For questions regarding storage drives that connect using a USB port.
59
votes
4answers
5k views
What is the difference between “Unmount”, “Eject”, “Safely Remove Drive” and the eject icon?
When I right-click the desktop icon for my USB drive or SD card I have the choice to "Eject" or "Safely Remove Drive":
In the Tree side pane in Nautilus, I can either "Unmount" or "Eject":
The ...
27
votes
10answers
12k views
How can I securely erase a hard drive?
I'm planning on selling a USB external hard drive that currently contains an old Ubuntu installation with stored passwords and banking information.
How can I securely erase the drive before selling ...
21
votes
3answers
7k views
Set up USB for Virtualbox
I'm using Ubuntu Maverick and Virtual Box 3+ and I installed Window 7 Ultimate Editon. The problem is that it doesn't detect USB drives on Window 7 but USB peripherals (mouse + keybord) are working.
...
16
votes
9answers
39k views
How to auto mount my external hard drive?
On login, ubuntu 10.10 would not mount external hard drives automatically, While ubuntu 10.04 mount them on login.
I've tried Storage Device Manager but it give error when external hard is not ...
15
votes
4answers
11k views
Why does deleting a file on a USB stick not free up space?
I have an HP pen-drive that has 16GB space. If I add a file to it, and then I delete that file, the free space of that deleted file doesn't get applied. The only way I've found to see that space as ...
14
votes
5answers
3k views
How do I get rid of “U3 System” on my USB drive?
I have a USB drive (SanDisk SDCZ40-016G) that mounts in a way I've never seen before. When inserted, two items appear in Places -> Computer:
"SanDisk Ultra Backup: 16GB" contains my data, and "CD ...
12
votes
4answers
32k views
How to format a USB flash drive?
In Windows there is a straightforward "Format" option in a flash drive's right-click pop-up menu. Where's that in Ubuntu?
I understand there's always standard partition management command line stuff ...
11
votes
3answers
3k views
How do I clear everything (data, viruses) from a thumbdrive?
Say I used some thumbdrive on a public Windows computer and I copy some data to my Ubuntu computer with it. I cannot be completely sure that the Windows computer was clean, and it might have put ...
11
votes
2answers
426 views
Some devices don't work on 3.0 USB port?
My laptop a HP DV6-1149wm has 2x 3.0 USB, and 2x 2.0 USB ports.
Some devices will work fine on both, like flash drives, but some other devices, like my iPod, and my Android phone will not work on my ...
10
votes
8answers
3k views
Why can't I copy a large number of files to my USB flash drive?
Final Update:
So it turns out that the drive was indeed defective and I was able to get it replaced - the replacement works great!
What happens:
I insert the flash drive.
I try to copy 2GB ...
10
votes
8answers
6k views
How to safely remove a USB external drive?
How I can safely remove a USB external drive?
Ubuntu 12.10 does not come with this option, only to "Unmount" the disk, but not "Eject".
I have tried both USB sticks and with my external hard ...
9
votes
2answers
2k views
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 ...
9
votes
3answers
2k views
How do I safely use a virus infected USB drive in Ubuntu?
I have an USB drive which I know is virus infected (an anti-virus on my friend's machine detected it). Unfortunately neither of us know the virus name and I don't want to take the risk of plugging it ...
9
votes
2answers
2k views
How do I get a USB drive shortcut on desktop?
Is there a flash drive shortcut on Ubuntu 12.04 desktop like Ubuntu 10.10 desktop have?
9
votes
1answer
4k views
How do I monitor disk activity on a specific drive?
I'd like to watch disk activity on my USB external hard drive. I know that I can use iotop to monitor disk I/O for each running process, but is there a way to get a measure per filesystem?
9
votes
4answers
599 views
Why does the mount point keeps changing, and how can I prevent it?
When I plug in an external USB drive, it automatically mounts and it's accesible in /media/disk/
However after a while, this is how my /media directory looks like:
cesar@minas-tirith:~$ ls /media/
...
9
votes
1answer
2k views
How to configure to record data to pendrive instantly?
If I edit the files on my pendrive, and then just remove it physically, the data will not be recorded. I have to click "eject", and so the led starts to blink, and the data starts to be recorded.
