Mrigank’s blog - Mounting storage to a file system

Issue:
- I installed Ubuntu 19.10 to my desktop, which has 2 drives, a 500 GB SSD and a 1TB HDD.
- While installing Ubuntu I just chose the 500 GB SSD for Ubuntu, hence when using my computer now I just cannot see the 1TB disk available for use anywhere.
- In file explorer, if I look into Properties of the Home directory I see just approximately 500GB. Whereas looking into About of the Settings shows 1.5TB.

Groundwork:

I checked file-systems usage with df -h , we see that the below sizes sum up to a ball park of 500GB.

(base) mrigank@mrigank:/etc$ df -h
Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
udev             12G     0   12G   0% /dev
tmpfs           2.4G  2.0M  2.4G   1% /run
/dev/sdb2       457G   62G  373G  15% /
tmpfs            12G  457M   12G   4% /dev/shm
tmpfs           5.0M  4.0K  5.0M   1% /run/lock
tmpfs            12G     0   12G   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/loop3       68M   68M     0 100% /snap/sublime-text/85
/dev/loop2      4.3M  4.3M     0 100% /snap/gnome-calculator/501
/dev/loop4      161M  161M     0 100% /snap/gnome-3-28-1804/116
/dev/loop0       15M   15M     0 100% /snap/gnome-characters/495
/dev/loop5      143M  143M     0 100% /snap/code/31
/dev/loop1      164M  164M     0 100% /snap/spotify/41
/dev/loop6       55M   55M     0 100% /snap/core18/1705
/dev/loop7      150M  150M     0 100% /snap/gnome-3-28-1804/71
/dev/loop8      1.0M  1.0M     0 100% /snap/gnome-logs/93
/dev/loop9       94M   94M     0 100% /snap/core/8935
/dev/loop10     143M  143M     0 100% /snap/slack/23
/dev/loop11     1.0M  1.0M     0 100% /snap/gnome-logs/81
/dev/loop12      15M   15M     0 100% /snap/gnome-characters/317
/dev/loop13     4.4M  4.4M     0 100% /snap/gnome-calculator/704
/dev/loop14      63M   63M     0 100% /snap/gtk-common-themes/1506
/dev/loop15      55M   55M     0 100% /snap/gtk-common-themes/1502
/dev/loop17      94M   94M     0 100% /snap/core/9066
/dev/loop16     143M  143M     0 100% /snap/slack/22
/dev/loop18      55M   55M     0 100% /snap/core18/1668
/dev/loop19     141M  141M     0 100% /snap/code/30
/dev/sdb1       511M  9.1M  502M   2% /boot/efi
tmpfs           2.4G   24K  2.4G   1% /run/user/124
tmpfs           2.4G   96K  2.4G   1% /run/user/1000

As we cannot find where is my 1TB device lost with above command, we use lsblk, and here it is. We see a device named sda of ~1TB space and clearly it should be the one we are looking for.

(base) mrigank@mrigank:/etc$ lsblk
NAME   MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
loop0    7:0    0  14.8M  1 loop /snap/gnome-characters/495
loop1    7:1    0 163.7M  1 loop /snap/spotify/41
loop2    7:2    0   4.2M  1 loop /snap/gnome-calculator/501
loop3    7:3    0  67.6M  1 loop /snap/sublime-text/85
loop4    7:4    0 160.2M  1 loop /snap/gnome-3-28-1804/116
loop5    7:5    0 142.9M  1 loop /snap/code/31
loop6    7:6    0    55M  1 loop /snap/core18/1705
loop7    7:7    0 149.9M  1 loop /snap/gnome-3-28-1804/71
loop8    7:8    0   956K  1 loop /snap/gnome-logs/93
loop9    7:9    0  93.8M  1 loop /snap/core/8935
loop10   7:10   0 142.2M  1 loop /snap/slack/23
loop11   7:11   0   956K  1 loop /snap/gnome-logs/81
loop12   7:12   0  14.8M  1 loop /snap/gnome-characters/317
loop13   7:13   0   4.3M  1 loop /snap/gnome-calculator/704
loop14   7:14   0  62.1M  1 loop /snap/gtk-common-themes/1506
loop15   7:15   0  54.8M  1 loop /snap/gtk-common-themes/1502
loop16   7:16   0 142.2M  1 loop /snap/slack/22
loop17   7:17   0  93.9M  1 loop /snap/core/9066
loop18   7:18   0  54.7M  1 loop /snap/core18/1668
loop19   7:19   0 140.2M  1 loop /snap/code/30
sda      8:0    0 931.5G  0 disk 
sdb      8:16   0 465.8G  0 disk 
├─sdb1   8:17   0   512M  0 part /boot/efi
└─sdb2   8:18   0 465.3G  0 part /

The command sudo fdisk -l will list the the drives and their partitions for us.
- Scrolling down we find device named /dev/sda which is of concern right now, whereas for /dev/sdb you see the partitions information available.
- We will have to create new partition for /dev/sda

(base) mrigank@mrigank:/$ sudo fdisk -l
[sudo] password for mrigank:

