Ok. I've used Linux for the past two weeks on my home laptop. I am a quick learner. At first, I kept reinstalling, using different options, because my wireless network and external 1394 harddrive wouldn't work automatically. Then I realized that if I can boot into Gnome, that I just need to configure everything right.

Anyway, I have Debian 3.1, using the Linux 2.6.12 kernel, and Gnome.
I have the NVidia drivers and the 1394 modules installed into the kernel. My harddrive uses FAT because it was being used on a win box and there's a lot of stuff on there I want to keep.
That's about all I know.

After loading ohci1394 (-v) and sbp2, if i cat /proc/scsi/scsi, this is what I get:
Attached devices:
Host: scsi0 Channel: 00 Id: 01 Lun: 00
Vendor: Maxtor Model: OneTouch Rev: 0200
Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 06

When I try to mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 /mnt/maxtor, it says:
mount: special device /dev/sda1 does not exist

I know it works because before I installed the NVidia drivers, it worked. I used the exact same commands as these after I installed the NVidia drivers, and it worked, then I restarted and it no longer works.

I looked in /dev and there is no sd anything. Is there somewhere else it could be? I figure if it shows up in /proc/scsi/scsi, it has to be somewhere, right?

Okay I got it to work!

I tried a bunch of stuff but I think in the end all I had to do was to load sd_mod with modprobe.
As soon as I did that, the drive spun up and I was able to mount it (It showed up as sda1 in /dev)

How can I load these moudules and mount the drive on boot so I don't have to do it manually each time I restart?