# How do I get to my thumb drive?



## SirWinstonoboogie (Feb 14, 2009)

Hello everyone,  

I am a complete newbie, but I have managed to install 7.1 yesterday.  I have 2 problems, and if I can copy some .txt files over to my USB drive, that would help.
-Dunno how, but possibly 'mount' the USb stick?

If so, I am unable to recognize it (I can recognize my H.D.s- the sysinstall taught me that!), and don't know how to do this.
Can I find it thru the KDE desktop, somehow, or do I go to the Cmd/ shell (if you know what I mean)?
I plugged in the drive, it lights up, so I guess that is good.
Also, the USB bus works, I think, because both the mouse and the keyboard functions under KDE.

If you have the time, can you explain htis issue to me.

thanks, Sirwinstonoboogie


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## CrazyFingers (Feb 14, 2009)

http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/books/handbook/usb-disks.html


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## jemate18 (Feb 15, 2009)

This is what I usually do....

My specs:
FreeBSD 7.1 i386
Celeron 1.5 Ghz
IDE harddisk 40GB



```
mount -t msdosfs /dev/da0s1 /mnt
```

I think USB disks are considered as "Direct access" for "da"

Regards,


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## marius (Feb 15, 2009)

On a default system you need to be root to mount an USB device, so use su or sudo to become root.

Plug in the USB-stick, and let's see where we can find it.


```
ls /dev | grep da
```


You will then see something like da0, da0s1, but the numbers may vary. Now Let's try mounting da0s1. 
(replace mount_msdosfs with mount_ntfs if your USB-stick uses that filesystem)
You will not be able to mount da0, so look for something called da*s*


```
mount_msdosfs /dev/da0s1 /mnt
```


Your USB-stick should now be mounted to /mnt, so let's try listing the content.


```
ls /mnt
```


If you would like to copy anything from the USB-stick you can do something like this.


```
cp /mnt/something /home/yourhomedir/
```


After you're done you can try to unmount the USB-stick.


```
cd /
umount /mnt
```

Don't just unplug the USB-stick without unmounting it first, or the system will panic. You have to step out of the /mnt directory before unmounting. If you have trouble unmounting, try using the -f option with unmount.


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## SirWinstonoboogie (Feb 15, 2009)

I can't Thank you enough Marius !

Since I am new to the Forum, as well as freeBSD, your completeness in replying is just what I needed. As others have described, getting around this OS can seem as a  vertical climb. 
Very, very valuable in that I am technically inclined, but sometimes short on patience.

You have indeed contributed to my knowledge, Thanks again.

Sirw.o.


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## hedwards (Feb 17, 2009)

To build on Marius' suggestion, you might want to type:

```
fstat -f /mnt
```
if it doesn't want to unmount, that'll tell you what processes or files may be open on the drive.


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