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I am new to Linux/Ubuntu. I have a clean Ubuntu install on a machine that I have installed a second hard drive (Fat32) that is going to be shared between a Windows machine (networked) and the Ubuntu machine. I have mounted a new drive and can see it from GParted (partition created) and file viewer. I cannot write any files to it, unfortunately.

I have tried to apply various fixes from around the web (and this site), but still can't seem to get it to work.

For reference:

Contents of /etc/fstab:

# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
/dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-root /               ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       1
# /boot was on /dev/sda2 during installation
UUID=d923af39-7577-418a-84e9-06d113e90f06 /boot           ext4    defaults        0       2
# /boot/efi was on /dev/sda1 during installation
UUID=F5A8-3BD5  /boot/efi       vfat    umask=0077      0       1
/dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-swap_1 none            swap    sw              0       0
#SST - Added by me to mount new WD Blue Drive
UUID=4F59-9754 /media/PoCPhoenix vfat defaults     0        2

And lsblk -fm -e 7:

NAME  FSTYPE LABEL UUID                                   MOUNTPOINT   SIZE OWNER GROUP MODE
sda                                                                  279.5G root  disk  brw-rw----
├─sda1
│     vfat         F5A8-3BD5                              /boot/efi    512M root  disk  brw-rw----
├─sda2
│     ext4         d923af39-7577-418a-84e9-06d113e90f06   /boot        732M root  disk  brw-rw----
└─sda3
      crypto       6564624b-59ed-4449-8fec-cc62050f9639              278.3G root  disk  brw-rw----
  └─sda3_crypt
      LVM2_m       Zi1u9t-kOcf-CSY7-NqfJ-qYlk-ibmv-QT7Yuk            278.2G root  disk  brw-rw----
    ├─ubuntu--vg-root
    │  ext4         88a5d4ae-bcf8-4197-aae4-74b38f351048   /          277.3G root  disk  brw-rw----
    └─ubuntu--vg-swap_1
       swap         d591aa12-bea7-4a95-968d-9c9ead79d300   [SWAP]       980M root  disk  brw-rw----
sdb                                                                  931.5G root  disk  brw-rw----
└─sdb1
      vfat         4F59-9754                              /media/PoC 931.5G root  disk  brw-rw----
sr0                                                                   1024M root  cdrom brw-rw----

Any help would be appreciated.

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    This isn't an answer to your question, but: You should be aware of the limitations of FAT32: It doesn't support files over 4GB, and it's also less reliable (for example in case of a power outage). ExFat or NTFS (Or Ext4 if it's an internal drive that will only be used in Linux) is often a better choice. Dec 19, 2019 at 21:50
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    That said, for your question "I cannot write any files to it", can you see the files already there? Does it show up as read-only on the file manager, or do you get an error when you try to copy a file to it? Maybe this is related: USB devices showing as read only. Dec 19, 2019 at 21:54

1 Answer 1

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This isn't quite a solution, but try exFAT if you can. It might work and exFAT is all around nicer with larger disk and file support. NTFS is also an option.
If switching filesystems isn't an option, try this:
sudo chown -R USERNAME /media/PoCPhoenix, replacing USERNAME with your username. This sets you as the owner of the disk. (not sure if ownership applies to FAT32, but no harm in trying).
Then, if that doesn't work maybe:
sudo chmod -R 777 /media/PoCPhoenix
However, this lets any user or program access the disk, so be careful.

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  • Thank you. The "sudo chmod -R 777 /media/PoCPhoenix" worked after i changed it to NTFS. I had originally formatted to FAT32 so Windows would be able to read it, and it was a brand new drive (no files). Dec 20, 2019 at 16:18

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