I have an eSATA drive where i store generic stuff like songs, docs, etc.
I put it in fstab to automatically mount it. sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't depending if the drive comes up as the sdx that i have specified.



fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sdb: 41.1 GB, 41174138880 bytes
16 heads, 63 sectors/track, 79780 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 1008 * 512 = 516096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x863fbc90

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 1 79752 40194976+ 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdc: 20.0 GB, 20020396032 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 2434 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x2b562b55

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 * 1 2327 18691596 83 Linux
/dev/sdc2 2328 2434 859477+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sdc5 2328 2434 859446 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/sdd: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0007084d

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdd1 * 1 29164 234259798+ 83 Linux
/dev/sdd2 29165 30401 9936202+ 5 Extended
/dev/sdd5 29165 30401 9936171 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/sde: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xbce589e4

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sde1 * 1 60801 488384001 7 HPFS/NTFS


here sde is the drive i am trying to automatically mount.



cat /etc/fstab
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
# /dev/sda1
UUID=b3dd751c-15c3-48f6-a2e3-623949017965 / ext3 relatime,errors=remount-ro 0 1
# /dev/sda5
UUID=8f16156b-022e-47ac-9cfd-ce1a4d12e4cf none swap sw 0 0
/dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0
/dev/fd0 /media/floppy0 auto rw,user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0
/dev/sdd1 /media/Steves_Portable ntfs-3g defaults 0 0



The last entry is the one I am trying to automount. It comes up as sdb, sdc, sdd, or sde but I don't know why it changes.
When it matches it works like a charm.

Anyone have any ideas.

Ubuntu 8.0.4.1

Create a udev rule for it so it always comes up the same..

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...les+hard+drive

Thanks farslayer, That link did the trick. I actually used a reply to that post from elliott678 where he posted a link to http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/..._device_naming .
I ended up using the by-uuid in the etc/fstab.

It worked like a charm.

Thanks for you help

Glad that worked for you. That's why I just linked you to the other thread since it had more than one option available for you to look at.