Confused booting in Redhat 9.0

From: mike (mikecalvelage_at_hotmail.com)
Date: 08/23/04 

Date: 23 Aug 2004 12:21:35 -0700

I have ran into a problem that I am not able to find a clear answer
to.

I currently have a system with Redhat 9.0 that is used as a file
server. The hard disk drives include -

20 GB drive for the operating system
120 GB drive for Data storage
80 GB drive for data storage

All hardware seems to be functioning OK. I believe that I am having
an issue with the actual boot setup.
The system works great with the 120 GB drive in or out (it is in a
removable IDE bay).
However Redhat will not boot with the 120 GB drive removed.

Once again the hardware works fine in both situations but Redhat needs
the large drive to boot.
If I leave the 120 GB drive in, I can boot into Redhat fine but I
cannot write information to the drive (mounted in fstab like /dev/hdc1
 /hun ext3 defaults 0 01).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[root@madhatter root]# cd /hun
[root@madhatter hun]# ls
boot.b grub lost+found module-info
 p vmlinux-2.4.20-8
chain.b initrd-2.4.20-8.img message module-info-2.4.20-8
 System.map vmlinuz
config-2.4.20-8 kernel.h message.ja os2_d.b
 System.map-2.4.20-8 vmlinuz-2.4.20-8
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This shows that there is data on the drive.
I have mounted drives before with no problems, but this drive I cannot
add data.

A look at my fstab -
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

LABEL=/ / ext3 defaults
 1 1
#LABEL=/boot /boot ext3 defaults
  1 2
none /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620
 0 0
none /proc proc defaults
 0 0
none /dev/shm tmpfs defaults
 0 0
/dev/hda3 swap swap defaults
 0 0
/dev/hdd1 /eighty ext3 defaults
    0 0
/dev/hdc1 /hun ext3 defaults
 0 01
/dev/hdb4 /mnt/zip auto
noauto,owner,kudzu 0 0
/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto
noauto,owner,kudzu 0 0
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What I believe has happened (please correct me if I am wrong) is that
Redhat somehow installed the boot partition to the 120 GB hard drive
or my fstab is incorrect and therefore I cannot write to the device.

Normally to fix a problem like this I would start over with a new
installation of Redhat and not install the secondary drives until I
finished the install but this is now a functioning file server.
So I need to be able to correct this problem without major data loss.

Ideally I would love a way to change this maybe from a boot floppy
where I can easily change things back if the initial attempt does not
work.
Please help! I have been frustrated about this since I discovered it
a couple of months ago.