fstab is a
configuration file that contains information of all the partitions and
storage devices in your computer. The file is located under /etc, so the full path to this file is /etc/fstab.
/etc/fstab contains information of where your
partitions and storage devices should be mounted and how. If you can't
access your Windows partition from Linux, aren't able to mount your CD
or write to your floppy as a normal user, or have problems with your
CD-RW, you probably have a misconfigured /etc/fstab file. So, you can usually fix your mounting problems by editing your fstab file.
/etc/fstab is just a plain text file, so you can open
and edit it with any text editor you're familiar with. However, note
that you must have the root privileges before editing fstab. So, in order to edit the file, you must either log in as root or use the su command to become root.
