ok i am a real newby ive realy never used linux i had it as a dual log on my comp in case something happen to windows well something did happen i bought a usb flash drive to back up my win files i have located the files but i need to know how to move them to the flash drive i have red hat v 3.1.4-4 please someone help i realy need to be walked thure i have no clue how to use it

Firstly, please try to use punctuation in your posts. Reading entire paragraphs that contain no punctuation whatsoever is quite hard. Secondly, I have no idea what "Red Hat 3.1.4-4" is. Is it some version of RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux), Red Hat Linux or what?

Can you open a terminal and enter "dmesg | tail -n 20" just after plugging the flash drive in and post the output here, please?

To summarize:

Windows is down
you can find your windows files using gnu/linux (how?)
you want to move the files from the windows file system to the flash drive

gui:
basically, you lasso the icons you want and drag them across to the flash drive window. This is the same way you move files from one place to another in windows.

cli:
investigate the "cp" command.

I cannot be more specific because you have supplied little information.

I'm going to second nylex on the punctuation.
If you cannot be bothered to take care to be understood, then why should we be bothered to take care to help you?

I don't think there was ever a Red Hat 3.anything so I guess you mean RHEL3-etc. Think is, that is also very old. I suspect your problem is that the usb drive is not automatically mounted. I don't even know if this was possible then. This is why nylex wanted the dmesg output.

If the linux you have in new enough to have the usb drivers, then there is probably something we can do. Thing is, you are likely to have an easier time with a live distro.

hub.c : new usb mass storage data integrity not assured
USB mass storge device found at 4

ok so i also found out it is fedora core 2.4.22. I have located the files in windows. I just need to know where to go to drage them to. Sorry about gramer it has never been my strong suits. Be glad you dont have to read my text messages lol.

2.4.22 is the kernel - which would be FC1 (yarrow). FC2+ shipped with a 2.6 kernel. Lets be sure:
what does

uname -a

say? (Paste the whole line)

I'll have to dust off my old "how to handle usb stuff" notes for fedora.
Fortunately you only have to do this once. I take it you have decided not to use a live distro - something like ubuntu will handle all the usb stuff automagically and present the correct gui too???

The kernel is too old to be creating persistent device nodes for removable media and won't hotplug usb anyway.
The process involved looking for the /dev file that corresponds to your usb drive, then mounting it. After that you can use the usual copy method you are comfy with.

So you need to look through the syslog (dmesg) for /dev/sdx type entries. In a system with only ide drives, and nothing else, the usb flash drive is usually /dev/sde5 for some reason I've forgotten.

You probably won't be able to find out by looking in the /dev directory because FC1 did not create those entries dynamically (IIRC). But you may find out with fdisk -l (as root).

Linux local host.local domain 2.4.22-1.2115.npt1 #1 wed oct 29 15:42:51 EST 2003 : 686 athlon : 386 GNU/linux

Yep: that's fedora core 1 all right.


After you have mounted the windows and flash partitions, you have to copy them over.

Using the gui - you open two nautilus windows, and browse to the windows and flash mount points in each. Click and drag them across. Remember this only works for mounted file systems.

The CLI method is simpler and more exact.

The mount command goes something like this:

# mount -t vfat /dev/hda1 /mnt/windows
# mount -t vfat /dev/sde5 /mnt/flash

# cp -a /mnt/windows/"My Documents" /mnt/flash

(the # at the start is not typed - that's what the prompt should look like.)

sorry but how do i use GUI. and where do i find nautlis windows. i really dont know he system very well.

I can't help with the question above, as I don't have GNOME on this machine, so I don't have access to Nautilus.

As an aside, though, is it not possible for you to upgrade to a newer distribution?

Yes i am going to get an up to date version when i reformat the computer i am working on what version should i get and where do i get it

I'm not sure I understand where that question is coming from, so excuse me if I start from basics...

GUI = graphical user interface - if you see a bunch of icons and windows and a mouse-pointer on top of wallpaper, then that is a gui. FC1 GUI Screenshots

Fedora comes with a range of different brands of GUI ani D don't know which you have. Likely it is either:

GNOME = GNU Network Object Model Environment, or
KDE = Kool Desktop Environment

You use the gui the way you'd expect to in other OSs - pointing and clicking. If you don't know how to use a mouse, we may be in trouble.

If you do not see that - you just see some white writing on a black background, say, then that is the CLI = command line interface. In which case it is likely that your installation did not include a gui - but you can check by entering

startx

if you got something to the effect of "unknown command" then you don't have a gui.

nautilus is the program that is responsible for the windows that appear when you click icons. So, to use nautilus, click the icons.

Please realise that you will still have to use the cli to run the mount commands before attempting to manipulate files via a gui. From what you are saying, I strongly urge you to consider a recent live distro instead.

A "live" distro is one which will run from the optical drive without being installed. You boot from the cd/dvd drive, and it will give you a desktop that you should be able to use fairly intuitively. When you plug the flash drive in, it will be automounted, and a window will pop up for your convenience. Some will even mount the windows partition automatically and give it an icon on your desktop. From there, everything is very easy.

As to what to update to:
http://distrowatch.com/
... everyone has their favorite and advise is usually not much use. Always get the latest from the distro maintainer.

http://www.zegeniestudios.net/ldc/index.php?lang=en
... a helpful way of sorting what is likely to be good for you.

Where is the flash drive window. i know where the files are on windows. i mounted the two. but i can not seem to find the flash drive window.

what distro are you using?
open a terminal and become root
type into window for file manager
in gnome
"nautilus"

in kde
"konqueror"

you know how to become root??

you really should upgrade dude

we can put alot of distro's on there, all at once too

I am loged in as root. i cant upgrade atm.

did you open nautilus or konqueror as root?

the flash drive should be under /mnt or /media
using filemanager just keep clicking "up" arrow
till you get to top of filesystem, boot, usr, etc