External Storage Drive Not Recognized By File Browser

Support & Help Requests
#1

I just posted a thread a couple days ago asking how to reformat an 8 GB USB drive to accept a 7 GB ISO file created from a DVD. I was able to do so using the Disks utility.

I had a used 7.5 GB hard disc drive that I removed from a desktop computer several years ago. I mounted it in an external drive case. I figured I could use Disks to reformat the drive to use as an external storage drive. I selected the option to write all zeros on the drive. There were 301 bad sectors but Disk indicated that the drive was still good. I selected the option to reformat it to be 'Compatible with all systems and devices (MBR/DOS).

After it finished reformatting it was recognized by Disks but it doesn't appear as a drive in my home folder under Computer. I want to be able to drag and drop files into it but can't do so if it isn't visible. How can I make it appear as a mounted drive? Did I select the wrong option when I reformatted it?

#2

Can gnome disk utility or gparted see the hard drive? If so what are the mount options?

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Can you find it by browsing to file system/media/and then your user name?

#3

In Disks it appears as a 750 GB hard drive. In Gparted is appears as /dev/sdb (698.64GiB). There are no mount options. Browsing file system/media/user name shows nothing.

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#4

Think you need to create partition as space is unallocated. Example below:

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#5

I created a primary partition and the drive is now visible in the file system. Unfortunately it gives me an error message when I try to drag and drop a file into it.

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1 Like
#6

Try double clicking on the drive and then right click / properties to see if possibly set to root. Did have similar issue once but can't remember how I resolved it. Image is of my 2.0gb removable drive permissions.

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#7

In file system it didn't bring up any window when double clicking or right clicking on it. Were you in the file system window of your home folder when you right clicked to bring up the window displaying Properties?

I reformatted the drive to the FAT32 file type and I was able to move files in and out of the external drive it but it threw me an error message when I tried to copy a 7GB ISO image into it because the file size exceeded the FAT32 limit of 4GB.

The exFAT file type option was not available in Disks so I used the following Terminal command to add the exFat utilities:

sudo apt install exfatprogs

Now my home made external hard disc drive is displayed in the file system and I'm able to transfer files larger than 4 GB.

Problems solved!