Hi =),
Im Using The Latest Version Of Red Hat Linux I believe kernel 2.4.20.8. I am an absolute newb to linux and have used windows my whole life and i hate it =) so im trying to convert. Linux is installed on a SCSI drive and i just installed an IDE Drive For Extra Storage. It has been partitioned as FAT32. when i go into konqueror /dev i see a like 300 hdX. starting with hda ending on hdt31 or something. i see hda1 but when i dclick i get a box that asks me what program i want to open this with. When I use A tool called Hardware Browser I can see the drive listed as /dev/hda hda1. i also see my SCSI Drive listed /dev/sda with 3 partitions sda1 sda2 and sda3 When I use User Mount Tool this is what i see

Device Directory Filesystem

none /dev/shm tmpfs
none /proc proc
none /dev/pts devpts
label=/boot /boot ext3

do i have to mount this drive or is it automatically mounted for me and how do i access it to put files on it? Thanks For Any Help =)

well, if it is the only ide hard drive then you should add in your /etc/fstab file the following line
/dev/hda1 vfat /mnt/harddrive defaults 0 0
then all you need to do is mount /mnt/harddrive, and from thereon it will mount on boot hope this helps

the short answer is yes... you do have to mount it

alright thank you very much for your help im rebooting now =)

well it gave me a whole bunch of errors i dont believe i configured the file correctly though gonna try it again

ok i get an error that says mounting local filesystems: mount: mount point /mnt/hardrive does not exsist

ok i tried adding the line like you showed me but it gave me a whole bunch of errors as i just typed it in like u did with no spaces or anything. i got a ton of errors on startup. so i tried again using spaces and entered
/dev/hda1 /mnt/hardrive vfat defaults 0 0. on boot up i get the error:
mounting local filesystems: mount: mount point /mnt/hardrive does not exsist. i looked in /mnt and there is nothing there. what do i do now?

well, while i was away i learned how to read and carefully read your post and caught the extra d in harddrive i was missing. i fixed it rebooted and still getting the same error

mkdir /mnt/hardrive

This command will create a new mount point (just a directory, really) and allow you to execute the mount command without errors.

Once you do the above, put the line back into your /etc/fstab

/dev/hda1 /mnt/hardrive vfat defaults 0 0

And then at the prompt type

mount -a

That should do it, you should see your disk mounted when you type mount. Now if you wanna put any stuff on it, just place it in /mnt/hardrive and it will go onto the disk.

Hope this makes sense.

so i see said the blind man as he stumbled OVER his wall =) Thanks you so much. even though it was a struggle i see how much more powerful that makes linux over windows in controlling your partitions. Thankyou everyone for your help =) time to play!!!

Cool, glad we could help!

that's right, now have fun