Thanks Joshua, it sounds like you have handle on this situation. All I have to do is iron out the details. Here's what happened: [root at localhost carl]# FILE=/root/tmp/hdb4 [root at localhost carl]# mknod $FILE b 3 68 [root at localhost carl]# dd if=$FILE of=/dev/null bs=1 count=1 dd: opening `/root/tmp/hdb4': Input/output error [root at localhost carl]# rm $FILE rm: remove `/root/tmp/hdb4'? y [root at localhost carl]# I hope I input this the way you were looking for. Could you explain in a little simpler terms what I'm doing here? I'm very new to the Linux command line. I read the mans, but don't quite get it. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Carl, I don't have a devfs linux kernel around to verify this with but here's how I remember doing this. You *don't* create the device node in /dev. Do it in /root or /tmp. The thing is, all you have to do is do some IO and devfs will notice the drive. Here's an idea: FILE=/root/tmp/hd?? mknod $FILE b ? ?? dd if=$FILE of=/dev/null bs=1 count=1 rm $FILE Obviously that does absolutely nothing of any real interest *except* force the system to actually look for something at that device node. You'll notice a matching /dev/hd?? symlink will have just appeared. It's magic. Joshua b. Jore Minneapolis Ward 3, precinct 10 http://www.greentechnologist.org On Tue, 13 Nov 2001, Carl Zeilon wrote: > OK, here is the latest of the zip saga. By issuing "mknod /dev/hdb4 b 3 68" > everything works great! AFAIK there is a problem with devfs & the ide-floppy > module. Nobody on the Mandrake forum seems to know how to make this "stick" > though (I tried adding it to /etc/rc.d/rc.local). All these fixes have to be > rerun after rebooting or just logging out. The best suggestion I heard is > changing the configuration to use the ide-scsi module (just like the old > days). Unfortunately, I wasn't around for those days & don't know how to do > it. Does this sound like a good option? Anybody want to walk me through it? > Thanks