Hi there,
I'm using Debian here.

A few days ago I added my external hard disk to /etc/fstab so it would autommaticly mount when it was connected. By that time, it was /dev/sda1

However, now I have a small problem. Everytime I connect my USB PenDisk and I have the external hard disk disconnected, the USB PenDisk gets the address /dev/sda1, which is in /etc/fstab to autommaticly mount under my external hard disk directory.

So evertytime I connect my pen drive, it just mounts it on my external HD directory.

I just wanted to know if there is anyway to reserve /dev/sda1 to my external disk, so I could connect my pendrive and Linux detect that /dev/sda1 will always be to my external disk, so give another address to my pen drive (sdb, or sdc, etc...)

Because now, if I want to connect my pendisk, I have to:
a) connect my external hard disk so it gets the address /dev/sda1
b) connect my pen to acquire address /dev/sdb1.

As you can see, it is really annoying. I want /dev/sda1 reserved to my external disk, even if it is not connected!

Thanks in advance for your replies.

This sounds like a job for udev.

In addition to osor's post here are some other options here.
Good luck. ;-)

thanks, I'm going to explore it! see ya