i have a thumb drive, 256 mb, it has all my work on it for the semester and XP is being stupid about reading it. It has read it before but decents to act up two weeks before classes end. It finally read it but says there is nothing on it which i hope isn't true so i wanted to read it on my linux box so i could at least burn a cd to bring on the windows box cuz it has programs that i don't have in linux like Director. I created a usb dir in /mnt/ added the line in fstab to mount it and it says filesystem not supported iby kernal. I know it is possible to mount your windows drives and wanted to know if i could some how do the same thing to mount my usb drive or am i basically screwed?

Unless you have reformated the drive it should be a vfat filesystem.
The fstab entry should be similar to:

/dev/sda1 /mnt/usb vfat umask=000,users 0 0

Some flash drives require /dev/sda instead of /dev/sda1.

sda assumes that this is the only USB drive on your PC.

i get this error message.

mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sda,
or too many mounted file systems

here is my fstab:


LABEL=/ / ext3 defaults 1 1
none /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0
none /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
none /sys sysfs defaults 0 0
/dev/hda6 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto noauto,owner,kudzu 0 0
/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom udf,iso9660 noauto,owner,kudzu,ro 0 0
/dev/cdrom1 /mnt/cdrom1 udf,iso9660 noauto,owner,kudzu,ro 0 0
/dev/sda /mnt/usb vfat unmask=000 0 0
/etc/fstab (END)

i've also tried sda1.

here is the output of dmeeg if it helps:

