I've mounted a FAT32 partition so I can listen to my mp3s etc from Linux, but to do it I had to add both of the last 2 lines in fstab - see below. If I only add the dev/hdc1 line the partition shows as being empty.
Do you know why this happens?

Cheers


/dev/hdc5 / ext3 defaults 1 1
none /dev/pts devpts mode=0620 0 0
none /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
/dev/hdc7 /home ext3 defaults 1 2
/mnt/cdrom /mnt/cdrom supermount dev=/dev/hdb,fs=iso9660,ro,--,iocharset=iso8859-15 0 0
/mnt/cdrom2 /mnt/cdrom2 supermount dev=/dev/scd0,fs=iso9660,ro,--,iocharset=iso8859-15 0 0
/mnt/floppy /mnt/floppy supermount dev=/dev/fd0,fs=vfat,--,iocharset=iso8859-15,umask=0,sync,codepage=850 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/hdc6 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/hdc2 /dos/h vfat user,auto,umask=000,rw 0 0
/dev/hdc1 /dos/h vfat user,auto,umask=000,rw 0 0

what does "fdisk -l /dev/hdc" say?

ak, cheers -
I get this - see below. I guess it can't properly recognise the fat32 unless it's mounted the whole drive as an extended partition. Is this right? If it is i'm surprised that i didn't need to mount hdc1 for any of the linux part's to be mountable.

[root@localhost al]# fdisk -l /dev/hdc

Disk /dev/hdc: 255 heads, 63 sectors, 2434 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdc1 * 1 1275 10241406 5 Extended
/dev/hdc2 1276 2433 9301635 c Win95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/hdc5 1 446 3582432 83 Linux
/dev/hdc6 447 477 248976 82 Linux swap
/dev/hdc7 478 1275 6409903+ 83 Linux

hdc1 is the container per se. It holds the rest of the volumes of 5,6,7. hdc2 is the only primary partition on the device, partitions 5,6,7 are linux, so those aren't fat .. that's (hdc2) the one that needs to be mounted. hdc1 is nothing more than a container, a box that holds the partitions (bad example I know, but it helps to visually see what I mean).

Cool

Cheers to both of you - I've learnt more about my pc in 2 days of using linux that in 5 yrs of windoze!

OK - I'm confused again. I've just fully dhut down and rebooted my pc. I go to the FAT 32 partition and it's empty so I check that both hdc1 and hdc2 are mounted - they are. I then unmount hdc1 and can now see the files on hdc2. If i re-mount hdc1 , then hdc2 appears empty again. Not a problem, but whats going on?

You shouldn't mount hdc1, ever. It's just there holding all the goodies. hdc2 and on are the only mountable partitions. You can only mount/read/see/view/touch/write/locate primary and extended partitions. extended partitions are those which live inside a logical partition. A logical partition is (for simplicity) a box to place your extended partitions in. You don't need the box, just the stuff inside. Primary partitions are those that are all happy by themselves. hdc2 is this type. hdc5 and so on are extended. hdc1 is logical.



Cool

uh... isn't that backwards??
Logical partitions live inside the extended partition.



regards...

looking at that fdisk stuf... basically your drive is illegal. As hdc2 is 1,2,3 or 4 then that indicates that it is a primary partition (or an extended... which it's clearly not) BUT it IS inside the bounds of an extended partition.... basically that's just gibberish ho on earth did you manage that?

You'd do well to repartition that drive really.... other odd things could well start happening. basically.

Thanks

I thought I made a mistake the other day.
But, of course, I was mistaken.