i have a /share (/dev/hda8) drive that i use for winxp and rh9 data.
following is the fstab entry for /share.
<fstab entry>
/dev/hda8 /share vfat defaults,umask=0 0 0

i can create new folders through nautilus but not new files. is this somethin to do with the fstab entry? i use the touch command as of now.

anyone please help??

perhaps you have to add what kind of access should be permitted on the drive

check out: http://www.linuxforum.com/linux_tutorials/14/1.php for detailed explanations (point 5)

I would recommend that you use the uid= and gid= options in your fstab entry. This will allow you full access to the partition yourself, (uid=<your user name>) and to be able to control which users have access to the files. For the latter part, you might want a umask of 007 or something similar to deny access to 'others' for new files created.
These two options exist because you can't use chmod with a mounted vfat partition. But you can set the owner and group in the mount command.
Also, doing it this way will automatically mount the partition for you, so you don't need to mount or remount the partition to gain access ,as in the user option..

So if your user name is 'hippy2981', the fstab entry might look like this:
/dev/hda8 /share vfat defaults,uid=hippy2981,gid=fileshare,umask=007 0 0

Mandrake Linux has a fileshare group for the purpose of controlling access to shared partitions, which is why I used the name. Debian may have a similar group. However, you can create your own group for this purpose. For example, imagine parents having their correspondence and records on a separate partition. Both mom and dad share this partition, but the files are to important, or private, so they don't want the kids to have access. Creating a 'parent' group would allow controlling access. They may have a second group called 'family' which is used to share files amongst everyone in the family.

as of now even root and user can create files on the /share. however only through nautilus is that i cant see the "create empty file" option. i can "create a new folder" though nautilus. for creating new file, i just use the touch command even for root. i can even copy and paste the file when in user mode.

i did try the things mentioned in the above post. they didnt work.

the following fstab didnt give me what i wanted.
/dev/hda8 /share vfat users,owner,rw,umask=000 0 0

i hope you all get my point. i dont have a problem creating files in the /share partition. it's that i have problems creating them through nautilus. i can create through "touch'.
besides i can create folders thru nautilus. thats why i wondered if there was a problem in my fstab entry. this is odd. since i used to create files thru nautilus in fc2.

any suggestions??