file system errors, use tools like fsck to check and repair your drive.

• Cannot Mount Read-Only

  This error occurs when attempting to mount a USB drive as read-only, but the operation fails:
  Error message:

  mount: /mnt/usb: cannot mount /dev/sdx1 read-only.

  Solution:
  Check the drive for hardware switches enabling write protection, or use dmesg to look for I/O errors that may suggest hardware issues. Make sure the file system is not corrupted.

• Superuser Privileges Required

  Attempting to mount without sufficient permissions results in this error:
  Error message:

  mount: /mnt/usb: must be superuser to use mount.

  Solution:
  Ensure you’re using sudo before your mount command to execute it with superuser privileges, e.g., sudo mount /dev/sdx1 /mnt/usb.

• Special Device Does Not Exist

  This message suggests that the specified device file does not exist:
  Error message:

  mount: /mnt/usb: special device /dev/sdx1 does not exist.

  Solution:
  Double-check the device file name for typos. Use lsblk or fdisk -l to list available devices and verify the correct device identifier.

• Fstab Entry Missing

  If the system cannot find the device in /etc/fstab, this error will occur:
  Error message:

  mount: /mnt/usb: can't find in /etc/fstab.

  Solution:
  If you wish to mount the device without specifying the device file and mount point each time, add an entry to /etc/fstab. Ensure that the entry matches your device and desired mount point accurately.

FAQs on Mounting USB Drives on Linux

1. How do I find my USB drive in Linux?

Use the command lsblk or fdisk -l to list all connected drives, including USB drives. Look for the device that corresponds to your USB drive by its size and partition type.

2. How can I mount a USB drive manually?

Create a mount point using mkdir /mnt/usb and then mount the USB drive with sudo mount /dev/sdx1 /mnt/usb, replacing /dev/sdx1 with your USB device identifier.

3. How do I unmount a USB drive?

Use the command sudo umount /mnt/usb, ensuring no files are being accessed from the USB drive.

4. Can I mount a USB drive automatically when it’s plugged in?

Yes, by configuring /etc/fstab or using a GUI tool like GNOME Disks to set up automount options.

5. How do I check if my USB drive is mounted?

Use df -h or lsblk to see if your USB device is listed as mounted.

6. Why can’t I write to my USB drive after mounting it?

This could be due to the drive being mounted as read-only. Try remounting with write permissions using sudo mount -o remount,rw /mnt/usb.

7. How do I mount a USB drive with a specific filesystem type?

Use the -t option with mount, like sudo mount -t vfat /dev/sdx1 /mnt/usb for a FAT32 filesystem.

8. What does “mount point” mean?

A mount point is a directory in the Unix filesystem where the USB drive’s contents will be accessible after it is mounted.

9. How do I create a new mount point?

Create a directory using mkdir, such as mkdir /mnt/new_usb, which then can be used as a mount point.

10. How can I see the mount options of a mounted USB drive?

Use mount | grep /mnt/usb to display the mount options of the USB drive mounted at /mnt/usb.

11. Can I mount multiple USB drives at the same time?

Yes, each USB drive needs to be mounted to a different mount point.

12. How do I fix “mount: unknown filesystem type” error?

Ensure you have the correct filesystem drivers installed for your USB drive’s filesystem type. For NTFS, you might need the ntfs-3g package.

13. How to mount a USB drive read-only?

Use sudo mount -o ro /dev/sdx1 /mnt/usb to mount the drive as read-only.

14. What do I do if my USB drive is not recognized?

Check USB ports and try a different one. Ensure the drive is properly formatted and visible with lsusb and fdisk -l.

15. How to auto-mount USB drives in a specific directory?

Use the UUID of the USB drive in /etc/fstab and specify the desired mount point, or use automount tools like udev rules for more dynamic handling.