Automatically mount USB storages when plugged

10-automount.rules

KERNEL!="sd[b-z][0-9]", GOTO="automount_end"  

# Import FS infos
IMPORT{program}="/sbin/blkid -o udev -p %N"  

# Get a label if present, otherwise specify one  
ENV{ID_FS_LABEL}!="", ENV{dir_name}="%E{ID_FS_LABEL}"  
ENV{ID_FS_LABEL}=="", ENV{dir_name}="usbhd-%k"  

# Global mount options
ACTION=="add", ENV{mount_options}="relatime"  

# Filesystem-specific mount options
ACTION=="add", ENV{ID_FS_TYPE}=="vfat|ntfs", ENV{mount_options}="$env{mount_options},utf8,gid=100,umask=002"  

# Mount the device
ACTION=="add", RUN+="/bin/mkdir -p /media/%E{dir_name}", RUN+="/bin/mount -o $env{mount_options} /dev/%k /media/%E{dir_name}"  

# Clean up after removal  
ACTION=="remove", ENV{dir_name}!="", RUN+="/bin/umount -l /media/%E{dir_name}", RUN+="/bin/rmdir /media/%E{dir_name}"  

# Exit
LABEL="automount_end"

Just put that file in /etc/udev/rules.d , then execute udevadm control --reload-rules to reload udev. This script is shamelessly stolen from http://www.axllent.org/docs/view/auto-mounting-usb-storage/. Also note that you should always manually umount before unplugging, as said in the comments.