External USB Hard Drives

ralvy · 2006-03-02 04:47:50

Will I need special drivers to allow Arch Linux to see and use an external USB hard drive?

Is there a size limitation under linux when considering external hard drives? I was considering a 300gb drive.

mtrivs · 2006-03-02 07:06:02

I have a 160GB HD i use, i have problems with it though. I think it is because i dont have the right modules loaded, or I may have bad blocks on the drive. It works sometimes, but i think it is just the way i configured it. you should be able to get a drive that big to work no problem. the only thing is that you may have to format it into a filesystem that arch will be able to write to. I use ext3 along with the ext3 drivers for windows which allows read/write in both operating systems!

Good luck!

ralvy · 2006-03-02 15:20:44

mtrivs wrote:

the only thing is that you may have to format it into a filesystem that arch will be able to write to. I use ext3 along with the ext3 drivers for windows which allows read/write in both operating systems!

Have you tried formatting it with vfat?

mtrivs · 2006-03-03 03:28:05

I have tried that, but i dont like that i am unable to store files which sizes are larger than 4GB. I would rather use vfat if it wasnt for this little drawback, because then i wouldnt need any drivers to be able to do the same thing in both windows and linux.

mtrivs · 2006-03-03 03:34:21

The problem was somehow fixed after tinkering with the fstab entry...
This is what snowman suggested i use for my ext3 external drive and it works!

/dev/sda1       /mnt/hd_ext    ext3 noauto,user,rw,suid,dev,exec,async   1       0

ralvy · 2006-03-03 04:06:31

/dev/sda1       /mnt/hd_ext    ext3 noauto,user,rw,suid,dev,exec,async   1       0

Thanks! I'll have to revisit this thread when I get the device. I don't need files larger than 4gb, so I can use vfat for that drive so I can access it with other OSs.

mtrivs · 2006-03-03 04:09:51

you would only use that line in the fstab if you are going to mount a drive that is formated in the ext3 file system. If you are going to use vfat then you would have to use a different line in the fstab.

ralvy · 2006-03-03 15:44:04

mtrivs wrote:

you would only use that line in the fstab if you are going to mount a drive that is formated in the ext3 file system. If you are going to use vfat then you would have to use a different line in the fstab.

Yeah, I understand that. Here's what I've been using with fat partitions so far, as it's alwys worked:

/dev/hda5    /mnt/dos    msdos    auto,umask=000,uid=1000,gid=100        0    0
/dev/hda6    /mnt/win    vfat    auto,umask=000,uid=1000,gid=100        0    0
/dev/hdb1    /mnt/back    vfat    auto,umask=000,uid=1000,gid=100        0    0

I'll try that approach first.

jaboua · 2006-03-03 17:02:06

Remember to use "noauto" instead of "auto" on the USB harddrive. If not, it will try to mount at boot which will make an error if it's not connected...

ralvy · 2006-03-03 20:23:22

jaboua wrote:

Remember to use "noauto" instead of "auto" on the USB harddrive. If not, it will try to mount at boot which will make an error if it's not connected...

Yeah, I realize that. That's what I do with my MO drive, which doesn't always have a cartridge in it. Thanks.

Arch Linux

#1 2006-03-02 04:47:50

External USB Hard Drives

#2 2006-03-02 07:06:02

Re: External USB Hard Drives

#3 2006-03-02 15:20:44

Re: External USB Hard Drives

#4 2006-03-03 03:28:05

Re: External USB Hard Drives

#5 2006-03-03 03:34:21

Re: External USB Hard Drives

#6 2006-03-03 04:06:31

Re: External USB Hard Drives

#7 2006-03-03 04:09:51

Re: External USB Hard Drives

#8 2006-03-03 15:44:04

Re: External USB Hard Drives

#9 2006-03-03 17:02:06

Re: External USB Hard Drives

#10 2006-03-03 20:23:22

Re: External USB Hard Drives

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