
Add Solid State Hard Drive to Raspberry Pi
USB to SATA hard drive converters have been around for years. When combined with a solid state hard drive we have a fast USB drive for Raspberry Pi. I use this as a backup for my Raspberry Pi.
Here I will take a different approach. Normally one alters /etc/fstab to setup drives. This is very risky and will wreck your system if done wrong. I'll bypass that risk.
I programmed a Python control box to mount/unmount the drive under manual control. The drive will be opened with Thunar or PCmanFM but I use Rox-filer.

Above is my Python control box. It merely does with mouse click what we do from a terminal. I formatted my SSD as FAT32 just like any thumb drive.
This is for Raspberry Pi.
Plug in a USB thumb drive and type the following in terminal:
~ $ sudo mkdir /mnt/sda1
This creates a directory sda1 in /mnt. Now we will map the drive to /mnt/sda1:
~ $ sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/sda1 -rw ; rox-filer /mnt/sdb1
The drive is seen as /dev/sda1 which is mapped into /mnt/sda1. Open /mnt/sda1 and you will see the contents of the drive when rox-filer opens. You will be logged in as root and have read-write privileges. You can use pcmanfm for rox-filer.
Close your file manager and type the following:
~ $ sudo umount /mnt/sda1
Now /mnt/sda1 is an empty directory.
The control box is written in python3 and python3-tk. The complete sample code is open_sda1.py
Basic Electronics Learning and Projects
- Software and setup:
- Raspberry Pi Openbox Desktop 2019
- Setting up Openbox for Raspberry Pi
- Main Light Fast Linux Desktops with Openbox, JWM
- Test Reuse Surplus PC Power Supplies
- Add WBAR Launch Dock to Raspberry Pi
- Add MPG123 Terminal Music Player to Raspberry Pi, Linux
- Basics of Alsamixer Audio Control for Linux
- Add Solid State Hard Drive to Raspberry Pi
- Beep a PC Speaker Add Beeper to Raspberry Pi
- Using FEH Wallpaper Setter Under Linux
- Scrot Lite Weight Screen Shot Software for Linux
- Using Light Weight Beaver Text Editor
- Install Viewnior Image Viewer for Linux
- Zmixer ALSA Sound Control Tutorial
- Tutorial Xinitrc Desktop Manager Control for Linux
- Setup Raspberry Pi Using JWM Window Manager
- Live Linux Distro for Using Printer Port with Electronics
- Using the powerful Rox-Filer system in Linux
- Use FEH under Linux for a Wallpaper Setter
- How to create Symbolic links in Linux
- Exploring Digital Computer Electronics
- Hardware
- Hardware Review Connecting PC Parallel Ports
- Operation TB6600 Stepper Controller with PC Parallel Port
- Build or Buy Parallel Port Breakout Board?
- Build Serial HD44780 LCD Display Connect to Parallel Port
- Motherboards
- Presario 1999 CM1001 Gaming Computer Salvage
- Live Test 2002 VIA EPIA-800 Mini ITX Motherboard
- Salvage, Test 2012 AAEON EMB-B75A Industrial Motherboard
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