How to Use USB Drives on Ubuntu

The Ubuntu Linux operating system automatically accesses (mounts) a USB drive that is plugged into your computer, by default. Once the USB drive is mounted, Ubuntu creates a link to the device on the desktop. The device is actually mounted in the "/media" directory. You can use the USB drive just like you would any other directory on your computer.

Instructions

1. Insert the USB drive into a USB port on your computer.

2. Wait a few seconds for the operating system to mount the USB drive.

3. Open the link to the device that was created on your desktop.

4. Add, delete and move files as you would in any other directory.

5. Right-click on the link to the device on the desktop and choose "Eject" when you are ready to remove the drive.

Tips & Warnings

• You can also find the device if you click on the "media" directory located in the "Filesystem" directory.

• You can access the device from the command line by typing "cd /media/USB_device_name." Replace "USB_device_name" with the name of your USB drive.

• If your device is not automatically detected, open a terminal window and type "gconf-editor." Navigate to "/apps/nautilus/preference" and click the check boxes next to "media_automount" and "media_automount_open."

References

• Ubuntu documentation: MountUSB