i have been having trouble getting my secondary hard drive to format properly, and now mandrake seems like it is playign games with me... when i go to mandrake control center, and click on hardware, then harddrake. it shows that i have 2 hard disks (hda, and hdb) but when i click on the run config tool button, it opens up diskdrake where you can edit partitions and such, but the only problem is that the second (hdb) drive is not shown. i have no idea what to do. there is no file /dev/hdb on my computer. IM GOING CRAZY

mount /dev/hdab1 /mnt/xxx (create "xxx" in /mnt before hand, mkdir)

tried that...

[root@localhost atlantis]# mount /dev/hdab1 /mnt/hd
mount: special device /dev/hdab1 does not exist
[root@localhost atlantis]# mount /dev/hdb1 /mnt/hd
mount: special device /dev/hdb1 does not exist
[root@localhost atlantis]#

have you created the device? You said above that this device isn't in your computer, so create it with "mknod" (although, it's rather strange; the device should be already there...)
Regards

PS if you don't know how to create it, just ask

i read the man and the --help for mknod and im not completley sure exactly how to use it... how would i make /dev/hdb1 ?

to create the hdb device do
to create hdb1
...
A couple of observations are in order:
- depending on the type of hard disk hdb is, the numbers "3 64" could change. "3" is for the first primary slave IDE disk; "64" means the whole disk. PLEASE, go to "/usr/src/linux/Dcumentation/devices.txt" and check what numbers are right for your case.
- A simpler way to create devices is using the "MAKEDEV" script (you have to be inside the "/dev" directory, as root, to be able to use MAKEDEV), for instance
and so on; (take a look at "man MAKEDEV").

But, what worries to me is that Mandrake should be able to recognize and create such devices at boot time.
Maybe you don't have installed well the device (physically): BIOS, jumpers, cables...
Is it IDE? Couldn't it be of another strange type not supported by your kernel unless you load the right module or compile with the proper option?
Regards

mandrake detected it before, but then after i messed with it (not unplugging anything) and a reboot, it didnt detect it anymore... i think my whole computer is just messed up, and i am considering reformatting all and reinstalling everything.... damn, i hate that

What did you do to mess your computer up?

I'd hate it too;
it could be the easiest solution, althought you won't discover what happens.
Regards

yeah... i messed with it by formatting it in windows as fat32.. but for some reason windows cant format a fat32 larger than 32 gb, so when i tried formatting the whole 120gb, it gave me an error...