Linux version 2.6.5-1.358 (bhcompile@bugs.build.redhat.com) (gcc version 3.3.3 20040412 (Red Hat Linux 3.3.3-7)) #1 Sat May 8 09:04:50 EDT 2004
BIOS-provided physical RAM map:
BIOS-e820: 0000000000000000 - 000000000009fc00 (usable)
BIOS-e820: 000000000009fc00 - 00000000000a0000 (reserved)
BIOS-e820: 00000000000ec000 - 00000000000f0000 (ACPI NVS)
BIOS-e820: 00000000000f0000 - 0000000000100000 (reserved)
BIOS-e820: 0000000000100000 - 0000000010000000 (usable)
BIOS-e820: 00000000fffc0000 - 0000000100000000 (reserved)
0MB HIGHMEM available.
256MB LOWMEM available.
zapping low mappings.
On node 0 totalpages: 65536
DMA zone: 4096 pages, LIFO batch:1
Normal zone: 61440 pages, LIFO batch:15
HighMem zone: 0 pages, LIFO batch:1
DMI 2.3 present.
ACPI: RSDP (v000 COMPAQ ) @ 0x000ec010
ACPI: RSDT (v001 COMPAQ HAWA7K21 0x00010503 0x00000000) @ 0x000ec080
ACPI: FADT (v001 COMPAQ HAWA7K21 0x00010503 0x00000000) @ 0x000ec0cc
ACPI: SSDT (v001 COMPAQ HAWA7K2 0x00000001 MSFT 0x0100000c) @ 0x000ec223
ACPI: DSDT (v001 COMPAQ DSDTTBL 0x00000001 MSFT 0x0100000c) @ 0x00000000
ACPI: PM-Timer IO Port: 0xee08
Built 1 zonelists
Kernel command line: ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
mapped 4G/4G trampoline to ffff3000.
Initializing CPU#0
CPU 0 irqstacks, hard=02345000 soft=02344000
PID hash table entries: 2048 (order 11: 16384 bytes)
Detected 1325.794 MHz processor.
Using pmtmr for high-res timesource
Console: colour VGA+ 80x25
Memory: 256468k/262144k available (1540k kernel code, 4952k reserved, 599k data, 144k init, 0k highmem)
Calibrating delay loop... 2629.63 BogoMIPS
Security Scaffold v1.0.0 initialized
SELinux: Initializing.
SELinux: Starting in permissive mode
There is already a security framework initialized, register_security failed.
Failure registering capabilities with the kernel
selinux_register_security: Registering secondary module capability
Capability LSM initialized
Dentry cache hash table entries: 32768 (order: 5, 131072 bytes)
Inode-cache hash table entries: 16384 (order: 4, 65536 bytes)
Mount-cache hash table entries: 512 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
CPU: After generic identify, caps: 0183f9ff c1c7f9ff 00000000 00000000
CPU: After vendor identify, caps: 0183f9ff c1c7f9ff 00000000 00000000
CPU: L1 I Cache: 64K (64 bytes/line), D cache 64K (64 bytes/line)
CPU: L2 Cache: 256K (64 bytes/line)
CPU: After all inits, caps: 0183f1ff c1c7f9ff 00000000 00000020
Intel machine check architecture supported.
Intel machine check reporting enabled on CPU#0.
CPU: AMD Athlon(tm) Processor stepping 02
Enabling fast FPU save and restore... done.
Checking 'hlt' instruction... OK.
POSIX conformance testing by UNIFIX
NET: Registered protocol family 16
PCI: PCI BIOS revision 2.10 entry at 0xfa164, last bus=1
PCI: Using configuration type 1
mtrr: v2.0 (20020519)
ACPI: Subsystem revision 20040326
ACPI: IRQ9 SCI: Edge set to Level Trigger.
ACPI: Interpreter enabled
ACPI: Using PIC for interrupt routing
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKA] (IRQs *3 4 5 6 7 10 11 15)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKB] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 10 11 15)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKC] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 *10 11 15)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKD] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 10 *11 15)
ACPI: PCI Root Bridge [PCI0] (00:00)
PCI: Probing PCI hardware (bus 00)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Routing Table [\_SB_.PCI0._PRT]
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Routing Table [\_SB_.PCI0.AGPB._PRT]
Linux Plug and Play Support v0.97 (c) Adam Belay
usbcore: registered new driver usbfs
usbcore: registered new driver hub
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKA] enabled at IRQ 3
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKC] enabled at IRQ 10
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKD] enabled at IRQ 11
ACPI: No IRQ known for interrupt pin D of device 0000:00:14.2
