When I try to mount the drive I get a "/dev/sdb1 already mounted, or /mnt/sdb1 busy" I know it is not mounted, unless the mount point if somewhere hidden, not with the other mounted devices. Not sure why the directory just created would be busy. But if it is as you say and I was able to mkdosfs therefore I was able to write to it, then the LVM is hosed, cause issuing the Logical management commands cause there own errors. When I set it up on installation I left this drive alone (So I thought!). So I dont really understand.

Let's confine our attention to the Linux from the Knoppix Live CD first.

I believe Knoppix could have mounted your sdb1 in /media directory which seems to be catching on whereas other distros could mount it on /mnt. So do try to check /media too. This could be the case with a modern distro like Knoppix which will mount every partitions that are mountable on a boot up. Since your sda1 has been formatted and so it has a valid filing structure inside and becomes an ideal candidate for a distro wanting to show that it can mount everything.

When Knoppix looks at your disk it may or may not be reading your LVM. If the LVM is broken then Knoppix can read/write sdb1 as a stand alone disk. Knoppix is the king of Live CD or at one time it was regarded as such. Fedora is a server based distro and so theese distros have radically outlooks on their ultimate applications and your sdb1 can be treated differently, especially if Knoppix doesn't read it as part of the LVM.

To me the right thing to do is to stick with a distro that can work with the sdb1, write some files on it and verify it is in a working order first before examining the problem it has with Fedora.

If you boot up the latest Slax and it still can't see sdb1 or reports the presence of sdb in "fdisk -l" then I would say it is a hardware problem. Before that I still think it could be LVM-related.

Fedora C6 is a Red Hat, Knoppix (latest is V5.1.1) is a Debian and Slax (latest V6)is from Slackware. The three opinions together are sufficient to tell what is wrong with sdb1. I wouldn't pay too much attention to the errors from just one distro especially the issue is complicated by the LVM.

Ok, I am getting more confused now! Knoppix is a no go. It performs the mkdosfs command, and shows the sdb1 disk on an fdisk -l, but it is not automatically mounted anywhere, and I am unable to manually mount it. So I tried each live disk in turn and I found that sdb1 was automatically mounted and I can write to it and read from it with Scientific Linux 5, which is a R.H.E. linux. isn't that the same as FC6?? Also of note was the inability to recognize the logical volume sda2. Anyway, it seems I do not have a hardware issue, but I am not sure were to go from here.

It is pretty obvious to me that you either get an expert on how to repair your LVM or ditch it by reinstalling FC6 into a single partition.

If you give only one partition to FC6 installer to mount its "/" then the /boot will have to be a subdirectory to "/" and FC6 cannot use LVM if it wants itself to be booted.

Well I am not liking the LVM much, so I will ditch it when I get my external drive to back up data. So thats how to install without LVM, having the /boot as a subdirectory? I was looking for a radio button or command line option when I initially installed.

If you look at the output of "fdisk -l" in your very first Post #1 you will see your FC6 has two partitions

sda1 type 83 for native Linux as /boot
sda2 type 8e as a LVM for the root of FC6.

Linux boot loaders Lilo and Grub cannot read a LVM so /boot must be created as a separate partition so that the kernels are placed there for access by the boot loaders, whenever a LVM is used.

If you offer only one partition to the FC6 installer then /boot will be a subdirectory inside "/", same as /home, /usr, /etc, /var etc. Since there is only one partition FC6 installer cannot install LVM.

Hope you are still there....
I finally got things up and able to re-install. And believe it or not there is no change at all!!

fdisk -l:
mount :
and finally /dev :
In startup I have the same error that it was already mounted or the mount point was busy. This has gone on too long. please advise. thanks again

I have been away for two weeks.

Your current setup is different in it there is no longer any LVM. That should make life simpler.

I have not kept up to date with your problem but sdb1 should be mountable manually by commands
The above will fail "only" if sdb1 has no filing system inside or has not been formatted. A partition can only be mounted if it can be read or written. To do it there must be a filing system or the partition has been formatted.

Modern Linux does not need the filing type declared but older kernel may required the use of the "t" parameter like
Get the partition mounted manually first before implementing it in the /etyc/fstab

I haven't given up, but....
repartitioned the sda drive so I could put a few more distros on it. What I found was 2 of the 2 new distros were able to see the sdb drive with no problem, no configuration at all. I checked the fstab to see if it was any different than what I had in FC6 but there was none. seems to me there is a bug here. The drive is definitely not mountable in FC6, so I will wait to see if it is fixed in FC7 I guess. Thanks for the help, it was greatly appreciated. It doesn't look like this will get resolved in the way I was hoping, but it works now, kinda, after 2 installs later. I needed to get out and see other distros any way....
hey what are all those numbers scrolling up my screen now-AHHHHH see you in the wireless troubleshooting section