USB drives

In my four years of using Linux, getting USB drives, memory cards, CD-ROMs, and Windows shares in a state where I could actually use them has been one of my most frustrating problems. Printing, by comparison, has been far easier. I was frustrated even that I had to use the "mount" command, not to mention all the issues with getting it to work the way I wanted it to. In my four years of using Linux, it has gotten a lot better about automatically detecting and mounting devices; in particular, I almost never have to mount hard drives or CD-ROMs manually any more. Other devices, however, remain problematic. You may never have to use the mount command in Linux. You may also win the lottery jackpot; I wouldn't bet on either. This article is intended to help new users save a lot of the time and trouble that I have gone through.