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Old 01-18-2005, 02:39 PM   #1
djgerbavore
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Registered: Jun 2004
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mounting a thumbdrive


i have two thumb drives. i one thumb drive i can mount with the following command

Code:
mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 /mnt/usb
that command works fine, but when i plug in my other thumb drive (after i umount it)
i typed in that same command above and it fails by saying

Code:
mount: /dev/sda1 is not a valid block device
I don't understand why this is happening...is it because the thumb drive is bad, if so is there a way i can retreive the data from it, or i'm i screwed?


thanks,


djgerbavor3
 
Old 01-18-2005, 02:51 PM   #2
michaelk
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Look at the output of dmesg when you plug in the second drive. Are there errors?
 
Old 01-18-2005, 03:53 PM   #3
Dark_Helmet
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THe system keeps track of devices that are hot-plugged. I don't know all the specifics, but here's how it impacts you (as the user):

The first device you plug in will be referenced /dev/sda1
The second device you plug in will be referenced as /dev/sdb1

The system will maintain those associations regardless of whether one (or both) are unmounted. So it can get confusing if you're swapping pen drives constantly.

The only way around it (that I've heard of - emphasis: heard; not tried) is to use a 2.6 series kernel with udev. Supposedly you can configure udev to associate a specific device designation to a particular device. That way, you would always reference pendrive A with /dev/sdx1 and pendrive B with /dev/sdy1 (just as an example).
 
  


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