What can you mount?

• Hard Drives (IDE, SATA, SCSI)
• CD/DVD ROM
• External Drives (Flash, USB HD)
• Floppy Drives
• Disk Images (.iso, .dd, .img, .nrg)
• Network Storage

• lsblk – lists information about available block devices (Hard Disks, partitions, CDROMs, etc)
• df – Reports mounted disks
• du -h (disk utilization)– Shows disk usage of files in a directory
• /etc/fstab – configuration file that tells the system what to mount at boot
• mount – Command to mount a disk
• umount – Command to unmounts a disk

• /dev/hda – Master IDE HDD
• /dev/hdb – Slave IDE HDD
• /dev/sda – First scsi/sata HDD
• /dev/sdb – Second scsi/sata HDD

• /dev/sda1 – 1st partition on scsi drive
• /dev/sda2 – 2nd partition on scsi drive

• Partitions are containers in the file system
• You must have a partition to be able to write files
• Each disk can only have 4 primary partitions
• Extended partitions can be used to create additional logical partitions
• fdisk – interactive command-line utility to create partitions

• Controls how data is stored and retrieved
• Different file systems have their own set of rules for organizing data
• Different features such as journaling, online/offline defragmentation, file size support
• mkfs.<type> /dev/sda1 – command to create file system on a partition

• Fat 32 – Legacy Windows
• NTFS – Windows
• ReFS – New Windows
• ext2 – Legacy Linux
• ext3 – Built on ext2; Commonly used
• ext4 – Next generation of ext3, added features, larger file sizes
• rieserFS(3)(4) – Alternative to ext
• Btrfs “Butters FS” – Next-gen Linux file system; used in SuSE 12
• xfs – Next-gen Linux file system; used in CentOS 7

• Auto mount (when working with gui)

/media/<label>

/run/media/~/<label>

• mount /dev/<device> /<mountpoint>

Mount point directory must already exist

Ex: /dev/sda1 /mnt/point

• umount /<mointpoint>

Ex: umount /mnt/point

• mount – t ntfs /dev/sdc /mnt/ntfs

Mounts drive with ntfs type file system

Other file system types available

• mount -r – Read Only

• Hierarchical file structure
• No drive letters
• All devices (HDD, external media, network storage, etc.) are accessed through the single structure

  /         - root

  /etc

  /etc/samba

• / - The root directory. This is where the file system tree starts
• /bin - Executable programs needed when running in minimal troubleshooting mode
• /boot - File and directories needed to boot the Linux Kernel
• /dev - Device files that are used for accessing physical hardware
• /etc - Contains configuration files that are used by programs and services
• /home - Used for local user home directories
• /lib, /lib64 - Shared libraries that are used by programs
• /media, /mnt - Directories used for mounting devices in the file system tree
• /opt - Used for optional packages that may be installed on the system
• /root - The home directory for the root user
• /sbin - Executable programs for system administration commands. Cannot be used by regular users
• /srv - Directory that may be used for data used by services like FTP, HTTP, or NFS
• /tmp - Temporary files that may be deleted without any warning
• /usr - Subdirectories for program files, libraries for programs, and documentation
• /var - Contains variable files, such as log files, printer spool files, and mail boxes

• contain data – can be executable

• list the location of other files

• A shortcut to another file

• disk drives, external media /dev/sda

• /home/user/Desktop

• ./Desktop

• Creates an empty normal file

• Creates a directory

• Copy files

• Move files
• Can be used to rename files

• Remove files

• Remove directory

• Can be used to give a file multiple names
• Must exist on the same storage device
• Cannot link to directories

• More flexible
• Can link to other devices
• Can link to directories
• If linked file is removed, the link becomes invalid