ACPI: No IRQ known for interrupt pin D of device 0000:00:14.3
PCI: Using ACPI for IRQ routing
PCI: if you experience problems, try using option 'pci=noacpi' or even 'acpi=off'
apm: BIOS not found.
audit: initializing netlink socket (disabled)
audit(1102162663.965:0): initialized
Total HugeTLB memory allocated, 0
VFS: Disk quotas dquot_6.5.1
Dquot-cache hash table entries: 1024 (order 0, 4096 bytes)
SELinux: Registering netfilter hooks
Initializing Cryptographic API
pci_hotplug: PCI Hot Plug PCI Core version: 0.5
ACPI: Processor [CPU0] (supports C1)
isapnp: Scanning for PnP cards...
isapnp: No Plug & Play device found
Real Time Clock Driver v1.12
Linux agpgart interface v0.100 (c) Dave Jones
agpgart: Detected AMD 761 chipset
agpgart: Maximum main memory to use for agp memory: 204M
agpgart: AGP aperture is 64M @ 0x90000000
Serial: 8250/16550 driver $Revision: 1.90 $ 8 ports, IRQ sharing enabled
ttyS0 at I/O 0x3f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A
PCI: Enabling device 0000:00:0a.0 (0000 -> 0001)
RAMDISK driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 16384K size 1024 blocksize
divert: not allocating divert_blk for non-ethernet device lo
Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 7.00alpha2
ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx
VP_IDE: IDE controller at PCI slot 0000:00:14.1
VP_IDE: chipset revision 6
VP_IDE: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later
VP_IDE: VIA vt82c686b (rev 40) IDE UDMA100 controller on pci0000:00:14.1
ide0: BM-DMA at 0x14c0-0x14c7, BIOS settings: hdaMA, hdbio
ide1: BM-DMA at 0x14c8-0x14cf, BIOS settings: hdcMA, hddMA
hda: WDC WD600AB-60BVA0, ATA DISK drive
Using cfq io scheduler
ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
hdc: SONY CD-RW CRX320E, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
hdd: Compaq DVD-ROM DVD-116, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15
hda: max request size: 128KiB
hda: 117231408 sectors (60022 MB) w/2048KiB Cache, CHS=65535/16/63, UDMA(100)
hda: hda1 hda2 hda3 hda4 < hda5 hda6 >
hdc: ATAPI 40X DVD-ROM CD-R/RW CD-MRW drive, 2048kB Cache, UDMA(33)
Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.20
hdd: ATAPI 40X DVD-ROM drive, 256kB Cache, UDMA(33)
ide-floppy driver 0.99.newide
usbcore: registered new driver hiddev
usbcore: registered new driver hid
drivers/usb/input/hid-core.c: v2.0:USB HID core driver
mice: PS/2 mouse device common for all mice
serio: i8042 AUX port at 0x60,0x64 irq 12
input: ImPS/2 Logitech Wheel Mouse on isa0060/serio1
serio: i8042 KBD port at 0x60,0x64 irq 1
md: md driver 0.90.0 MAX_MD_DEVS=256, MD_SB_DISKS=27
NET: Registered protocol family 2
IP: routing cache hash table of 2048 buckets, 16Kbytes
TCP: Hash tables configured (established 16384 bind 32768)
Initializing IPsec netlink socket
NET: Registered protocol family 1
NET: Registered protocol family 17
ACPI: (supports S0 S1 S4 S5)
checking if image is initramfs...it isn't (no cpio magic); looks like an initrd
Freeing initrd memory: 188k freed
md: Autodetecting RAID arrays.
md: autorun ...
md: ... autorun DONE.
RAMDISK: Compressed image found at block 0
VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem).
kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
Freeing unused kernel memory: 144k freed
SELinux: Disabled at runtime.
SELinux: Unregistering netfilter hooks
NET: Registered protocol family 10
Disabled Privacy Extensions on device 022db720(lo)
IPv6 over IPv4 tunneling driver
divert: not allocating divert_blk for non-ethernet device sit0
ACPI: Power Button (FF) [PWRF]
USB Universal Host Controller Interface driver v2.2
ACPI: No IRQ known for interrupt pin D of device 0000:00:14.2
uhci_hcd 0000:00:14.2: UHCI Host Controller
uhci_hcd 0000:00:14.2: irq 11, io base 00001480
uhci_hcd 0000:00:14.2: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1
hub 1-0:1.0: USB hub found
hub 1-0:1.0: 2 ports detected
ACPI: No IRQ known for interrupt pin D of device 0000:00:14.3
uhci_hcd 0000:00:14.3: UHCI Host Controller
