USB disk won't mount during boot

[Larry Breyer <breyer salk edu>]

I have three different Dell desktops.  They are running
FC5, FC6, and F7, respectively.  I mention this because
the problem does not occur on FC6.  I have Western Digital
USB drives with ext3 filesystems attached to each.

On the FC5 and F7 machines the boot process fails to mount
the USB drive.  There is some complaint about an invalid ext3
filesystem.  But, after the machines are fully booted, I can
mount the USB drives without any problem.

Is the mount being attempted before the drivers are in place?
Is there a way to resolve this problem?

Thank you!
--
Larry Breyer
Systems Administrator, Computer Services
Salk Institute for Biological Studies
858-453-4100 x1981 Fax:858-554-0572