Question about mounting a filesystem

[andy baxter]

Anthony Papillion wrote:
> OK this is still not working. When I issued either of these commands I 
> got a message saying "/dev/sda5 is not a valid block device." That's 
> confusing as I thought ALL hard disks (external or not) were block 
> devices.
>
> I am totally lost. I am fuiriously scanning through documentation but 
> I simply cannot find a way to make this external USB drive writable. 
> Any more help is GREATLY appreciated.
>
> Thanks,
> Anthony
>
Have you tried 'ls /dev/sd*' to check which block devices /are/ available?