How ...
8
votes
2answers
630 views
Does Ubuntu support USB 1.0?
I have a 16 GB 1.0 USB Stick in titanium with leather bound, which i happen to love. I know it works in Vista (of all things) but in Ubuntu 11.04 (i also have gnome 3, if that may affect, but am ...
8
votes
3answers
581 views
Will GNOME Shell need compositing (like Unity does)?
I fix computers to get a little extra money. I'm planning to buy a removable hard drive to carry important programs and stuff and I'd like to install Ubuntu 11.04 in it too. So, I can't install ...
8
votes
2answers
2k views
How many usb hard drives can be plugged into a laptop using a port replicator?
I've got a laptop with 2 USB 2.0 and 1 USB 3.0 ports and I would like to know how many USB hard drives I could plug into it. Is there a hard limit in the Linux kernel?
On the performance side, what ...
8
votes
4answers
27k views
Why is the data transfer rate so slow on my external USB 2.0 drive?
My external 1TB hard drive is connected to the front USB2.0 socket on my 11.04 box. When copying files I have a very slow data transfer rate rate of approx. 12 MB/sec maximum even though from the hard ...
8
votes
2answers
2k views
Optimize Ubuntu install on USB-drive for longer life
I've got an Ubuntu installed on an USB-drive for portable use. It's a regular install and not a live USB. Needless to say, it's a Flash-based storage and only 16 GB. What can I do to extend its life?
...
8
votes
2answers
4k views
Mounting a USB disk in a permanent location
I have a USB hard disk that I want to mount on boot and in a specific location. How can I make that drive mount and stay available (say for local backups, etc.) even though no one's logged in?
It ...
8
votes
3answers
8k views
Install Ubuntu Server to a flash drive, permanently
First thing, I wanted to make sure, there is an understanding what this post is NOT about:
This is NOT about creating bootable USB key
This is NOT about simply booting from USB
What I am looking ...
8
votes
2answers
89 views
Magical Unchanging Flash Storage
I have a couple of USB thumbdrives and some SDcards. All of my flash storage devices have the same problem, in 11.04 Ubuntu it looks like I can delete from, save to, even format the devices, but as ...
7
votes
8answers
11k views
How to Synchronize Folders?
I want to do one way synchronization.
I am having Folder A on my computer which is constantly updated with content.
Another Folder B is used for backup purpose which is on external HDD.
Now what I ...
7
votes
2answers
8k views
Tool for recovering deleted data from a flash drive
What is the best tool for recovering deleted data from a flash drive (pen drive)?
7
votes
1answer
8k views
How do I set executable permissions on a removable drive?
I'm using Ubuntu 10.10 and using a usb drive but I'm finding that I can't chmod any programs on the drive to +x. It is being auto-mounted by Gnome (using udev, I think?) so I imagine the problem is a ...
7
votes
3answers
190 views
Detect and mount devices?
I upgraded Ubuntu today and everything works smooth except that Ubuntu doesn't detect any other storage devices. My / and /home partitions work fine, but my other partitions are just not detected. I ...
7
votes
2answers
593 views
Get flash drive to cache disk reads to primary partition
Basically I'm looking for a way to mimic Windows' ReadyBoost.
I asked this question on Unix.SE to get an idea of whether this was even possible and it seems like it is. Appparently there is a cachefs ...
6
votes
1answer
5k views
Why dd is not a reliable command to write bootable .iso files to USB thumb drive?
As the answers here indicate Ubuntu .iso s are not expected to boot if copied with dd to a USB thumb drive. Now my question is why is so that some Linux distributions have the option to directly write ...
6
votes
4answers
3k views
How can I keep a folder synchronized to an external USB hard drive?
I have a growing music collection which I manually keep in sync with an external USB drive. Sometimes I edit their ID3 tags, add or delete a file in either the hard drive or the USB drive, and I would ...
6
votes
2answers
1k views
USB drive Login token system?
Is it possible to have a USB drive function as a login token?
IE: I turn on my computer, plug the USB drive into my system and the system recognises it and logs me in? Likewise, logs me out should ...
6
votes
1answer
5k views
How to install grub on usb flash drive?
