Question

Format and mount external USB drives in Linux with ext3 or ext4 on LVM

Asked by: pjinlaok

I have three external USB drives that I want to use as off-site backup media. I am backing up tar.gz files that exceed 25 GB so I can't use FAT to format.

I need instruction as to how I can use Linux LVM to format and auto mount the drive when the USB connection is made.

I would like specific instructions for:
How to see the drive in /dev/sdd#
How to create a LVM
How to partition the drive
How to format the drive.
How to mount the drive
How to have automatic mount when USB is connected to server.


Many thanks


Linux Fedora Core 6
8 GB RAM
core 4 3 GHZ
ext3
 

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Asked On
2008-04-09 at 10:47:34ID23309030
Tags

Seagate MyBook external USB drive

,

500 GB drive

,

need to store files larger > then 4 GB

Topics

Fedora Linux

,

Computer Hard Drives

,

Hard Drives & Storage

Participating Experts
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Points
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Answers

 

by: rsreidPosted on 2008-04-10 at 08:04:25ID: 21325590

How to see the drive in /dev/sdd#
      as root, run fdisk -l

Mine returns:

      Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
      255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
      Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

         Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
      /dev/sda1   *           1          13      104391   83  Linux
      /dev/sda2              14         523     4096575   82  Linux swap / Solaris
      /dev/sda3             524       60801   484183035   fd  Linux raid autodetect

      Disk /dev/sdb: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
      255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
      Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

       Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
      /dev/sdb1   *           1         510     4096543+  83  Linux
      /dev/sdb2             511       60788   484183035   fd  Linux raid autodetect
      /dev/sdb3           60789       60801      104422+  83  Linux

      Disk /dev/sdc: 250.9 GB, 250999209984 bytes
      255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30515 cylinders
      Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

         Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
      /dev/sdc1   *           1       30515   245111706    7  HPFS/NTFS

My usb drive is /dev/sdc1. Make sure you have your data backed up. Delete the previous partitions, which were probably ntfs or fat, with the following commands on each drive:
fdisk /dev/sdc
type "d" to delete the partition
type "w" to write the changes to the disk.
Go back in with "fdisk /dev/sdc" and make the new partitions
type "n" to make a new partition
type "p" for primary
type "1" for the first primary partition
type "t" for type and type "8e" for the type which is Linux LVM.
type "w" to write the changes.

Now do this for each of your usb drives.

As for the LVM, it sounds like you want separate LVM partitions for each drive. I would not do LVM. It would be easier to just do an ext3 formated partion on a regular disk. If you want to do ext3, then just set the type above from "8e" to "83".

To format it as ext3, run "mkfs.ext3 /dev/sdc1". With USB drives, I think they will automatically mount under /media on later versions of Red Hat and Fedora. With LVM, I'm pretty sure they won't mount automatically.

If you want to do the LVM route still, let me know and I'll put some more information together.

 

by: pjinlaokPosted on 2008-04-10 at 12:03:20ID: 21328215

Thanks Rsreid.

I will try it today and give you an update.

Peter

 

by: rsreidPosted on 2008-04-15 at 03:53:26ID: 21357469

How'd that work? I can elaborate more on the LVM if you needed it, but I think the above will work better.

 

by: pjinlaokPosted on 2008-04-16 at 11:13:27ID: 31447454

Thanks rsried,

You really helped me out. I know it might have sounded like a simple question, but I was just missing one part.

You rock

Cheers

Petrer

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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