> > >
> > >Uh...no.  More like:
> > >
> > >/dev/sdXa /users ffs rw 1 2
> > >
> > 
> > okay, the file is /etc/fstab .  /etc/disktab looks totally different :-)
> > yeah, i got something to the effect of the above line, except i used ufs
> > instead of ffs. whoops. (it didn't work with ufs).
> > hmm, just doing it now....it didn't work with ffs either. :-\
> > what could be wrong?
> 
> What line do you have there?  What partition is your zip drive set up to
> be on?  Do a 'disklabel sdX' and see what it tells you.
> 

i'm not trying to mount a zip drive. i'm trying to mount a hard drive. zip
drive directions were the closest thing i could find relevancy to. there
is not hard drive faq as far as i can tell.

i have "/dev/sd2a /usr ffs rw 1 2" at the bottom of the file, below kernfs
and procfs.  /dev/sd2 is the hard drive, dmesg said so.

> > >make sure that the /users directory exists as a mount point first, tho.  I
> > >don't think that mount can mount on top of a non-existant directory ;-)
> > >

yup, have that. (/usr)

> > >> (i just ran across this problem because i made my 2nd hard drive /usr, and
> > >> the system won't boot up because it needs a lot of stuff found in /usr).
> > >> thanks,
> > >
> > >Doh!  You can just boot into single-user and modify /etc/fstab there.
> > >Then it won't mount your zip drive over your /usr directory.
> > >
> > 
> > lame newbie question: how can i boot in single user and modify if it's
> > read-only in single user?
> > oh wait, is the filesystem not mounted at single user as default?
> 
> In single-user mode, the root filesystem (i.e. the partition mounted at /)
> is mounted read-only so that you can safely run fsck.  To mount it
> read/write, all you have to do is run 'mount -w /', I believe.  Then you
> should be able to edit /etc/fstab.  Worse comes to worse, you can just
> copy it out in the Installer, edit with something like BBEdit, then copy
> it back in with the Installer.
> 

yeah, i've been doing the thing with the installer right now. thanks for
the info, i guess i should have read man mount some more.
since i can't get the drive to automount right now (dunno why), i'm
thinking of booting single user, mounting the drive, then continuing
bootup. didn't have time to try this yet, but i will later today if i can
find time.
(automount would be a good thing though :)
thanks,
  - a