[How To] Automount Hard Drive Partitions Everytime You Login to Ubuntu Linux

Bharath | October 8th, 2008 - 12:02 pm


Hello people,

This is Bharath Ram. I wanted to share with you an information I just found. This indeed solved my problem so I thought it would solve yours too.

In ubuntu (and may be in other distros) every time you login you never get your drives auto mounted (don’t you?). This is a real pest especially when you would have set your wallpaper from an external drive or some other reason you want to use external drives for.

I have just found out a solution for this problem. That is no big deal but a small software called “pysdm”. It was there for me in the ubuntu repositories but i seriously don’t know about other distros. Install this software and if necessary open it after install (alt+f2 -> type “pysdm” -> enter) and in the options there say to automount your partition(s) at startup. Now the drives of ur hard disk will be mounted whenever you login. You won’t have to manually/using computer mount them.

Hope this helps

P.S-Please post your comments if you need any help or if this has helped you out!

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40 Responses to “[How To] Automount Hard Drive Partitions Everytime You Login to Ubuntu Linux”

  1. Binny V A says:

    Why no just add the partition to the /etc/fstab file? Thats what I do.

  2. Bharath Ram says:

    There are many ways to accomplish something……..
    the above mentioned is only one way……
    you dont necassarily have to do that…..

    Besides, people who feel that opening and editing a file is a boring work or people who have zero knowledge of what fstab is and all can use pysdm. it costs you nothing to install a light weight component

  3. Bharath Ram says:

    by the way, pysdm does the same /etc/fstab editing so not much diference

  4. Aditya says:

    So this is basically a GUI front end to fstab. I’ve been looking for something like this. I’ve not had much good luck with editing configuration files. Last time edited xorg, I ended up killing the screen. Nice article, thanks

  5. Bharath says:

    no probs………..

    infact i m glad that my article helped another person

    • shameem says:

      hai,frd, ur article have definitely helped me.i hated ubuntu for dis problem.it was not only with the wallpapers,but also,wenever i resume my torrent dwnlds,i had to mount each partitions.and i 4got it always,and it caused restart downlding.
      thank u so much ….u can really be proud of ur knwledge.v,the beginners, hop mor frm u.

  6. Sathya says:

    @Binny Editing /etc/fstab is not everyone’s cup of tea [it is mine though ;-) ]

  7. Bharath Ram says:

    gud point sahtya…….

  8. [...] I’d posted on auto-mounting partitions at startup using pysdm. This post shows how you can do so by making use of mount [...]

  9. Billigflug says:

    thank u for the information.
    I have Ubuntu under vista, so I don’t have this problem
    keep up ur good work
    I will be a regular reader of ur blog

  10. So this is gui only? Not command line?
    I tried running it from the command line, ooops!

  11. Ben says:

    Sorry, I find this software gives me permission issues – it’s not easy and for some reason I never have permission to ‘sudo’ mount or unmount filesystems.

    From command line or ALT F2 prompt run gksudo pysdm

    watch it though, make sure you have fstab backed up and be prepared to clean up and edit further afterwards. One thing pysdm does well is to put all the UUID information in for you.

  12. Bharath Ram says:

    Hey Ben………

    The software can b opened thru the Menu:
    System->Administration->Storage Device Manager

    Or try making a shortbut for itin desktop
    command: “gksu pysdm”

    I think such softwares shud hav enuf security since they
    deal with system files

  13. PGE says:

    Was looking for something like this after installing a second Hard Drive last week and finding it won’t mount on start.

    Not confortable with the the whole fstab-thingy I was looking for some easier way. You know, big colorful buttons and a GUI ;) Let’s see how this works.

    Thanks!

  14. Lucas says:

    This worked great. Thanks for the help :)

  15. Gary says:

    This is much easier than a manual entry, for us beginners.

    I must say I had to enter it as “sudo pysdm” in order to have the appropriate permissions, even though I was logged in as an administrative user.

  16. This worked great for me. Thanks for the help. great blog.

  17. Switchin0ver says:

    Ok guys …. am trying to switch over from the “Other OS” ;)
    found the /etc/fstab as well … am not a programmer/geek
    but I would really Like to Know how to add the auto mounting options Manually in the file … i.e.: making the entries to automount every time I login ……. can anyone give me a walkthrough please ? …. thanks in advanced :)

    • Sathya says:

      @SwitchinOver This should give you enough info on understanding /etc/fstab, let me know if you need anything :-)

      • fred says:

        Followed this advice and my system will no longer boot. Using the GUI I checked a couple of options to automatically mount the various drives I have on my system – this is ALL I did.

        Looks like I am now facing a re-install with the boot process locked and displaying:

        *Cannot initialize /etc/mtab

        as the first error, with plenty of other ‘permission denied’ statements to follow it. I am a little naive, and too trusting, but other users please beware and take care before altering your systems blindly (as I have done).

        Author of this blog – please consider all outcomes of the advice that you post, and perhaps issue a few health warnings to the gullible masses. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

  18. thank you for your information
    good work

  19. wow, i can say i’ve looked for this a very long time
    thanks!!!

  20. Werbetechnik says:

    thanks for the tip. now i can finally realize what im
    planing :)

  21. Angelreisen says:

    Nice site, really interesting. Thanks

  22. Lowrance HDS says:

    Thank you for this information and your work.

  23. It works great. Thanks for your help.

  24. This worked great. Thanks for the help

  25. This work is greatest.Thanks for your information

  26. I realize that the information is very useful to us. Thanks for this message.

  27. Lawrence Gardiner says:

    I’m a Linux newbie and couldn’t mount my devices AT ALL. Pysdm really helped. Thank you for the post.

  28. John says:

    I’m actually incredibly sad :( I have the program but I can’t see ANY option for automounting :( Sounds like everyone has been able to do what I really need to do but me :(.

    Maybe I am missing something?

  29. John says:

    By the way I’m clicking on the “assist” button.

  30. John says:

    Right, the “mount file system on bootup” Option was already ticked from the moment I had installed the program. It doesn’t seem to have worked or given the desired effect. I put some links on the drive in “places” for quick access and those do not appear nor does the icon on the desktop for the drive which happens after it’s mounted until I click on local disk which is exactly the same as I had before :(.

    Guess this is not meant to work for me :( Glad your article helped others anyway.

  31. Mr.Ptah says:

    Thank you Bharath Ram,

    It is the easiest way to auto-mount drive.
    Ubuntu should include this utility in their releases, for it is very annoying little issue for many users!

    Thanks for your help.

  32. cowboysaif says:

    Thanks. That really helped

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