New User - Help finding Ext USB H/D

[rrushing]

I am a brand new user to RH & Linux so I keep things simple for me.
I have plugged in my W.D ext USB 2.0 H/D into my compter, but I cannot seem to find it or the files. I see it on the "hardware" section, but I cannot access any files from there.
Any help would be appreciated. ??? ???

[trommaster]

ok, you can see it, thats a good start :-P
you could try this: (im assuming you know all about mounting drives.. you will have to be root

mkdir /mnt/drive <- somewhere to mount it
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/drive

if that works, you can then get to the files in /mnt/drive. you will need to be root to write to it. If it works all fine, we can move onto giving the user access.

[rrushing]

ok, you can see it, thats a good start :-P
you could try this: (im assuming you know all about mounting drives.. you will have to be root

mkdir /mnt/drive <- somewhere to mount it
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/drive

if that works, you can then get to the files in /mnt/drive. you will need to be root to write to it. If it works all fine, we can move onto giving the user access.

Huh? I have no idea how to mount a drive (is it like mounting a horse?) and I am not a plant, so I am not sure what being a root is. I am sorry for the humor, but I am totally lost. Thanks for helping the lost. :P ;D ???

[dox]

rofl

root is the administrator!!the administrator account is called like that in unix and linux!! when u installed redhat you was asked to choose a password for root (administrator)! if u didnt type anthing then it would be without password which is very insecure!!

[rrushing]

Yea! I get it. I am logged on as an admin or root.

I see the H/D under the Hardware Browser, but it is not there under the Disk Management section where it asks to me to mount and unmount a drive. The only things there are my CD-RW, DVD, floppy.

Let me know if you can help me find the info on the ext h/d.

Again, thanks for all of your help.

[dox]

well open the konsole and then you do as alastair said

write this

mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/drive

and then hit enter!!!

[rrushing]

I am sorry for being so clueless (too many years w/ Windows exp)

mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/drive"
it comes back w/ a reply "mount point /mnt/drive does not exist"

So I looked up in the hardware browser and it said /dev/sda/sda1, so I used that for the command line, but I got the same response.

Am I suppose to be substituting "/mnt/drive" for something else more specific?

I'm just a lost virgin Linux user trying desperately to get away from Windows, so be patient w/ me.

[vwgtiturbo]

At least in RH9, you must have a drive in the fstab in order to mount...

First, create the mount point: "mkdir /mnt/drive"

Next, open a text editor, either with the GUI (a basic text editor, not openoffice), or you can use vi from the command line, but based on what I have read, I wouldn't recommend that just yet...

Anyways, open the file "/etc/fstab"

Add this line to the bottom of it (make sure you put tabs, or a few spaces between the different fields): "/dev/sda1 /mnt/drive auto defaults 0 0"

Save the file.

Either from the GUI or command line, attempt to mount the drive: "mount /mnt/drive"

You may receive an error about the filesystem, depending on how you have the USB drive formatted.

If it is formatted as NTFS, install NTFS support (rpm for that can be found at http://linux-ntfs.sourceforge.net/rpm/redhat9.html). Just download the rpm that corresponds to your kernel, and processor type. When the file is finished downloading, right-click it, and "Install packages...". You will need to enter the root password to do this...

If you are running the system as root, I would not recommend that, as you risk seriously damaging your OS (and reinstalling) if you mess with something that shouldn't be messed with... Trust me... when I was a complete newbie, I think I ended up doing 10 installations because I like to tinker with stuff, but didn't know how to do it properly...
Run the system as a regular user, and when you need to be root, open a terminal (System Tools>Terminal),
enter "su -", then enter the root password.

Anyways, after installing the rpm, you will be able to READ NTFS partitions, not write to them.
If you have the drive formatted as FAT, change the "Auto" section of the /etc/fstab line (that you just added) to "vfat".

If you want to use this on both Windows and Linux systems (and be able to read AND write on both systems), you should format the drive as FAT32...

After all of this, you should have no problems, and it will be much easier to mount it in the future: "mount /mnt/drive"

[rrushing]

YEA!!!!!!!
I found the info and the drive....

Thanks so much for all of your help.

[vwgtiturbo]

Wow, I just posted that... you are quick!