Ask Ubuntu
Ask Ubuntu

Questions tagged [external-hdd]

Issues with external HDD including USB, Firewire (IEE1394) and e-sata connections as well as issues relating to mounting, formatting and partitioning.

An external hard disk drive or external HDD is a device containing a drive attached to your computer via USB, Fireqire or e-sata and enables you to transport and store files on the device as a pose to utilising your main HDD.

Questions include usage of external drives and factors relating to them including mounting issues, using the disk utility etc.

1147 questions
197
votes
5 answers

Disable auto-opening nautilus window after auto-mount

Every time I plug a USB stick in, nautilus opens a new window with the contents of the drive. I would like to disable this auto-opening of the nautilus window, but I would like the actual auto-mount to keep working. Is this possible?
Anton Cherkashyn
  • 4,064
  • 3
  • 21
  • 18
73
votes
4 answers

How to mount an external HDD?

I have Ubuntu Linux 12.04 version the latest right now.I want to mount an external HDD NTFS 1TB.I have followed many guides but still no success.The error I'm getting is this: Failed to read last sector (1953523119): Invalid argument HINTS: Either…
Slash
  • 753
48
votes
11 answers

Are these SATA errors dangerous?

I'm getting these errors ramdomly, and I don't know if its normal or not. [39441.061856] ata3.00: failed to read SCR 1 (Emask=0x40) [39441.061866] ata3.01: failed to read SCR 1 (Emask=0x40) [39441.061892] ata3.15: exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x0 SErr…
Marcos Junior
  • 883
  • 2
  • 9
  • 11
42
votes
3 answers

How to turn off hard drive in Ubuntu?

I am running Kubuntu from External Hard Drive. My Internal Hard Drive has Windows on it. I don't want to use it while on Ubuntu and want to turn it off to produce less heat as well consume lower battery. I think spinning down hard drive isn't an…
AhmedBilal
  • 1,132
42
votes
3 answers

How do I mount a hibernated NTFS partition?

I have a Windows HDD attached to an external docking bay on my Ubuntu System, but the HDD brings up an error message: Error mounting: mount exited with exit code 14: Windows is hibernated, refused to mount. Failed to mount '/dev/sda5': Operation…
Casval Deikun
  • 421
41
votes
3 answers

Can and should UDF be used as a hard drive format?

Several time recently I've seen UDF suggested as the solution to a cross platform format for a drive used on Linux, Mac OS X and Windows XP and above. I've searched here and not found the same suggestion (most are suggesting ntfs-3g which seems to…
dlamblin
  • 857
40
votes
18 answers

Plex Media Server: Won't find media External Hard Drive

I am attempting to turn an older PC into a home media server with Ubuntu 12.04 using Plex Media Server. I have a newer WD 2 TB external USB HD with all of my media on it. I can not for the life of me figure out why Plex will not recognize the files…
grayed01
  • 409
38
votes
6 answers

How to install Ubuntu on portable external Hard Drive?

OS: Windows 7. I want install Linux Ubuntu on portable external Hard Drive USB 2.0. I read a variety of methods, but I'm confused by contradictory advices and methods. Actually, installing Ubuntu on anything other than clean PC looks much more…
Lexx Luxx
  • 577
33
votes
1 answer

File permissions won't change

sorry fresh user. I installed about 9 days ago and had issues with Unity disappearing which took 5 days of headaches to fix. It never did fix, I reinstalled. I set up Plex (media server) and while the server is running and can be accessed by…
mvl1014
  • 651
32
votes
4 answers

If I can, how do I install Ubuntu from Ubuntu?

Here's what I mean: I normally install by running a Ubuntu Live USB, clicking "try" Ubuntu, and when I'm ready, I double-click the "Install Ubuntu" icon on the desktop. Now, I have an eSATAp port and what I'd like to do is connect my hard drive…
Nathan J.B.
  • 2,730
29
votes
6 answers

Is there a way to rename an external hard drive?

I'm using Ubuntu 11.10 and I have a couple of WD external drives. The problem is, they all show up in the file manager as "Elements" which can get confusing. Is there a way to rename one or both of them? Right-clicking and going to properties…
Shawn
  • 1,478
29
votes
7 answers

How can I spin down external hard drive?

I want to spin down external hard drive from the terminal before unmounting. It is an sata drive connected through usb. Running hdparm gives this ry@G62x:/media$ hdparm -S10 937b2299-48ff-4a9c-8228-67ed4453e8fb/ …
winchendonsprings
  • 2,212
26
votes
1 answer

Format external hard drive to ext4 in command line

How do you format an external hard drive to ext4 via the command line in ubuntu?
ss_millionaire
  • 373
23
votes
2 answers

Mount exited with exit code 13

I have a 1TB external hard drive that I recently formatted to NTFS. It was mounting on my Ubuntu 11.10 fine until just now. I didn't make any changes to affect my OS or my exhdd. The error that I get is: Error mounting: mount exited with exit code…
dearN
  • 2,209
22
votes
2 answers

What is happening? I/O error, dev sda, sector 545868115

Since a few days ago, my computer freezes whenever I sync my HDD with an external USB3 drive. When the keyboard gets temporarily a bit responsive I am able to switch to another terminal (Ctrl+Alt+F2) and I see the following image repeating…
Pomario
  • 2,078
1
2 3
…
76 77