Since starting with Linux about 9 months ago, I've had 2 distros. FC5 and Ubuntu. I dumped FC5 because the install done by a Linux user's group had no cd. Ubuntu supplies the cd. All along the modem and it's controlling software has had the problem of not "holding on". The connection would die unexpectedly after irregular amounts of time. So, after a long time, I've purchased an external modem. Hold on, the first was internal, but it IS controller based, not a Winmodem. It worked perfectly while there was a win-doze partition. Sadly Windoze was wiped out by Linux, in a duel to the death... oooppss I'm losing my train of thought...

The reason for this post is to eventually recover my: /home off a harddisk. That disk had the Dapper Drake release of Ubuntu on it. Attempting to install the new external modem caused the internal modem to no longer be recognized by Ubuntu. So, I re-installed Dapper. Still the external modem wasn't recognized. So, I removed it. Re-installed the internal modem. Re-booted. Still the internal modem was not recognized. So, I got out a former hard disk and installed it as hda and the other as hdb, i.e., primary master and primary slave. After much fiddling and loss of time, I got the master to recognize the internal modem.

What I next tried to do was get Linux to recognize the slave-hdb. Now, as that had been the former boot disk, it thinks it has the boot disk names on it such as: hda3, hda5, etc.

So I:

sudo fdisk -l, which returned:

Disk /dev/hda: 10.2 GB, 10202050560 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1240 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 1185 9518481 83 Linux
/dev/hda2 1186 1240 441787+ 5 Extended
/dev/hda5 1186 1240 441756 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/hdb: 40.0 GB, 40016019456 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4865 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdb1 * 1 4390 35262643+ 83 Linux
/dev/hdb2 4773 4865 747022+ 5 Extended
/dev/hdb3 4391 4772 3068415 83 Linux
/dev/hdb5 4773 4865 746991 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Partition table entries are not in disk order

Please note that all I really want to do is copy (or move) the contents of /dev/hdb3 to /dev/hda1, but should learn a little Linux along the way.

then:

sudo mkdir /mnt/Drive2. I received a permission denied until I

cd /mnt and then sudo mkdir /mnt/Drive2

mark@lexington:/$ ls /mnt/Drive2
bin dev initrd lost+found opt sbin tmp vmlinuz
boot etc initrd.img media proc srv usr
cdrom home lib mnt root sys var

So I guess it "took" OK.

Next:

sudo gedit /etc/fstab

to which was added

/dev/hdb1 /mnt/Drive2 ext3 defaults 0 2

and lastly

mark@lexington:/$sudo mount -a.

On checking in Places/Computer all I see is:

2.9GB Volume

as the name of the device hdb, and when opened it returns:

Unable to mount the selected volume

error: device /dev/hdb3 is not removable
error: could not execute pmount

thanks for reading all the way through this long long post and I can only use words to express my gratitude for that and any ideas you all may have.

Do you have an entry for /dev/hdb3 in fstab? It looks you have only for hdb1. Just add a simplar one for hdb3 and it *should* be fine.

OK, I need to ask: simpler than what?

/dev/hdb1 /mnt/Drive2 ext3 defaults 0 2

so say:

/dev/hdb3

or what, please?

I have meant 'similar'. Something like
/dev/hdb3 /mnt/Drive3 ext3 defauts 0 3
(if it's ext3 of course)

WOW!! Success, it may not be what I expected, but it's there and I'm on my way to restoring the 40gig back to the primary master. MANY THANKS!

Congrats, and thanks for posting back with the followup