My USB Western Digital 1 TB SATA SSD that I use for external storage shows empty when I try to open i up. I have 90.0 GB used with 910.2 free according to the Fuse Filesystem. I store various movies here. What am I doing wrong or not doing at all? Thank you.
How is the SATA Drive formatted?
If the disk usage shows 90 GB but the folder is empty, first check whether Files is showing the real mount point. Open a terminal after plugging it in and run lsblk -f plus findmnt | grep -i wd (or grep the label if it has one). Also try ls -la /media/$USER/<drive-name>; a lot of “empty” cases are either hidden dot-folders, a second partition mounted instead of the data partition, or an NTFS/exFAT volume that needs a clean unmount/repair from Windows before Linux will show it properly.
I don't know. I do know I used this device when I was using Windows. It was never started on Linux.
Above my pay grade and complicated too. I don't use the terminal any more than I would have used the terminal in Windows. I'm just geek less I guess.
That sounds like it would be ntfs ... When the Drive is plugged in in zorin, open the Program called ''Disks''. When open, click on Your plugged in Drive on the left Side and You will get on the right Side Details. Look if You find the Format. Or post a Screenshot of the Overview here.
The terminal is your best friend. It is not an enemy with fangs and claws. On Windows, use of the CMD prompt is discouraged, as it makes users more controllable.
Using the terminal puts control back to your fingertips, where it belongs.
That said, there is no need for you to jump into the deep end of the pool on your first swim.
Using the Disks app GUI, you can check that the drive is formatted properly, check that you have permissions to access it and check that it is set to automount and is mounted to be accessed - as others above suggest.
Zorin OS includes the ntfs-3g package that allows the ext4 formatted Operating System the ability to read and write to an NTFS formatted drive.
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What I did was format the drive using Zorin. Then I downloaded a few movies. That worked fine and have had no problems with it since then. Thank You.
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I am sure that repeated use of Zorin will afford me the level of expertise one day as others. It is true, however, that Windows has spoiled us in that regard.
Is this an external drive that requires power? If it does you need to attach to a power socket and switch the power on first, then attach the USB to the correct USB Port. I don't have any experience of SSD external drives, onl WD Elements which uses HDD.
I stumbled on a thread recently elsewhere (not on this forum), where ntfs-3g has been deprecated and needs to be installed!
It still is int he Zorin OS repository:
apt search ntfs-3g ─╯
Sorting... Done
Full Text Search... Done
libntfs-3g89t64/noble-updates,noble-security,now 1:2022.10.3-1.2ubuntu3.1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
read/write NTFS driver for FUSE (runtime library)
ntfs-3g/noble-updates,noble-security,now 1:2022.10.3-1.2ubuntu3.1 amd64 [installed]
read/write NTFS driver for FUSE
ntfs-3g-dev/noble-updates,noble-security 1:2022.10.3-1.2ubuntu3.1 amd64
read/write NTFS driver for FUSE (development)
What I have understood so far is that it is intended to be replaced by NTFS3 in time, which will be built into the Linux Kernel.
Yes, wasn't sure of the name, but apparently is already present on another distro and so user was advised to install ntfs-3g as they could not access their NTFS partition. (Yet another backward step. Wonder if Microsoft wrote the code for NTFS3! 
)
No it does not need external power. Thanks.
OK, but as added precaution I would always disable internet connection as ransomware criminals can identify external storage devices.
OK thanks.