I have an older MicroSolutions Backpack model 154030 and I was wondering how I could get Fedora Core 2 to find and mount this external hard drive?

What connection does it use?

Usb Connection!

Most external USB drives, hard-drives and flash-memory drives, are seen as /dev/sda . So, as root, try...

mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 /mnt/floppy
ls /mnt/floppy
umount /mnt/floppy

If it works, you should see the files in the root directory of the drive. You can then create a new mount point for the drive, something like /mnt/usb, or /mnt/backpack, or anything you want, really. Then, search the forums for mounting a vfat partition, and learn what options you need in /etc/fstab to be able to mount/umount the drive as a normal user.