Hi,

I am running ZORIN 7.1 O.S. on an older system (Socket 939). I love it and it runs great!
I have had some Linux experience running MINT on my newer rigs, which also run fine.

My question is regarding "sharing" files/drives from my recently installed "auto mounted at start-up" internal NTFS formatted HDDs. More specifically,*RETAINING* these same "Shares"!

I have installed two internal HDDs besides the Zorin O.S. drive to this system. These are being "auto mounted" on start-up to my Zorin O.S. via the Zorin provided "Disks" utility, which I have used successfully with the also provided "Edit Mount Options" options box to accomplish "auto mounting at start-up".

I can consistently start-up or re-boot, and these two (additional) HDDs will appear and be mounted on my Zorin Desktop. From here, I am able to successfully create "Shares" on either of these two auto mounted HDDs!

However, when I reboot or start-up from scratch, these two (additional) HDDs return "mounted" as expected, but *WITHOUT* the previously created "Shares" from before!
I have to create yet again each and every time any "Shares" that I desire to have *permanently* assigned to each (additional)HDD!

Can anyone here help this newbie out with some experienced solutions or insight?

Thanks

Hi there,

just to make that point clear: I don't have any specific knowledge about ZORIN beyond the fact that there is something of that name. So I can only give you some very general hints.

You put "shares" in quotation marks. Why? What do you actually have? A share is usually meant to be a directory that is accessible from the network, typically using Samba as a fileserver software. But your description sounds more like you simply have these drives built in, but not permanently mounted, then have your desktop system mount them.

Besides: Why NTFS? If you don't intend to swap these drives into a Windows computer (and I assume you don't because you're now using them as internal drivel in a Linux box), NTFS is about the last thing I'd recommend.

I'd assume your problem dissolves into thin air once you mount the two extra drives permanently on system level by choosing a permanent mount point and adding an entry to /etc/fstab for each of them. That way, they're mounted at the earliest possible time during boot, and every process being started later (including the desktop system) recognizes them as being already there. The fact that they're not available at boot time is probably why the shares disappear.

[X] Doc CPU

1 members found this post helpful.

Hi there,

just to make that point clear: I don't have any specific knowledge about ZORIN beyond the fact that there is something of that name. So I can only give you some very general hints.

You put "shares" in quotation marks. Why? What do you actually have? A share is usually meant to be a directory that is accessible from the network, typically using Samba as a fileserver software. But your description sounds more like you simply have these drives built in, but not permanently mounted, then have your desktop system mount them.

Besides: Why NTFS? If you don't intend to swap these drives into a Windows computer (and I assume you don't because you're now using them as internal drivel in a Linux box), NTFS is about the last thing I'd recommend.

I'd assume your problem dissolves into thin air once you mount the two extra drives permanently on system level by choosing a permanent mount point and adding an entry to /etc/fstab for each of them. That way, they're mounted at the earliest possible time during boot, and every process being started later (including the desktop system) recognizes them as being already there. The fact that they're not available at boot time is probably why the shares disappear.

[X] Doc CPU

1 members found this post helpful.

Hi Doc CPU and thanks for your reply.

Since I posted my question on this forum I have actually been able to accomplish what I had set out to do, which was to turn on my Zorin rig and have those two additional (NTFS) Hard Drives appear on my desktop mounted and with the Directories/Folders I previously selected (containing Videos and Music files) ready and available to be shared to my other computers and W.D. Media Player over my LAN.

I am a relative newbie to Linux, and as such get confused easily as to exactly how to go about things that are done more or less seamlessly in Windows like adding a hard drive for data file storage. As such, I know I need to learn the CLI to really get a grasp of Linux! However, I WAS able to use the provided "DISKS" utility and "Automatic Mount Options" GUI to first, mount the 2 internal drives at START-UP, and finally was somehow(?) able to get the created "shared" Folders from my original post question, to actually become (what I call) "retained" after a shutdown or re-boot. I would be hard pressed to explain or repeat exactly what I did to finally resolve this "retention" problem, but I believe it had to do with "Sharing" the entire drive rather than just my Folders/Directories?

Here are some screenshots of what I am talking about:

Please, any comments or observations would be appreciated.

Thanks again for your help and interest!

Attached Thumbnails

     

1 members found this post helpful.

Hi there,

well, congrats so far.

Yeah, we all used to be, didn't we? :-)

Actually, I was a very intimate Windows user over a period of nearly 15 years. But after slowly moving from Windows to Linux, I'm still amazed every now and then at how simple things are in Linux that were a pain in the ass with Windows. Very rarely the other way round.

That's very helpful, in fact. However, most contemporary Linux distros try to offer alternative approaches to cater for those who don't like diggin' around in config files or juggling with command line switches. Yet, some tasks are really easier to accomplish using the command line (and that applies to Windows, too).

You know the difference between Windows and Linux from a user's point of view?
In Windows, there's a GUI for everything. Some things, however, can also be done via CLI.
In Linux, there's a command line way for everything. Some things, however, can also be done using a GUI.
And believe me: In about 25 years of computer experience, I've come to the conviction that editing a configuration file is usually a much more convenient approach than using a GUI. GUI solutions that prove this statement wrong are very, very rare.

I don't think so. Looking at your screenshots, I can see that you're in fact mounting your extra drives in /etc/fstab now, and that you're actually using Samba for creating the shares. Good. That's the usual approach. I think that ZORIN is doing some magic behind the scenes in one or the other scenario that is hard to guess for someone who isn't familiar with that particular distro.

[X] Doc CPU

1 members found this post helpful.