It seems that the exfat-utils package is still unavailable, even after enabling the RPM Fusion repository. This could happen if the repository metadata hasn’t been updated or if the package isn’t directly available in the RPM Fusion repository for RHEL 8. Let’s try a different approach:

1. Refresh the YUM repository cache

Sometimes, the repository metadata may be outdated. Refreshing the cache might help.

sudo yum clean all
sudo yum makecache

After that, try installing the fuse-exfat and exfat-utils packages again:

sudo yum install fuse-exfat

2. Install exFAT support via FUSE from a third-party repository

If the above steps don’t work, you might need to manually install the FUSE driver for exFAT. Here’s how to do it:

1. Install EPEL repository (if not already done):

   sudo yum install epel-release
   

2. Install required dependencies:

   sudo yum install fuse fuse-devel
   

3. Download and install the exfat-fuse package:

   git clone https://github.com/relan/exfat.git
   cd exfat
   make
   sudo make install
   

After installing, try mounting the exFAT filesystem:

sudo mount.exfat-fuse /dev/sdc1 /mnt/external

3. Consider using dmesg or lsblk to verify the drive

If fuse-exfat still doesn’t work, make sure that the system recognizes the external drive properly and that the device /dev/sdc1 is correct.

dmesg | grep sdc
lsblk

4. Alternatively, consider using a different filesystem

If installing exFAT support remains problematic, you may want to consider formatting the drive as another filesystem type (e.g., NTFS or ext4), both of which have broad support on Linux systems.

Let me know how this goes, or if you encounter any more issues!