Mount USB HDD to a certain /media/folder after boot

[Derek Broughton]

I think you're trying to make this far too complicated.

1) Disconnect external drives
2) Comment out any references in /etc/fstab
3) Delete an mount points (directories) for these drives in /media (they
should be created as needed by the system)
4) In a console "tail -f /var/log/syslog"
5) Plug in drive and watch the console

They should get automatically mounted.  If they don't, post the current
contents of /etc/fstab, /etc/mtab, and anything relevant from the log.
-- 
derek