# mount -t vfat /dev/hda5 /mnt/windows -o ro FAT: Did not find valid FSINFO signature. Found signature1 0x0 signature2 0x0 sector=4. VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev 03:05. mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/hda5, missing codepage or other error In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try dmesg | tail or so