Ubuntu automatically mount partition at startup

Check your /etc/fstab file. It should look similar to this :

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid -o value -s UUID' to print the universally unique identifier
# for a device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name
# devices that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
proc            /proc           proc    nodev,noexec,nosuid 0       0
# / was on /dev/sda5 during installation
UUID=9de0aab4-e64c-49c8-af55-cc7375a97dd6 /               ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       1
# swap was on /dev/sda6 during installation
UUID=31a6807b-3b3e-4f9d-95c2-ead64d0c7009 none            swap    sw              0       0

Now if a partition is to be mounted at startup , a line for that partition has to be added to this fstab file.

Command to get a list of all partitions :

sudo fdisk -l

Typical output :

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000ef50d

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1        9138    73400953+   7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2            9139       60801   414982985+   f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5            9139       22192   104856192   83  Linux
/dev/sda6           22193       22323     1052226   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda7           22324       35377   104856223+  83  Linux
/dev/sda8           44942       60801   127395418+  83  Linux

Command to get the UUID of partitions :

sudo blkid

Typical output :

/dev/sda1: UUID="2A64794864791831" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/sda5: UUID="9de0aab4-e64c-49c8-af55-cc7375a97dd6" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/sda6: UUID="31a6807b-3b3e-4f9d-95c2-ead64d0c7009" TYPE="swap"
/dev/sda7: UUID="eba07f1f-b287-456a-b3d6-1c40d7b28a60" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/sda8: UUID="475abb5b-471f-4a6f-a589-782f3afc427f" TYPE="ext4"

Get the UUID of the partitions that you want to mount at startup.

Add lines to fstab file like this :

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid -o value -s UUID' to print the universally unique identifier
# for a device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name
# devices that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
proc            /proc           proc    nodev,noexec,nosuid 0       0
# / was on /dev/sda5 during installation
UUID=9de0aab4-e64c-49c8-af55-cc7375a97dd6 /               ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       1
# swap was on /dev/sda6 during installation
UUID=31a6807b-3b3e-4f9d-95c2-ead64d0c7009 none            swap    sw              0       0

# 100GB /dev/sda7
UUID=eba07f1f-b287-456a-b3d6-1c40d7b28a60 /media/eba07f1f-b287-456a-b3d6-1c40d7b28a60               ext4    errors=remount-ro,auto,exec,rw,user 0       0

# 121GB /dev/sda8
UUID=475abb5b-471f-4a6f-a589-782f3afc427f /media/475abb5b-471f-4a6f-a589-782f3afc427f               ext4    errors=remount-ro,auto,exec,rw,user 0       0

For example take the line :

UUID=eba07f1f-b287-456a-b3d6-1c40d7b28a60 /media/eba07f1f-b287-456a-b3d6-1c40d7b28a60               ext4    errors=remount-ro,auto,exec,rw,user 0       0

First part is the UUID , which is fetched from the command blkid.

Next is the path where the drive should be mounted. So first the directory /media/eba07f1f-b287-456a-b3d6-1c40d7b28a60 should be created

Next the file system type , here its ext4

Then comes the options : errors=remount-ro,auto,exec,rw,user

remount-ro means remount partitions incase of read errors.
auto – Automatically mount partitions at startup
exec – Give users permission to execute files on this partition
rw – Give read write permission
user – Allow all non-root users to mount this partition

Save the fstab file and next time your restart Ubuntu , the partitions should be already mounted.

Reference :
1. http://www.tuxfiles.org/linuxhelp/fstab.html

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