I need help learning how to access the second hard drive on my fc3 machine. The machine has two hard drives, hda (30 GB) and hdb (6448 MB). I have reproduced the output from fdisk -l below:

[root@localhost dev]# /sbin/fdisk -l

Disk /dev/hda: 30.0 GB, 30020272128 bytes
16 heads, 63 sectors/track, 58168 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 1008 * 512 = 516096 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 203 102280+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda2 204 58168 29214360 8e Linux LVM

Disk /dev/hdb: 6448 MB, 6448619520 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 784 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdb1 * 1 13 104391 83 Linux
/dev/hdb2 14 784 6193057+ 8e Linux LVM

Originally, I had installed fc3 on the smaller hard drive (6448 MB) but quickly ran out of room. Then I installed the 30 GB drive, and re-installed fc3 onto it.

I had hoped to transfer over some files from the hdb drive to the hda drive. The problem is, I cannot mount it. When I try to use the mount -t ext3 /dev/hdb2 /dev/fc3-old I receive the following error message: [root@localhost dev]# mount -t ext3 /dev/hdb2 /mnt/oldfc3
mount: /dev/hdb2 already mounted or /mnt/oldfc3 busy

Can anyone help me learn what I am doing wrong?

I have also reproduced my /etc/fstab file in case that offers any clues as to what is going on.

# This file is edited by fstab-sync - see 'man fstab-sync' for details
/dev/VolGroup01/LogVol00 / ext3 defaults 1 1
LABEL=/boot /boot ext3 defaults 1 2
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/VolGroup01/LogVol01 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/hda2 /mnt/fc3-old ext3 defaults 0 0
/dev/hdc /media/cdrecorder auto pamconsole,fscontext=system_ubject_r:removable_t,ro,exec,noauto,managed 0 0
/dev/fd0 /media/floppy auto pamconsole,fscontext=system_ubject_r:removable_t,exec,noauto,managed 0 0

It is not present in /etc/fstab.. there is no mention of /dev/hdb
Add /dev/hdb information to /etc/fstab and thn try mounting it. Something like
/dev/hdb /mnt/new_drive ext3 defaults 0 0 should work.

Thanks for your help, ksgill. I did what you suggested, and then re-booted the computer. As the system loaded, it provided an error that /dev/hdb and/or /mnt/new_drive were already mounted or were in use. When I tried to unmount them (using the umount command as su) I was told that neither are mounted. However, trying to mount /dev/hdb produced the same error, that it was already in use or mounted.

Any ideas on what is going on? I appreciate the help you have given.

I saw this suggestion on Fedoraforum: http://www.fedoraforum.org/forum/showthread.php?t=44799&highlight=drive+mounted

I will try it and see whether that fixes the problem or not.

Since your using LVM, I'm guessing to mount your old root:

/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 /mnt/old_fc3 ext3 defaults 1 1

michaelk - your suggestion worked! Once I made that change to my /etc/fstab file I was able to access the drive without problem. Thank you, and ksgill , for taking the time to help me out.