I just got a new PC with both an SSD and an HDD. SteamOS is installed on the SSD, which I want to use for the operating system and games, while I would like to use the HDD for ordinary files. However, I'm new to Linux and don't understand how the drives appear in Dolphin, where files should be saved, or how to find them again later. How can I check whether the HDD is formatted and mounted, and set it up for regular use?
3 Answers
A quick way to identify the drives and their partitions is to open a terminal and run `lsblk`. It will show devices, sizes, partitions, and any current mount points. An unformatted or unmounted HDD may appear there without a mount location. You can also use KDE’s Disks & Devices widget to enable automatic mounting, after the drive has been properly formatted.
Linux usually presents storage as one filesystem rather than separate drive letters such as C: and D:. Your SSD is probably mounted as the root filesystem at `/`. The second drive must be partitioned, formatted with a filesystem, and mounted before you can use it. In Dolphin, check the Places panel under Devices; mounted drives should appear there. If the HDD is not listed, open KDE Partition Manager to see whether it has a partition and filesystem. Formatting will erase anything on it, so make sure it contains no important data first.
Dolphin normally lists mounted storage in the left-side Places panel, which can be shown with F9. Depending on your setup, the HDD may appear under Devices or under a location such as `/media/your-user-name/` or `/mnt/`. Once it is mounted, you can create folders on it and save files there just like anywhere else. For a beginner, using KDE Partition Manager and the graphical automount options is safer than editing `/etc/fstab` manually.
I found the HDD in KDE Partition Manager, but it looks like it still needs to be formatted. I’m very new to Linux, so the terminology and terminal commands are a bit overwhelming.