I was wondering if I could make an os-selecting-hardware-key or something like that.
I'm currently using a dual boot system (ubuntu 10.10 + win7) and i want to use an usb drive to specify the OS I ...
6
votes
1answer
568 views
Auto-mounting an encrypted USB hard drive
How can you configure a headless Ubuntu server to auto-mount an encrypted USB hard drive?
I found this similar question, which explains how to mount the drive from the command line, but the author is ...
6
votes
2answers
3k views
Is setting default mount options for udisks really not possible?
I want to mount usb drives with option flush (or sync).
I'm using Kubuntu 10.10 and as far as I understood udisks is responsible for the mount options. I've read various threads and two solutions ...
5
votes
4answers
3k views
How do I execute a file from a FAT USB drive?
I'm trying to install a portable app onto my USB drive such that it is compatible with both Ubuntu and Windows (specifically, a program called eToys). Support is already built into the app for both ...
5
votes
3answers
365 views
5
votes
4answers
1k views
What kind of FileSystem do you recommend for USB Flash Drive?
This is a problem I'm having when using Ubuntu: I have two computers that have Ubuntu installed on them (comp1 and comp2). I create a document with Ubuntu on comp1 and then copy the file onto a FAT ...
5
votes
4answers
13k views
How can I change permissions on external drives?
I wanted to change permissions on my external drives that are automounted however I have tried by sudo nautilus and then going to gui and permissions and changing it however it does not let me.
I ran ...
5
votes
6answers
3k views
How can I resize an external USB NTFS partition?
I have a new USB drive which came with a single NTFS partition.
How can I shrink that so that I can create an ext4 partition?
gparted does not seem to have the "Resize" option highlighted.
Update:
...
5
votes
2answers
2k views
Any way to upgrade from 9.04 to 10.10 with no CD drive?
My CD drive is broken and i am still on 9.4 and i want to update or clean install straight to 10.10. I do not care how I upgrade as long as i do not havew to use a CD drive or install the previous ...
5
votes
2answers
1k views
How to create a Windows 8 startup disk from ubuntu?
First of all, I'm not a windows fan. I just want to try windows 8. But I can't boot the usb after extracting the developer release with Unetbootin. The blogs mention a Windows 7 USB DVD tool which ...
5
votes
3answers
1k views
USB slots stop working suddenly from time to time
After re-installing Lubuntu 12.04 system on my laptop an older problem re-emerged after a few days and installation of different programs: without apparent reason the external mouse and sometimes ...
5
votes
2answers
400 views
Modification on USB bootable drive
A USB bootable drive discards all modifications made at shutdown. Is there a way to save it? If possible, how will that affect a version installed on to a different hard disk using that USB drive?
5
votes
3answers
877 views
How can I mount my LeapFrog Tag USB device?
I have no problem with my USB key devices: there are mounted automatically.
But for the LeapFrog Tag USB device it is not mounted automatically.
So I look in the Ubuntu documentation to mount USB ...
5
votes
6answers
3k views
Checksums do not match when creating a bootable USB stick
Since karmic koala, I can't create a bootable USB. Always the same error, it arrives to 96% and then this error " checksums do not match". Also in lucid, meerkat and natty even with fresh install. ...
5
votes
2answers
304 views
I installed Ubuntu onto an external usb drive, can it be used on multiple computers?
I installed the 12.04 iso with unetbootin to a flash drive then booted into the liveusb and installed onto an external hard disks. works flawlessly so far.
My question is; Am I able to boot to it ...
5
votes
2answers
2k views
Only 746.52 GB of 3TB drive is seen when accessed via USB enclosure. Works fine internally
I have a Mediasonic Smart Drive SuperSpeed 3.5" SATA HDD External Enclosure - USB 3.0 [HD6-SU3-BK]. It has the VIA VL700 - Super-Speed USB 3.0 to SATA controller which is supposed to support 3TB ...
5
votes
1answer
506 views
How to speed up copying files to NTFS drive?
I recently bought new USB 3.0 flash drive (write speed: 110 MB/s, read speed: 190 MB/s). And I have Dell XPS 13 (it has SSD and USB 3.0).
My problem is speed of copying files to the USB flash stick.
...
