I have put the command '/dev/hdb1 /media/windows vfat iocharset=utf8,umask=000 0 0' into fstab.

I then used 'sudo mount -a' and recived error:
'mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/hdb1,
missing codepage or other error
In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
dmesg | tail or so'

~$ dmesg | tail
[17179901.824000] VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev hdb1.
[17181889.680000] agpgart: Found an AGP 3.5 compliant device at 0000:00:00.0.
[17181889.680000] agpgart: Putting AGP V3 device at 0000:00:00.0 into 8x mode
[17181889.680000] agpgart: Putting AGP V3 device at 0000:01:00.0 into 8x mode
[17183024.672000] FAT: utf8 is not a recommended IO charset for FAT filesystems, filesystem will be case sensitive!
[17183024.684000] FAT: bogus number of reserved sectors
[17183024.684000] VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev hdb1.
[17183034.296000] FAT: utf8 is not a recommended IO charset for FAT filesystems, filesystem will be case sensitive!
[17183034.304000] FAT: bogus number of reserved sectors
[17183034.304000] VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev hdb1.


Any ideas what i have done wrong?
Soon as i can get all my files off that hard drive it'll be reformatting it ext3

well, strictly from looking at your dmesg, I would suggest not using the iocharset option. But it also looks like hdb1 is not the correct partition ("can't find a valid FAT filesystem").

here's a vfat fstab line that's been working fine for me:
/dev/hdd1 /mnt/y vfat rw,user,umask=000 0 0

I tried your line but it didn't work.

Here is the output of fdisk -l

Disk /dev/hdb: 40.0 GB, 40020664320 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 4865 39078081 b W95 FAT32

the W95 FAT32 listed with fdisk -l relates to the partition type, not the filesystem. It's possible to have any filesystem on that partition.

try #blkid /dev/hdb1

Wow that worked. Its ntfs. Why do i feel like a i'm about to have several more problems...

thanks very much for all your help guys.

no problem, just don't try to mount it read/write, mount it read-only.

options that work for me for ntfs:
ro,user,gid=users,umask=0222

Thanks

All file successfully recovered.