I have recently been given a second SSD to use for extra storage. I understand that you can use a second SSD to store data and freely transfer files between it and your main SSD. However, on my machine I cannot see the second storage device, even though the manjaro installer recognizes it and the device is listed in BIOS. How do I set it up so as to see and use the device with my PC?
Hi @HekTvT, and welcome!
It sounds like the SSD doesnât yet have a primary/active partition, from what I pick up quickly. Please post the output of:
inxi -Fazy
And
sudo fdisk -l
What is the SSD size/capacity?
Regards,
Thanks.
The output of inxi -Fazy lists all my parts. Under âDrivesâ it lists my storage as 894 GiB (which should be accurate, both drives are 480GiB. It lists them both.
The output of fdisk -l lists info on the drives specifically.
What info do you need? Also how would I create an active partition?
inxi -Fazy outputs:
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 894.26 GiB used: 10.24 GiB (1.1%)
SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required.
ID-1: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: A-Data model: SU635 size: 447.13 GiB
block size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s serial: <filter>
rev: 1c89
ID-2: /dev/sdb maj-min: 8:16 vendor: A-Data model: SU635 size: 447.13 GiB
block size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s serial: <filter>
rev: 4c18
Partition:
ID-1: / raw size: 447.13 GiB size: 439.11 GiB (98.21%)
used: 10.24 GiB (2.3%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1 maj-min: 8:1
Swap:
Alert: No Swap data was found.
sudo fdisk -l outputs:
Disk /dev/sda: 447.13 GiB, 480103981056 bytes, 937703088 sectors
Disk model: ADATA SU635
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x85e1b9b8
Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sda1 2048 937697984 937695937 447.1G 83 Linux
Disk /dev/sdb: 447.13 GiB, 480103981056 bytes, 937703088 sectors
Disk model: ADATA SU635
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Thank you @HekTvT.
From the output of sudo fdisk -l
it seems I was correct. Youâll have to create the partition for thee SSD. What type of partition will greatly depend on the need for the disk. If you need to access it in windows, youâll probably need to make it a FAT/FAT32/NTFS partition. If, however, you will only be accessing it in Linux, youâll could make it many partition types. I personally use ext4.
Iâm not 100% sure, and I canât check right now, but I think, note, think, you can use sudo fdisk /dev/sdb
to accomplish this. Iâm pretty sure itâll work for ext4
just not if it works for NTFS
/ FAT32
/ other windows partition types.
Please see
man fdisk
for more help.
@HekTvT your disk /dev/sdb seems not to have a partition table. Your disk /dev/sda is formatted in msdos and carries your Linux system. For a data partition you would be free to select gpt or msdos but if you later-on want to install another system on /dev/sdb then you should better use the same partition scheme for /dev/sdb. Ideally use an extended partition to allow more than 4 partitions.
Details can be found here:
Partitioning - ArchWiki
For a data partition to be used exclusively by Linux ext4 is the simplest fs approach, if you want to access it also by Windoze exFAT might be a good idea, or NTFS of course.
Alternatively, backup and reinstall Linux in UEFI mode with gpt partitioned disk.
Basically after plugging an SSD in with power and a sata cable, boot up your desktop and find âpartitionâ in the menu - with KDE it launches KDE partition manager.
After that (with my old SanDisk) select the device on the left, then format it to ext4 and give it a name (Being creative - I put SSD for my Sandisk SDSSDA240G).
Once itâs done, you can sort out how to mount it as a regular storage. I use gnome-disks for a rough and ready (nooby) way to fix mounts (it will write your fstab for you) and then later on I create systemd mounts - but thatâs just gravy.