the mount command requests that you specify the filesystem, but if you don't know it how would you go about finding it out?

r u sure the partion u r mounting to is format or not?

do u make this mouting partition as ext3?

if you dnt knw my answers can you please specify what command you r using and what you r interested in doing ,,

because normally this error comes when you havent formatted the specific partion into ext3 or swap,,,

One way would be to issue the command fdisk -l /dev/hda (assuming you are working with hda). That will list all partitions on the disk with file system type. Here's the output from my computer:

[glenn@dad ~]$ sudo fdisk -l /dev/hda
Password:

Disk /dev/hda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 2550 20482843+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda2 2551 19457 135805477+ 5 Extended
/dev/hda5 2551 5100 20482843+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda6 5101 7650 20482843+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda7 7651 10200 20482843+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda8 10201 12750 20482843+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda9 12751 15300 20482843+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda10 15301 17850 20482843+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda11 17851 19457 12908196 83 Linux

You may need to use /sbin/fdisk -l /dev/hda depending on your path settings.

justmran, I can mount the partitions fine, I just want to know how to do this encase I ever am asked to take a live cd and rescue someone's data. I know many live cds will set it up for me, but I'd feel better if I knew how to do it manually.

Glennzo, that worked fine for hda, but it didn't work on my USB stick, is there any way that will work on anything?

Don't rely on "fdisk -l" - purely indicative. Not worth spit.
Use "file -s /dev/???"

thanks syg00, that was exactly what I'm looking for but it only works for primary partitions

hmmmm.....file -s works on my system for some logical partitions and not others
??????

better than mine, it just says their boot sectors but dosn't mention the FS

I predominantly use ext[2|3] - works fine for me.
NTFS shows up with a boot record, but has the eyecatcher.

Sorry, never needed anything else, so never gone looking.