Add hard drive into Linux Mint 21.1 Vera/Ubuntu/Debian

This is a condensed version on how to add hard disk into Linux Mint/Ubuntu/Debian. First check hard drives in the system, like so:

$: sudo lshw -C disk

It should show (partial data only) like this:

*-disk:1
   description: ATA Disk
   product: WDC WD3200AAKX-0
   vendor: Western Digital
   physical id: 1
   bus info: scsi@1:0.0.0
   logical name: /dev/sdb
   version: 1H15
   serial: WD-WMC2E0871450
   size: 298GiB (320GB)
   capabilities: partitioned partitioned:dos
   configuration: ansiversion=5 logicalsectorsize=512 sectorsize=512 signature=e32ff1f9

Using parted, let's now configure the harddisk/partition

$: sudo parted /dev/sdb

In parted prompt, create a new GPT partition table

(parted) mklabel gpt

Change the default unit to GB

(parted) unit GB

Create one partition occupying all the space on the drive

(parted) mkpart primary ext4 0 100%

Check to verify the layout

(parted) print

It should show something like below:

Model: ATA WDC WD3200AAKX-0 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 320GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags:

Number  Start   End    Size   File system  Name     Flags
 1      0.00GB  320GB  320GB  ext4         primary

Save and quit parted

(parted) quit

Format the partition using ext4

$: sudo mkfs -t ext4 /dev/sdb1

Formatting process should show something like below:

mke2fs 1.46.5 (30-Dec-2021)
/dev/sdb1 contains a ext4 file system labelled 'VMs'
        last mounted on /mnt/b41faa95-6135-47f6-a24e-ed1909d6fc18 on Sun Dec 25 19:06:43 2022
Proceed anyway? (y,N) y
Creating filesystem with 78142464 4k blocks and 19537920 inodes
Filesystem UUID: 1b7f46da-9aa6-4c30-afec-d983f35a19d5
Superblock backups stored on blocks:
        32768, 98304, 163840, 229376, 294912, 819200, 884736, 1605632, 2654208,
        4096000, 7962624, 11239424, 20480000, 23887872, 71663616

Allocating group tables: done
Writing inode tables: done
Creating journal (262144 blocks):
done
Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done

Now let us create a mount point

$: sudo mkdir /mnt/vmdisk

Add an entry in fstab to automount the new partition

$: sudo vim /etc/fstab

Add a line entry in fstab like below

/dev/sdb1    /mnt/vmdisk   ext4    defaults     0        0

We should be able to use the partition without rebooting, so mount it manually for now.

$: sudo mount /mnt/vmdisk

Add directory to be writable by user

$: sudo mkdir /mnt/vmdisk/vms

Make the user named timus owner of the new folder

$: sudo chown -R timus:timus /mnt/vmdisk/vms

Refs:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/InstallingANewHardDrive