13.5. USB Flash Drives
A recent development in removable media is the USB Flash Drive.
This is a small, solid-state memory device, normally no larger
than a pen.They can be carried conveniently on a key ring, and
are sometimes referred to as 'USB Keys' as a result. These
small drives can contain files, directories, and even software.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux has the ability to use these drives through the
auto-mount features of Nautilus.
Like diskettes, USB drives are useful for carrying files between
machines not on the same network, or between computers that use
different operating sytems. Linux can read files from a USB
drive formatted to work in Windows. However, if you encrypt the
files or filesystem on your USB drive, Linux may not be able to
read those files.
13.5.1. Mounting your USB drive
When you plug the drive into a USB port o your Red Hat Enterprise Linux system,
several things happen. Nautilus
recognizes the drive and auto-mounts it to the directory
/media/<manufacturer>/,
where <manufacturer> is the
name of the maker of your drive.
Nautilus also creates an incon of
the same name on your desktop. Finally,
Nautilus adds a similar icon to
the Computer window.
To mount your USB drive manually:
Open a terminal window.
Enter the command mount
/media/<manufacturer>/.
To mount your USB drive with
Nautilus
Open the Computer window from the
desktop.
Double-click the USB key icon, or right-click on the icon
and select Mount Volume.
13.5.2. Accessing the USB drive
You can access your USB drive from the desktop or from a shell
prompt. From the desktop, you can either double-click the
icon or you can first open the Computer
window, then double-click the USB drive icon. From a shell
prompt, enter the command cd
/media/<manufacturer>,
making sure to replace
<manufacturer> with the
drive's manufacturer.
13.5.3. Unmounting the USB drive
You must unmount your USB drive before removing it from your
system, or problems similar to those that can affect diskettes
may aflict your USB drive.
To unmount your USB drive manually:
Open a terminal window.
Enter the command umount
/media/<manufacturer>
at the shell prompt.
To unmount your USB drive with
Nautilus
Locate the USB drive icon on your desktop or inside the
Computer window.
Right-click on the icon and select Unmount
Volume.
Once the USB drive has been unmounted, you may safely remove
it from your USB port.
| Tip |
---|
| The icon for the USB drive will remain visible from the
Computer window as long as the drive is
plugged in to the port. It will remain visible even if the
drive is not mounted. If you think your drive should have
files on it but cannot see them, verify that the drive is
mounted.
|