yes, actually you cannot mount a drive, but a filesystem. Nothing else, but a filesystem. They are stored within partitions and partitions are used to split a drive into parts.
Sometimes we mix the two expressions (we say mount a drive, but actually we never do that, just mount a filesystem stored on that device). Usually this is the case when we have an usb stick with a single filesystem.

I believe it can be confusing.

Once the sdb1 is mounted, you can access the files normally. Nothing else is to be done.

IF you want to see it mounted, confirmation only, type mount by itself, and mount will list all mounted file systems on your system. keep in mind, this is not necessary, just giving you a way to verify what is mounted.

would be nice to explain exactly what did you do. Which directory did you create exactly? How did you put what instruction in fstab? What's happened when you executed mount -a? Was that successful at all?
Without details hard to say anything.

Sorry Cliff - I couldn't see a Wrap button anywhere. This is what is in the fstab file:

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
# /dev/sda1
UUID=42007db2-50af-46ae-9f4c-8b87b87c893f / ext4 rw,errors=remount-ro 0 1

# /dev/sdb1
UUID=3b754aac-49bb-46fd-b3fc-e253449a1f62 /nick/Music/music ext4 0 0

and this is the result of lsblk -f

nick@apl2 ~ $ lsblk -f
NAME FSTYPE LABEL MOUNTPOINT
sda
└─sda1 /
sdb
nick@apl2 ~ $


Does the above mean that I should change SDB1 in the fstab file back to SDB?

I did what I said I was going to do.

In the terminal I used CD /Music then mkdir music to create the directory.

I used gksudo gedit fstab to edit the fstab file. Then I saved it.

Then I typed mount -a

Press it once it enters square brace QUOTE and /QUOTE. You paste between the quote and /quote.

No. What you have in fstab looks fine to me, as long as the UUID is correct.

If you got no output when you ran the mount -a command, that is complete success. Typically, commands only return errors, or the data they are asked for.

So you created two directories:-
and
Do you have a directory called If you don't, that fstab mount will fail.
Also it would be nice if you mounted the filesystem as ro or rw.

no, this is not the exact story. Unfortunately cd and CD are not the same things, and there are a lot of [other] things which could be important but you did not post.
So would be better to show exactly what did you type into the terminal, what's happened. Also we would like to know what was the response of these commands (if they were successfully executed or there was a message or ....).

No, Music is already in the nick directory. I simply added the music (small 'm') directory.

After changing fstab again to change sdb1 to sdb, I tried the mount -a command and was told that mount point /nick/Music/music does not exist. Should it be nick/Music/music, ie without the leading '/'?

The system is correct, in that /nick/Music/music doesn't exist. The mount point will be /home/nick/Music/music. ( from the root )

The first / indicates the root ( beginnig of the tree ). That is what you want to feed the kernel.

The mount point always should begin with / . And should exist. You can easily check it with [for example] ls -l <mount-point>:
obviously you need to create this directory before trying to use it as mount point.

Just to make sure that I understand; you mean that is what should be in the fstab file?

Yes.

But music is created.

But when I type in ls -l /nick/Music/music it says no such file or directory.

If I type in ls -l /nick/Music the same thing, and also if I just ask for /nick

I have tried doing that using su, and also starting from the / (root)