I have XP on primary drive, Linux 7.04 Christian Edition on secondary drive. I can't mount my two pen drives (Cruzer 256K and 512K) on my Linux drive. They show up in my Device Manager on Linux, and on the Disk Mounter applet, but won't let me mount them. (I can access both on XP drive.) My fstab results are:

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
# /dev/hdb1
UUID=ad93f9e3-c79d-4994-aff9-8eb2142ef56a / ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1
# /dev/hdb5
UUID=8a45a05b-ad38-40ca-8f63-bb407efe942c none swap sw 0 0
/dev/hdc /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto 0 0
/dev/hdd /media/cdrom1 udf,iso9660 user,noauto 0 0
/dev/fd0 /media/floppy0 auto rw,user,noauto 0 0

What have I done to block access to both external drives? One drive disappeared first and then the second one a week or so later. It seemed to happen shortly after I installed a Conexant Linmodem (per instructions on Ubuntu site using the correct modem for my version) to avoid having to use an external serial modem. The Linmodem works fine, but not sure if it was the culprit OR a from a reinstall of CE on the secondary drive just prior to that.

What messages do you get when you try to mount them ???.

By not mounted, do you mean not visible on the desktop? I can't imagine what you could have done that prevents them from auto-mounting. Appearance on the desktop is a configuration parameter. If you open Nautilus and look at the side panel "Places" you should see the drives even they don't display on the desktop. They should also appear in the /media folder. Insert the thumb drives while viewing the /media folder and you should see a new folder pop up. Frequently the name of the folder will be the manufacturer name.

Hi and thanks. If I click on the USB icons at the top of the screen in Disk Mounter, two choices come up: The first one is grayed out "open san disk cruzer micro", and the second one says "mount san disk cruzer micro". If I click on this, the message disappears and the icon at the top remains as it was.

When I go to Nautilus>Places>Computer, both disks are listed with other items. If I try to open either of them, the "/-File Browser" opens instead as if I simply had gone to my "File System" and opened it via Places>Home Folder>File System.

If I open "/media", then uninstall a disk and then reinstall it, it does disappear and then reappear on the screen. But when I click on either, I get a choice to Mount, but I'm still not able to open the disks by going to Nautilus/Places/Computer, either choice results in opening "/-File Browser".

The disk mounter you mention isn't part of Ubuntu 7.10 but was in older releases. I'm curious as to how you updated to 7.10. This may be part of your problem. I know about CE but recoginze version 3.3. In Ubuntu to upgrade to a new release you must upgrade from the the prior and not from older releases. I recommend you re-install afreash version of 7.10 replacing what you have. It almost sound like you have managed to end up with a very non-standard system. I'm not sure I can help you repair what you have without starting over.

HI and thanks again. I'm sorry, I HAD updated to 7.10 but then did a clean install of CE on that drive and haven't updated it to 7.10 and forgot to update my profile on Linux Questions! I am using the Feisty 7.04 distro of Ubuntu.

fragos and syg00, I have been updating the 7.04 CE over several days at night (dial-up) and today when I restarted after the latest group, I can now see my disks listed at the top of the screen via the "Disk Mounter" and on the desktop...and ACCESS them. Thank you very much, even in my haste to figure out the basic problem, I learned several other things along the way!

Thank you guys, just realized I've neglected to!