I bought a WD 250G external USB drive, and am having some problems mounting it under RHEL3. It's been formatted as FAT32 under Windows, and has some data currently on it. Here's what I get when I try and mount it:

[root@app02 devlabel.d]# mount /dev/sdb1 /usb
mount: /dev/sdb1 is not a valid block device

I've never had a problem on any of my other machines (they're all Cent4 or FC5+), so I'm a little confused. Here's what shows in the messages log:

Feb 9 08:24:28 app02 kernel: usb.c: USB device 3 (vend/prod 0x1058/0x901) is not claimed by any active driver.
Feb 9 08:24:31 app02 /etc/hotplug/usb.agent: Setup usb-storage for USB product 1058/901/108
Feb 9 08:24:31 app02 kernel: Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
Feb 9 08:24:31 app02 kernel: usb.c: registered new driver usb-storage
Feb 9 08:24:31 app02 kernel: scsi1 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
Feb 9 08:24:31 app02 kernel: Vendor: WD Model: 2500JB External Rev: 0108
Feb 9 08:24:31 app02 kernel: Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 02
Feb 9 08:24:31 app02 kernel: Attached scsi disk sdb at scsi1, channel 0, id 0, lun 0
Feb 9 08:24:31 app02 kernel: SCSI device sdb: 488397168 512-byte hdwr sectors (250059 MB)
Feb 9 08:24:31 app02 kernel: sdb: sdb1
Feb 9 08:24:31 app02 kernel: USB Mass Storage support registered.
Feb 9 08:24:31 app02 devlabel: devlabel's temporary ignore list /etc/sysconfig/devlabel.d/ignore_list has been emptied due to a change in device configuration.
Feb 9 08:25:20 app02 kernel: scsi: device set offline - not ready or command retry failed after bus reset: host 1 channel 0 id 0 lun 0
Feb 9 08:25:20 app02 devlabel: The device /dev/sdb is being put in devlabel's temporary ignore list /etc/sysconfig/devlabel.d/ignore_list to avoid errors.
Feb 9 08:25:21 app02 devlabel: The device /dev/sdb1 is being put in devlabel's temporary ignore list /etc/sysconfig/devlabel.d/ignore_list to avoid errors.
Feb 9 08:25:21 app02 devlabel: devlabel service started/restarted

Can anyone provide any insight?
Thanks in advance!

Are you sure it's coming up as /dev/sdb1? Sounds like it might not be. One thing to check might be plugging it in, then typing the following:
ls -al /dev | grep "Nov 24 15:"
...replacing "Nov 24 15:" with the date and hour (24-hour clock) that you're running the command on. That way you'll see everything that's new, with a time stamp; if it's posting to a different device (/dev/sda1 or something, for example) then you should be able to pick it out this way. Of course, the above command will only work if your computer has been on for at least an hour; that way all the startup devices should have timestamps that won't come up in your filter.

What does the command, as root, show?

/sbin/fdisk -l. That's a small L and not capital i!

Nothing shows in /dev - I think since it's blacklisted it's not showing.
And here's what I get when I run fdisk -l:

[root@app02 jake]# /sbin/fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 36.3 GB, 36364615680 bytes
64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 34680 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 2048 * 512 = 1048576 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 31 31728 de Dell Utility
/dev/sda2 32 7747 7901184 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 * 7748 8468 738304 83 Linux
/dev/sda4 8469 34680 26841088 f Win95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5 8469 24548 16465904 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 24549 26596 2097136 82 Linux swap
/dev/sda7 26597 28142 1583088 83 Linux
/dev/sda8 28143 28654 524272 83 Linux
/dev/sda9 28655 29166 524272 83 Linux

And the /var/log/messages snip I put in the earlier post was from when the drive was plugged in.
Thanks!

Have you compiled the kernel lately yourself? It seems the vfat module is lost. And yes it would be /dev/sdb for the ext. drive.

What about command, lsmod, is it showing the vfat module? If not type 'modprobe vfat'.

# mount -t vfat /dev/sdb1 /mnt/usb I guess not working either?

No, I have not compiled my own kernel. The kernel came from RH though up2date, until the subscription ran out (year ago). Here's the output:

[root@app02 jake]# /sbin/modprobe vfat
[root@app02 jake]# /sbin/lsmod
Module Size Used by Tainted: PF
vfat 13292 0 (autoclean)

[root@app02 jake]# mount -t vfat /dev/sdb1 /usb
mount: /dev/sdb1 is not a valid block device

I do see the vfat modules when I search the drive:
/lib/modules/2.4.21-40.ELsmp/kernel/fs/vfat
/lib/modules/2.4.21-40.ELsmp/kernel/fs/vfat/vfat.o
/lib/modules/2.4.21-40.EL/kernel/fs/vfat
/lib/modules/2.4.21-40.EL/kernel/fs/vfat/vfat.o

(the smp kernel is the one currently running on this machine).

Anyone have any suggestions?

Try this,

Create a new mountpoint in /mnt as
mkdir /WDhdd

now mount the drive
mount -t vfat /dev/sdb1 /mnt/WDhdd

This has worked for me. I hope it does for you too.

Best of Luck.