To answer your mounting questions:
The way you mount is like this:
mount <device> <directory>
(Okay naysayers, I know that <device> is technically a file system on a
partition of a device, but you get the point).
In your case, <device> may be something like /dev/sda1 and directory may
be something like /media/usbharddrive. You will have to create the
directory /media/usbharddrive first. Fedora Core may be trying to do
some behind-the-scenes magic for you, but I would disregard this, and
work it out for yourself. To figure out the write device (/dev/sda1),
you will need to look at /var/log/messages after plugging in the USB
drive. It will say something about a USB device and that it assigned it
as /dev/sda (or /dev/sdb, /dev/sdc, etc). Then, run "fdisk -l /dev/sda"
and it will list the partitions. There is probably just 1, and it is
probably /dev/sda1. This is what you will mount as the <device>.
Let's make sure it's working. Once you have mounted the drive using the
above command, cd /media/usbharddrive and look at the directory
contents. There may be nothing there. Create a file like this:
echo "test" > test.txt
Now, cd .. and unmount the drive like this:
umount /media/usbharddrive
No cd back into /media/usbharddrive and test.txt should NOT be there.
Now, mount the drive (mount /dev/sda1 /media/usbharddrive), cd into
/media/harddrive, run ls and you should see test.txt. Now you know that
the mounting process is working just fine.
To make it permanent, so it boots up mounted, you'll want to edit
/etc/fstab and add a line like this:
/dev/sda1 /media/usbharddrive vfat defaults 0 0
vfat is the old FAT32 Windows file system, and that is probably what the
drive is formatted as. It could also be ext3 or ntfs. If it's ntfs, you
will have some extra hoops.
About the booting hang problem, just look over the BIOS settings again
and make darn sure the boot order goes straight to disk and not USB
devices. I had the same problem with my iPod.
Good luck.
--Dave
P.S. You really should have tested your cron job to make sure it was
actually backing stuff up on to the drive when you first set it up. I am
often amazed when people set up these elaborate backup systems and then
never test them. You don't want the first data loss event to be the
first test. That could have career damaging effects. :)
Wade Preston Shearer wrote:
I have some questions about an external HD connected to a server (HP
ProLiant running FC3). First, I need to learn a little more about
mounting things and second, I need to figure out why it is messing up
the boot process.
When I plug the HD into the server, a directory named the same as the
name that I gave the HD when I formatted it appears in /media/. After
seeing that several months ago, I assumed that the OS has mounted it
up automatically and that I was ready to do. So, I set a cron job to
automatically back up to that each night. Well, sadly, I just
discovered that the HD has not been mounted this entire time.
Apparently, it created that directory but never mounted the external
drive. This evening, I typed "mount <drive name>" and it said that it
mounted it. I am fairly confident that it is mounted now. Is this the
proper method? Do you also have to mount manually? Should FC3 mount
automatically? Will it remount it on a reboot?
Now, the big issue. When the system tries to boot, it hangs if this
external drive is attached because it tries to boot from it. I checked
in bios and didn't see anything about external drives in the boot
order. I think that it might be considering it a floppy drive, which
seems strange since it's connected via USB. Anyone have any idea how I
can tell the computer to ignore it in regards to anything boot related?
Wade Preston Shearer
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