uhci_hcd 0000:00:14.3: irq 11, io base 000014a0
uhci_hcd 0000:00:14.3: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 2
hub 2-0:1.0: USB hub found
hub 2-0:1.0: 2 ports detected
usb 1-2: new full speed USB device using address 2
hub 1-2:1.0: USB hub found
hub 1-2:1.0: 2 ports detected
usb 1-2.1: new low speed USB device using address 3
input: USB HID v1.10 Keyboard [Chicony Compaq Internet Keyboard] on usb-0000:00:14.2-2.1
EXT3 FS on hda3, internal journal
input,hiddev96: USB HID v1.10 Device [Chicony Compaq Internet Keyboard] on usb-0000:00:14.2-2.1
device-mapper: 4.1.0-ioctl (2003-12-10) initialised: dm@uk.sistina.com
usb 1-2.2: new full speed USB device using address 4
cdrom: open failed.
Adding 786200k swap on /dev/hda6. Priority:-1 extents:1
parport0: PC-style at 0x378 (0x778) [PCSPP,TRISTATE]
parport_pc: Via 686A parallel port: io=0x378
SCSI subsystem initialized
inserting floppy driver for 2.6.5-1.358
Floppy drive(s): fd0 is 1.44M
FDC 0 is a post-1991 82077
8139too Fast Ethernet driver 0.9.27
PCI: Enabling device 0000:00:09.0 (0004 -> 0007)
divert: allocating divert_blk for eth0
eth0: RealTek RTL8139 at 0x1000, 00:10:b5:f4:57:ac, IRQ 11
eth0: Identified 8139 chip type 'RTL-8139C'
divert: freeing divert_blk for eth0
ip_tables: (C) 2000-2002 Netfilter core team
ip_conntrack version 2.1 (2048 buckets, 16384 max) - 296 bytes per conntrack
8139too Fast Ethernet driver 0.9.27
divert: allocating divert_blk for eth0
eth0: RealTek RTL8139 at 0x1000, 00:10:b5:f4:57:ac, IRQ 11
eth0: Identified 8139 chip type 'RTL-8139C'
eth0: link up, 10Mbps, half-duplex, lpa 0x0000
Bluetooth: Core ver 2.4
NET: Registered protocol family 31
Bluetooth: HCI device and connection manager initialized
Bluetooth: HCI socket layer initialized
Bluetooth: L2CAP ver 2.1
Bluetooth: L2CAP socket layer initialized
Bluetooth: RFCOMM ver 1.2
Bluetooth: RFCOMM socket layer initialized
Bluetooth: RFCOMM TTY layer initialized
eth0: no IPv6 routers present
parport0: PC-style at 0x378 (0x778) [PCSPP,TRISTATE]
parport_pc: Via 686A parallel port: io=0x378
lp0: using parport0 (polling).
lp0: console ready
drivers/usb/input/hid-input.c: event field not found
drivers/usb/input/hid-input.c: event field not found
udf: registering filesystem
UDF-fs DEBUG fs/udf/lowlevel.c:57:udf_get_last_session: XA disk: no, vol_desc_start=0
UDF-fs DEBUG fs/udf/super.c:1552:udf_fill_super: Multi-session=0
UDF-fs DEBUG fs/udf/super.c:540:udf_vrs: Starting at sector 16 (2048 byte sectors)
UDF-fs DEBUG fs/udf/super.c:567:udf_vrs: ISO9660 Primary Volume Descriptor foundUDF-fs DEBUG fs/udf/super.c:576:udf_vrs: ISO9660 Volume Descriptor Set Terminator found
UDF-fs: No VRS found
ISO 9660 Extensions: RRIP_1991A
loop: loaded (max 8 devices)
spurious 8259A interrupt: IRQ7.
usb 1-1: new full speed USB device using address 5
Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
scsi0 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
Vendor: SanDisk Model: Cruzer Mini Rev: 0.1
Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 02
USB Mass Storage device found at 5
usbcore: registered new driver usb-storage
USB Mass Storage support registered.
SCSI device sda: 501759 512-byte hdwr sectors (257 MB)
sda: assuming Write Enabled
sda: assuming drive cache: write through
sda: sda1
Attached scsi removable disk sda at scsi0, channel 0, id 0, lun 0
FAT: Unrecognized mount option "unmask=000" or missing value
FAT: Unrecognized mount option "unmask=000" or missing value
FAT: Unrecognized mount option "unmask=000" or missing value

also im running Fedora Core 2. Do i have to do something to modules like adding something?

The option is umask not unmask. Also use /dev/sda1 not /dev/sda.

/dev/sda1 /mnt/usb vfat umask=000,users 0 0

thanks that worked and thankfully all my sfutt is still there. Just another reason for me to dislike XP. I created a dir in my home labled thumbdrive to copy all the files over and i did cp /mnt/usb/* but it omminted the dirs and i tried doing the dirs themsels and it wouldn't copy. Anyone know what is up with that?