I'm more or less new in linux.

I've recently installed debian Sarge. I also have Win installed in my computer (sorry, I'm doing things step by step...). I want to use a FAT32 disk that I have in my computer. Its name is hda5, so as root I tried
mount /dev/hda5 hda5, and debian says that it can't find the folder, so I created a folder hda5 in mnt. After that I could mount it.

Ok, but I want to be able to mount it using my usuall user, I tried it but it was imposible to mount without using root, and if I mount it with root, then it is impossible to open the 'folder' with the user.

How is this problem solved?
THanks

In order to fix this problem, you need to log in as root and add this filesystem to your table of filesystems - located in "/etc/fstab". Here you can tell it who can mount/unmount it, and various options for accessing it (including who can read/write to it). I have a couple of fat32 drives in my system too - here's an example of what your line might look like :

/dev/hda5 /mnt/awesomedrive auto defaults,users,rw,umask=000,auto 0 0

the first part is the device, "/dev/hda5" - the 2nd is where it mounts to. The name can be totally unrelated to the device name, just so long as it's a folder, and it already exists prior to mounting. The next is the filesystem type - "auto" means it will autodetect, and it should discover it's FAT32.

The next line are all the options for this filesystem:

1st we get all the defaults, then override various settings in the defaults :
"users" allows users to mount/umount it
"rw" mounts the drive for read AND write access
"umask=000" allows everyone to read or write to it (777 would deny everyone everything I believe - each digit is sort of the reverse of chmod)
"auto" means it will be mounted at boot-time

The two 0's at the end aren't too important, just leave them as zeros. Check out "man mount" and "man fstab" if you want more information.

Thank you this was the perfect awnser, all goes correctly, and thanks again

was wondering i tried to edit the /etc/fstab and it says can only be editied with fstab-sync well when i try to run fstab-sync i get this error

libhal.c 911 : Error sending msg: Service "org.freedesktop.Hal" does not exist

as my name states i am a exwindows user and am new to linux any help with this would be great thanks

X Windows User

X Windows User.... What were your exact steps to try and edit your fstab?
If you're logged in as the root user, you should be able to use vi and edit it.

#vi /etc/fstab

Make sure you're familiar with vi's usage before editing the fstab file. It can be painful if you screw up that file. So practice on some test file:

# vi ~/some_test.txt

I just got it figured out all i need to do was :

In the Window browser go
Edit
Prefrences
check Show hidden and backup files

and then i was able to edit it with a text editor and save it.

Now everything works great a liitle bit of time and hunting around the net and
i was able to come up with the answer myself thanks for trying to help tho.

X Windows User