I just started using CentOS 6 three days ago. I'm baffled by a lot of things, but the most recent is this: I'm was able to plug 'n play my USB flash drive (original formatting, straight out of the package, and brand new, but with some files on it that I created in both OS's) in Windows Vista (Home, SP2, I'm on a dual boot PC) until a couple hours ago. I used it in CentOS 6 after that, and then tried using it again in Vista, but the drive won't even show up in Vista's (My) Computer folder. I tried a different flashdrive in the same port and it works just fine. I tried the flash drive I'm having trouble with again in CentOS 6, and it shows up just fine, but when I bring it back to Vista, it just won't even show up at all. I have been using both OS's to safely remove the drive before shutting them down. I noted that there's some sort of "unmount" option in CentOS 6, but have found no documentation online to explain why a person would use it, what it actually does, etc. Only a lot of tutorials on how to do it. I don't want to use this option when I don't even know what it does or what it's for. Does it add OS files to the thumbdrive? Does it remove them from it? I don't know. Anyway, if anyone out there can point me in the right direction (please remember, I'm a newb, so please spell it out and give lots of explanations or links to explanations, thank you), I would very much appreciate it.

mounting a device makes its filesystem and files available to the operating system. Unmounting a device does the opposite. You can't view files on a drive unless the drive is mounted, and you shouldn't remove the drive from the computer until it has been unmounted.

1 members found this post helpful.

Thank you so much! I sure wish CentOS came with a "for dummies" wizard style tutorial or something, lol!

http://it-ebooks.info/book/719/

PDF

http://getebook.org/?p=170410

1 members found this post helpful.

Awwe, you're so sweet, both of you! Thank you!!!

PS. Just in case anyone else comes here with the same problem, I figured I'd post this. After I unmounted the thumb drive, Vista still wouldn't read it, but I remembered that whole thing about assigning a drive letter, which worked like a charm once it was umounted in CentOS 6. Here's more info about how to accomplish this last step:

Assign a Drive Letter in Windows (Mounts the Drive)