I just finished with the install.1 and install.2 root disks and I am trying to mount /dev/hda1-4, but it gives the error "wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/hda1, or too many mounted filesystems".
my partitions are as follows: /dev/hda1 Linux, /dev/hda2 Linux swap, /dev/hda3 Linux, /dev/hda4 Linux.
Currently the entire hard disk is formatted to a FAT32 file system, but I don't know if that matters. Thanks.

Hi Todd - do you mean that youve tried to install Slack on a FAT32 filesystem - Slack needs a Linux filesystem to go on - or are you trying to just mount a series of FAT32 partitions into a mount point in Slack?

Partitioning doesn't really do much per se but chunk off those areas. They still will be in FAT32 format unless you format them. Here are some commands to format them before mounting (remember that data goes bye-bye)

mke2fs /dev/hdXY for an ext2 filesystem
mke2fs -j /dev/hdXY for an ext3
and the mkswap /dev/hdaXY will be used on your swap partition.

Thanks for the info about how to format the filesystem. I am now able to mount hda1, hda3, hda4. However, I am not able to mount hda2 because I don't know the proper command to mount the swap space. What goes in the xxx's of mount /dev/hda2 /mnt -t xxx
Sorry I'm so new to this, but hopefully I can learn and help others soon.

Also, you mentioned both the ext2 and the ext3. Which filesystem would you reccommend?

You don't really need to worry about mounting the swap space during your install unless you're really low on memory. But if you want to, the command is swapon /dev/hda2. Once you've installed Slack, there is a file in the /root directory explaining how to set up /etc/fstab for the swap partition.

I would definitely recommend ext3 over ext2 because it provides a little more protection of your data if, for instance, you lose power or shutdown improperly through some other catastrophe, oversight, etc.

Enjoy!
--- Cerbere

[edit] Oops! just remembered, that file about the swap partition might only be in Zipslack. Just add this line:

/dev/hda2 swap swap defaults 0 0

to /etc/fstab [/edit]

You can also choose reiserfs. I've always gone with it and haven't had any problems so far. (And this is me without a damn ups and the power being blinky as hell around here.) No real reason except that I just like the idea of an fs designed from the ground up for journaling rather than having journaling bolted onto ext2, which is basically what ext3 is. But definitely either over ext2.

I use ReiserFS on my Slackware box and it works very well. The main reason I didn't say that was because I don't know the command to format as ReiserFS :P

Also, ext3 should be solid enough to work perfectly, but if you're interested in ReiserFS, it is a good idea because it has a lot of very useful tools in case you want to shrink and mess around with your partitions later on.