[SOLVED] How to rename an internal drive?

[Moonraker]

This references an earlier post here: viewtopic.php?f=90&t=291259&p=1620482#p1615758

My question is basically this: How do I rename the drive to something normal?

Right now it's mounted at /mnt/d6069ada-df10-4d62-bf71-4b7cb460783e

Can I change the name from 'd6069ada-df10-4d62-bf71-4b7cb460783e' to something more normal, like '2TBData' or something like that. How would I do that?

[8 ball]

viewtopic.php?f=42&t=255060

[8 ball]

Or just edit the file /etc/fstab with a text editor. You'll see the mount point in there.

[Mute Ant]

'...How to rename an internal drive?...' Strictly, you can't, because a drive is hardware with wires.

You can always name an EXT file-system. With GPT you can name a partition too. I would boot a Live Session Mint and use the Accessory gparted to do that.

Your mount instructions in File /etc/fstab would need to be manually edited and a new mount point (folder) made. For example...

### file:///etc/fstab
LABEL=datatank /mnt/datatank ext4 rw 2 0

...and...

sudo mkdir /mnt/datatank

When it works, the Accessory Disks can do this from within the running OS, but I don't really trust it.

[phd21]

Hi Moonraker,

I just read your post and the good replies to it. Here are my thoughts on this as well.

If you give your disk partitions (volumes) a volume label, that can certainly make things easier.

Big +1 for using the "Disks" application which can also change volume labels and mounting points and correctly auto-mount partitions that you want available. This updates the Linux "fstab" file for you.

Previous post:
NTFS Partition does not activate even with automount, until clicking drive in file manager - Linux Mint Forums
viewtopic.php?f=208&t=278971&hilit=ntfs

Note: if you have been manually updating the Linux drives partition file "fstab", you may have to delete those manual entries before using "Disks" to work properly.

Hope this helps ...

[Flemur]

Run gparted, unmount the partition w/gparted, give it a label=DATA, 'sudo' edit /etc/fstab and add this line,

Code: Select all

LABEL=DATA      /mnt/DATA  ext4 defaults,user,exec,noatime   0 2

Then type

Code: Select all

sudo mkdir /mnt/DATA

then type

Code: Select all

mount -a
df 

and you should see your partition mounted at /mnt/DATA. It'll mount automagically when you reboot.

Edit: I don't trust 'Disks' either but only because of stuff I've read here.

[hcentaur13]

forget windows when you run linux. Windows needs access to physical drives and partitions. Linux hides drives and partitions from applications. There is a techic to handle that more natural than drive letters:

Mounting means binding physical partitions logical onto a logical directory. That means that the mountpoint, the directory that has mounted to a root directory of a partition is sitting anywhere in the path repaces logical the partition. It looks like a standard directory but the real store is somewhere on some computer in the whole universe. That begins with / - the whole root of the whole directory structure; making each and any partition and physical drive hidden.

A single mountpoint is mounted to a single poartition!

Each directory can be either
a) a simple directory that holds its contend on the same partition it is sitting in
b) a mountpoint - that holds its content in the root of the partition it is mounted on. Its own content is absolutely unaccessible while its mounted to a partition.
/mnt is the rootdirectory of mountpoints hidden from GUI
/media is a mountpoint that holds mountpoints visible on the GUI.

Each directory can work as mountpoint. That makes it possible to place mountponts logical on the place in the path where its content belongs to.

Read more documentation:
man mountpoint
man mount
man umount
man fstab

/etc/fstab is the place that mount reads to get instructions about mounting partitions into theyr logical places. It is readed during bootup and ever when mount is called.

[AndyMH]

When it works, the Accessory Disks can do this from within the running OS, but I don't really trust it.

Agreed, don't use the disks utility. Far better to edit fstab directly.

[Moonraker]

Sorry for the extremely late reply on this thread, and my thanks to everyone who commented and offered solutions. (I had some job and health issues that took me out of circulation for a while.)

I decided to start with what seemed like the simplest approach, and used the Disks utility to rename the drive. After unmounting and remounting everything seems to be back to normal. Had to recreate a few symlinks for some folders that pointed to the drive but other than that it was painless.

Hopefully this will allow it to recover if the system crashed or freezes again.

Again, thank you to everyone who replied.

AndyMH, hcentuar13, Flemur, phd21, Mute Ant, and 8 ball, I sincerely appreciate the help!