Accessing Windows File System

**exploder** · 10-14-2005

I would like to access my Windows files system from my Debain Sarge 3.1. How to do that?

**genesus** · 10-14-2005

what type of filesystem is your windows part on, if its fat32 you are in luck all you have to do is, eg, mount -t vfat /dev/hda1 /mnt/windows

however, if it ntfs, read about how to enable experimental ntfs support in your kernel...you will have read access, and I think there's even a way to write access; however, this is not recommended and can be very unstable...

if you want to keep ntfs on your xp parition then it may be best to create a fat32 filesystem to share between both oses

**exploder** · 10-14-2005

My windows file system is running on NTFS. Whats the procedure to access NTFS then?
But, what i have seen is its pretty easy on SUSE .

One more thing is I have installed Sarge with ReiserFS so my SUSE is so how to access SUSE File system as well?

**d38dm8nw81k1ng** · 10-14-2005

Originally Posted by exploder

My windows file system is running on NTFS. Whats the procedure to access NTFS then?
But, what i have seen is its pretty easy on SUSE .

One more thing is I have installed Sarge with ReiserFS so my SUSE is so how to access SUSE File system as well?

first do

Code:

fdisk -l

that's a little L, NOT a 1.
this will tell you where your partitions are kept. windows will probably be /dev/hda1
i'm not sure how to mount NTFS, but SuSE should automatically mount it as /windows
to access your SuSE partition from debian and vice-versa, just do:

Code:

mkdir /distroname
mount /dev/hda# /distroname

where # is the hda number of your distro. mkdir creates a directory, which you can then use to mount your filesystem on.

**smolloy** · 10-14-2005

You can do this using yast -> system -> partitioner.

When you open this you'll get a list of all the partitions and their mount points, so just find the NTFS windows partition, click "edit", and assign it to (for example) /windows/C. (You should make the directory /windows/C exists beforehand).

**ericrun** · 10-14-2005

You need to install the libntfs5 to be able to read the NTFS from Linux. I think that the libntfs-dev package might enable writing to ntfs partitions, but that package is under development, and I can't really attest to it's maturity, so make sure you back up your stuff.

After you get those packages installed, you need to decide where you want to mount the partition. This has to be in an empty folder (/media/windows; /windows, /ntfs, /win, /mount/win), then run (as root)

Code:

mount -t ntfs /win /dev/hda0

assuming you've decided to mount hda0 in /win. There might be some options you need to use to get user level accounts permission to access the windows partition.

**infoseeker** · 10-14-2005

'fdisk -l' does not work on my machine (2 harddisks)
I had to 'fdisk /dev/hda -l' or 'fdisk /dev/hdb -l' to list anything.

To access my windows disk I (as root):

mkdir /windows

(called it /windows (so not to forget where))

ADDED the following 2 lines to my '.bashrc' file :

alias mntfs='mount -t ntfs /dev/hdb1 /windows'

(hdb1 is my windows drive) and :

alias umntfs='umount /windows'

and the to mount the drive, type 'mntfs'

and just type 'umntfs' to 'umount' it.

Just my 2 cents

**smolloy** · 10-14-2005

Apologies. My advice was for a Suse machine cos I incorrectly read your first post and suggested you should use yast, which of course is useless for a debian user!

**mousomer** · 02-08-2007

That was really helpful. Thanks.
And now for another Q:
how do I make the NFTS mount accessible to normal users? I seem to be able to access it only from root console...

OK, Got it. changed the /etc/fstab file with the lines

/dev/hdb1 /home/mousomer/windowsD vfat defaults,umask=0 0 0
/dev/hda1 /home/mousomer/windows ntfs rw,users,umask=022 0 0

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Accessing Windows File System

thanks

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