Capterra Glossary
In the computer technology industry, the verb mount is used to define the act of attaching an external storage device such as a hard drive, USB flash drive, or blank disk to a computer system. Mounting a storage device to a computer system allows a computer user to access the files and folders that reside on the mounted device. Local mounts connect to the disk drive on a computer to access the data that resides on an external storage device. Remote mounts use a network file system (NFS) to connect the data directories that reside on other computer systems to a computer user’s file system. Businesses often use the mounting process to access data from or transfer data to an external storage device.
Small and midsize corporations that value the security of their sensitive business data often use external storage devices to store backups of their company files and folders. To do so, a company employee or IT administrator must mount an external storage device to a computer system and download a copy of system files and folders onto it. This ensures that if a computer system was to become compromised or damaged, they would still be able to access important company data.