Question

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How can I prevent Ubuntu from mounting particular partitions/devices?

rated 0 times [ 20] [ 0] / answers: 1 / hits: 23142 / 2 Years ago, sun, february 13, 2022, 4:29:43

I would like to stop Ubuntu from mounting my other (Windows) partitions automatically since I do not need it very often, I would like not to automount "System reserved" partition for Windows.

There is a similar question here:

How can I stop Ubuntu 12.04 from mounting Fedora 16's Swap Partition?

However, I do not have these partitions added in /etc/fstab.

How can I do it ?

For proof, my /etc/fstab:

proc            /proc           proc    nodev,noexec,nosuid          0   0

# / was on /dev/sda7 during installation

UUID=1384cee0-6a71-4b83-b0d3-1338db925168 / ext4  errors=remount-ro  0   1

# swap was on /dev/sda6 during installation

UUID=e3729117-b936-4c1d-9883-aee73dab6729 none swap    sw            0   0

#------ MY WINDOWS D DRIVE---------- I WANT TO KEEP IT

UUID=98E8B14DE8B12A80   /media/d ntfs   defaults,errors=remount-ro   0   0

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ongdiligenc

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3 Years ago

answered 2 Years ago atelti · Accepted Answer

The solution is to add them to /etc/fstab, but with options to prevent them from being automatically mounted. The option you want is noauto rather than auto. For example, to prevent a windows partition from being mounted, you could add an entry like the following:

UUID=C2A281E4A281DCF3 /media ntfs-3g defaults,noauto 0 0

You can run blkid to retrieve the partition UUID:

sudo blkid

See "Using UUID" in the Ubuntu Docs.

Or, to make it more self-documenting and simpler, although not quite as fail-proof, I have switched to using disk labels rather than UUIDs. You just need to make sure the label is descriptive and unique; unlike using UUIDs, labels are not guaranteed to be unique, but I've never run into a problem, and it's more convenient, as you can swap a different partition by using the same label, and no need to modify /etc/fstab, or to run blkid.

Contrast the above entry with this one:

LABEL=Win_sys   /media     ntfs-3g   defaults,noauto   0  0

A good explanation of fstab options can be found on the ArchWiki and on the Ubuntu Docs.