Cannot mout a reiserfs partition, but all others I can mount!


I went into /etc/fstab and typed in the proper mount command, similar to the others already mounted that are reiserfs drives. As usual those show up, but the partition on the same drive in question just refuses to mount.

Now I see the drive, hdc 4, but it would not mount or open so I can access my datas.

I slaved this drive to my mepis install and it mounts on there. I can even download from mepis to that drive..

Is something locking up that drive or still accessing it that makes it difficult for my Vector soho 5.1 install to mount it.. I have been able to mount it from my Vector 5.1rc1 install.,

Upon using VASM, it prompts me to format the drive which means losiing all of my useful data. Any ideas?
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mepis and vector soho for me. I can't choose. These are my distros of choice for everything with Vector being the newest for me.


What command should I typing in fstab to properly mount my drive? It is labelled, hdc 4 and it is on a master hard drive on reiserfs partition. It is a drive with SATA and IDE capability, but I am using it on an IDE port.



Would it look something like: /mnt/hdc 4 ..... I have forgotten how I typed it..

You're saying that you have mutiple reiserfs partition on the same machine that are mounting? And that just this one is a problem? Try looking in dmesg to see what happened when it tried to mount. Not a bad idea to post your /etc/fstab file so others can get a feel for what you're looking at. man mount will give you the options of crafting a command line to mount the device post boot.

Be sure which device you are actually trying to mount. From what you have stated, the hdc4 device should be the Master device on the Second IDE channel/cable. You are trying to mount the 4th PRIMARY partition (not a logical partition, those start at 5). The reasons I mention this is that most people do not have 4 primary partitions on a hard drive unless they explicitly did so.

Just a quick recap on IDE channels and partitions:
-There are 2 IDE channel/cable locations, these plug directly into your motherboard.
-There are 2 device locations on each ide channel, a master and a slave.
-So you have a total of 4 potential devices, hda, hdb, hdc, hdd
hda-master device on first ide-cable
hdb-slave device on first ide-cable
hdc-master device on second ide-cable
hdd-slave device on second ide-cable

Usually these are a mix of cdroms, hard drives, etc. If you have an ATA disc controller (usually a card that plugs into a pci slot that gives you extra ide slots) that will add additional devices starting with hde. The physical location of the device is what matters, not necessarily how many you have. I.e. if you have a cdrom and a hard drive each on a separate cable as master devices, you will have an hda and hdc device. If they were on the same cable that plugs into the first ide slot, then you'd have an hda and hdb device.

Partitions:
on a given hard disk you have 4 possible primary partitions and any number of logical partitions (i'm sure there is an upper limit, but I don't know what it is).
Even if you only have 2 partitions, the type of partition affects what they are called. Say if you made 1 primary and 2 logical partitions on a single hard drive in the master position on the first IDE cable, they would be referred to as:
hda1 - primary
hda5 - first logical
hda6 - second logical

If it was on the second IDE cable as the master device (second connector on motherboard, first connector on the cable), you would refer to them as:
hdc1 - primary
hdc5 - first logical
hdc6 - second logical

So, to recap from what you said. hdc4 is the fourth primary parition on your hard drive, and your hard drive is in the physical location of the master device on the second IDE channel/cable.

I believe you are most likely trying to access the wrong partition or the wrong device.