How do I access Windows files in Mandrake 10.1

I installed Mandrake 10.1 within XP so I assume Mandrake just created a separate partition. I have many PDF books on learning Linux in Windows and wanted to be able to access them while I'm in Mandrake. How would I do that? Thanks.

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You should be able to read your NTFS partition, but maybe not write to it as it is a bit shakey, and I'm not too sure how well Mandrake 10.1 can hold it's own with writing to it.

If you simply just want to read your PDFs, you'll need to mount your NTFS partition. From a terminal/command line, try doing the following:

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su
<enter root password>
fdisk -l &#40;to list your partitions and find out the device name of your hard drive and NTFS partition&#41;

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Once you've got that, you can continue with this:

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mkdir /mnt/*windows*
mount /dev/*partition* /mnt/*windows*

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If you want it to automount during startup, you'll need to edit your fstab:

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vi /etc/fstab

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Once you're in there, press "a" on your keyboard to insert a line at the very end and try entering this:

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/dev/hdb1 /mnt/windows vfat umask=0000,dmask=0000,uid=0002,gid=users,users  0 0

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You'll just need to change a few things in that line that will suit your setup accordingly. After you've got that line in, you can press "escape" on your keyboard. Then press ":" and type "wq", which should write and quit the editor. Hope this helps.

That's one of the most complete walkthroughs I've seen in so few words....Must jot that down for next time!

Just dropping in to say - I'd be very surprised if Mandrake hadn't already mounted your partitions for you. look in the /mnt/ directory and you should see folders corresponding to your partitions. Mandrake is great for automagically setting this up. If it hasn't go to the Mandrake Control Centre and to the partitions section. You should be able to mount [partitions with a few mouse cllicks there, setting which mount on boot etc.

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Originally Posted by bigtomrodney

That's one of the most complete walkthroughs I've seen in so few words....Must jot that down for next time!

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Haha, thanks. Couldn't think of an easier until you brought up that point about the Control Centre... :roll:

Well, I guess just as long as it'll help someone. :D

lol :lol:

Thanks anyway!