Here's a concise guide on how to format a drive as ext4 and mount it using UUID on a Debian system:

1. Identify the Drive

First, identify the drive you want to format. You can use the lsblk command:

lsblk

2. Format the Drive as ext4

Assuming your drive is /dev/sdX (replace X with the appropriate letter), format it as ext4:

sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdX

3. Get the UUID of the Drive

Retrieve the UUID of the newly formatted drive:

sudo blkid /dev/sdX

Note the UUID, which will look something like UUID="xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx".

4. Create a Mount Point

Create a directory where you want to mount the drive. For example:

sudo mkdir /mnt/mydrive

5. Edit the fstab File

Open the /etc/fstab file in a text editor:

sudo nano /etc/fstab

Add the following line at the end of the file, replacing xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx with the actual UUID and /mnt/mydrive with your desired mount point:

UUID=xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx /mnt/mydrive ext4 defaults 0 2

6. Mount the Drive

Mount all filesystems mentioned in /etc/fstab to apply the new configuration:

sudo mount -a

7. Verify the Mount

Check that the drive is mounted correctly:

df -h

You should see the drive listed with the mount point you specified.

That's it! You've successfully formatted the drive as ext4 and mounted it using its UUID.