/etc/fstab entry confusion
 

I have read 5 other posts regarding /etc/fstab entries which all list similar entries to the one suggested to me. I can't figure out HOW to get into it or where to put the entry within that file.

I can cd into /etc but can go no further. If fstab is in the /etc dir, but fstab isn't a dir then it must be a file? If so, it should open, no?

"I picked a bad week to stop drinking coffee."

It's a text file which you can edit using a text editor such as nano, vi, vim, gedit, kate etc. On command line you can do:
Normally you don't have to edit /etc/fstab as it's done automatically during installation. Using this file kernel mounts filesystem at different mount points mentioned in each line of the file.

Entries or fields in '/etc/fstab' file are separated by spaces or tabs. You can read up on 'fstab' here or just type 'man fstab' on command line.

You can find out if a file is a text/ASCII file or not, by checking it with 'file':
Good introduction to Linux.

Edit: '/etc/fstab' can only be changed by 'root' user. When you ask question please mention which distro you are using, it just helps to give an answer that best suits you.

As said above using nano (command line text edtior) is the easiest to learn from new linux users. I personally recommend vim editor, but is more complicated.

When editing fstab, besure you have a live disk availible so you can mount and correct fstab if for some reason you make a mistake and can no longer boot.

Also if your using a GUI based Desktop, you can use things such as gedit.

Thank you so much for your assistance. The links are very informative, I appreciate your kindness (sorry I didn't mention the distro)

I have Linux Mint 15. When I enabled the 1T drive, I didn't change /etc/fstab before I upgraded. I get "low memory" error messages with the system installed on the 16GB drive and am trying (rather clumsily) to fix the problem.

b.