well, not sure exactly what was missing before, but i did
upgrade to rh9.0, and after the usual fiddling with
missing apps and new differences, set up fstab, installed
the missing modules and voilla . . . sda1 mounted and the
data was there for the plucking.  all in all, much easier
than downloading files from the serial port via photopc.

thanks all, for the help and advice.

dan

j. daniel moylan
84 harvard ave #2
brookline, ma 02446-6202
617-232-2360 (tel)
810-454-1823 (fax)
jdm@moylan.info
www.moylan.info