Disk /dev/sda: 931.53 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors
Disk model: ST1000DM003-1SB1
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 8BBAFF6A-AC43-4365-9794-F32A35393EA3


Disk /dev/sdb: 465.78 GiB, 500107862016 bytes, 976773168 sectors
Disk model: Samsung SSD 850 
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: gpt
Disk identifier: C3CADC26-E36E-4796-B118-4288464233B6

Device       Start       End   Sectors   Size Type
/dev/sdb1     2048   1050623   1048576   512M EFI System
/dev/sdb2  1050624 976771071 975720448 465.3G Linux filesystem

Creating a new partition for `/dev/sda`

We use fdisk to create partition with this command sudo fdisk /dev/sda
When fdisk prompts for a command, p would print the partition table for out hard drive, which doesn’t exist for /dev/sda right now.

(base) mrigank@mrigank:~$ sudo fdisk /dev/sda

Welcome to fdisk (util-linux 2.34).
Changes will remain in memory only, until you decide to write them.
Be careful before using the write command.


Command (m for help): p
Disk /dev/sda: 931.53 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors
Disk model: ST1000DM003-1SB1
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 8BBAFF6A-AC43-4365-9794-F32A35393EA3

For a new partition press n and them p for primary partition. And when asked for partition number press 1
Press Enter for First sector and Last sector to accept the default value
Although fdisk confirms that it has created a 1TB Linux partition, which is partition number 1, nothing has changed on the hard drive yet. Until you give fdisk the command to write the changes to the drive, the drive is untouched. Once you are certain you’re happy with our choices, press the letter w to write the changes to the drive. And q for quitting the fdisk prompt.

(base) mrigank@mrigank:~$ sudo fdisk /dev/sda

Welcome to fdisk (util-linux 2.34).
Changes will remain in memory only, until you decide to write them.
Be careful before using the write command.


Command (m for help): n
Partition number (1-128, default 1): 1
First sector (34-1953525134, default 2048): 
Last sector, +/-sectors or +/-size{K,M,G,T,P} (2048-1953525134, default 1953525134): 

Created a new partition 1 of type 'Linux filesystem' and of size 931.5 GiB.
Partition #1 contains a ntfs signature.

Do you want to remove the signature? [Y]es/[N]o: N

Command (m for help): w

The partition table has been altered.
Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
Syncing disks.

Check is now the fdisk command prints the partition table for /dev/sda

(base) mrigank@mrigank:~$ sudo fdisk /dev/sda

Welcome to fdisk (util-linux 2.34).
Changes will remain in memory only, until you decide to write them.
Be careful before using the write command.


Command (m for help): p
Disk /dev/sda: 931.53 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors
Disk model: ST1000DM003-1SB1
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 8BBAFF6A-AC43-4365-9794-F32A35393EA3

Device     Start        End    Sectors   Size Type
/dev/sda1   2048 1953525134 1953523087 931.5G Linux filesystem

Command (m for help): q

Also we can now see an new partition /dev/sda1 in lsblk

(base) mrigank@mrigank:~$ lsblk
NAME   MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
.
.
.
loop20   7:20   0   2.4M  1 loop /snap/gnome-calculator/730
sda      8:0    0 931.5G  0 disk 
└─sda1   8:1    0 931.5G  0 part 
sdb      8:16   0 465.8G  0 disk 
├─sdb1   8:17   0   512M  0 part /boot/efi
└─sdb2   8:18   0 465.3G  0 part /

Create a file-system on the new Partition

We need to create a file-system on the newly created partition /dev/sda, using command mkfs.
Be careful to write /dev/sda1 in sudo mkfs -t ext4 /dev/sda1
The file-system created or the drive is of ntfs format, so the below error. We must alter our command accordingly

(base) mrigank@mrigank:~$ sudo mkfs -t ext4 /dev/sda1
mke2fs 1.45.3 (14-Jul-2019)
/dev/sda1 contains a ntfs file system labelled 'BULGOGI'
Proceed anyway? (y,N) N

Instead if we use sudo mkfs -t ntfs /dev/sda1

(base) mrigank@mrigank:~$ sudo mkfs -t ntfs /dev/sda1
Cluster size has been automatically set to 4096 bytes.
Initializing device with zeroes:   4%

After 110 minutes later 100% done

(base) mrigank@mrigank:~$ sudo mkfs -t ntfs /dev/sda1
Cluster size has been automatically set to 4096 bytes.
Initializing device with zeroes: 100% - Done.
Creating NTFS volume structures.
mkntfs completed successfully. Have a nice day.

Mounting the New Drive
- We must mount the partition /dev/sda1 on the new drive /dev/sda to a mount point in the file-system.
- We’re going to use the mount command to mount the filesystem on the first partition on /dev/sdb, at /mnt .
- sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt
- sudo umount /mnt
- Add /mnt as bookmarks in file explorer.

Motivated by

Issue:

Groundwork:

Creating a new partition for /dev/sda

Create a file-system on the new Partition

Mounting the New Drive

Creating a new partition for `/dev/sda`