Unable to mount FAT32 partition in FC5; WinXP reads it fine

commonplace · 05-26-2006, 10:48 AM

I have a FAT32 partition (/dev/hda1) which I can read/write to in Windows XP just fine, but when I try to mount it in FC5, I get the following error:

Quote:

mount: /dev/hda1 is not a valid block device

I verified with fdisk -l that the drive is where I think it is, and it shows:

Quote:

/dev/hda1 1 24321 195358401 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)

I've created /mnt/fat32 and tried to mount using mount -t vfat /dev/hda /mnt/fat32, and that's when I receive the 'not a valid block device' error.

What am I doing wrong? I'm fairly new to Linux, so dumb it down for me if you would. Thanks in advance.

rickh · 05-26-2006, 11:29 AM

Not positive, but I think it's just a syntax problem. Try:
mount -t /dev/hda1 /mnt/fat32 vfat rw,owner,user,auto 0 0

I'm not sure that's exactly right using the 'mount' command, but adding the line, '/dev/hda1 /mnt/fat32 vfat rw,owner,user,auto 0 0' to your /etc/fstab file should work after a reboot. With that line, you'll probably be able to access the directory as root. If you want regular users to have write access, you'll need some additional permission parameters.

commonplace · 05-26-2006, 10:49 PM

I've tried various things at this point, and have decided I must be doing something wrong in how I make the partition and/or in how I format in, since I'm not positive on the steps for either of those. I 'think' I'm doing it right, but I certainly don't feel confident.

Is there a step-by-step guide to taking a blank hard drive, creating and formatting a FAT32 partition, and mounting it in Linux (specifically FC5)?