Accesing Files in the Windows Partition

[Ice]

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I'm running a dual boot system with Mandrake 9.0. Does anyone know of a way that I can access the files across the partition? It would make my life so much easier...

[l_Kriss]

wich windows version?

in a windows version wich uses fat type this, (but fill out what correct. do a fdisk -l to see it)

mkdir /mnt/c_disk && mount -t vfat /dev/hda1 /mnt/c_disk

if you get a "fs not supported by kernel" type modprobe vfat, or compile the vfat module.

on ntfs windows:

mkdir /mnt/c_disk && mount -t ntfs /dev/hda1 /mnt/c_disk

.

same as above, just try modprobe ntfs or compile the ntfs module.

Anyhow, good luck

ps: more information in 'man mount'

[Dolda2000]

Kriss, are you aware that if he doesn't augment those commands, they will only work the first time, since later mkdir will fail with EEXIST, and those && will cause mount not to be run?


Ice, here's the full explanation:
First, create a directory where you want to access your Windows files. By tradition, it is to be put in /mnt, but it's really up to you. One way to create this directory is to run "mkdir /mnt/c_disk" as Kriss said. Note that it has to be run as root, and that it will create a directory named c_disk. Although it can be named anything you want, I'll use c_disk as reference hereinunder.

With that directory in place, you will need to mount you Windows partition there. Mounting is a process that has been a part of UNIX since the late 60's, when it was first created in AT&T's laboratories (If you didn't know, Linux is a free clone of UNIX), and what it does is that it "attaches" the file system that is on that partition on the directory that you specify. For example, if you run "mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/c_disk", all files that exist on /dev/hda1 will be made possible to access under /mnt/c_disk.

Of course, you'll have to know what partition that your Windows file system resides on, since it isn't necessarily /dev/hda1. If you don't know how partitions are named (by default; it's possible to change, of course, but never mind), see this post. It holds some more valuable information, but you don't need to read beyond the first paragraph of my reponse if you don't feel like it.

If you want the partition to be automatically mounted when you boot, which you probably want (why wouldn't you, after all?), add this line to the file /etc/fstab (you'll need to be root to write to that file):

<partition> /mnt/c_disk <filesystem> defaults 0 0

You'll need to replace <partition> with the actual partition (such as /dev/hda1) and <filesystem> with the file system on the partition; vfat for a FAT partition or ntfs for an NTFS partition.

[Ice]

Thanks for the info. Worked like a charm!

-Ice

[heartsmagic]

Dolda is right.you will give the full explanation.dont mix em all

[DigitalVapor]

I have a seperate Hard Drive from my linux one. It is a 60 gigabyte NTFS drive with tons and I mean TONS of files and programs that I salvaged when my windows system failed. Linux is now my only operating system but those files on my ntfs hard drive are very valuable to me. Linux detects the drive as hdb. so how might I go about mounting it so I can again access those files?

[Dolda2000]

/dev/hdb refers to the entire disk, including the boot sector and everything. It's probably a single partition that you want to access. If there is only one partition, it will be /dev/hdb1. You can check the partition table with "fdisk -l /dev/hdb".
If it is /dev/hdb1 that you want, run this:

mount -t ntfs /dev/hdb1 /mnt/win

That requires you to have the directory /mnt/win. If you don't have it, create it with "mkdir /mnt/win".
All these commands require you to be root.

[DigitalVapor]

No actualy it was a secondary hard drive when I was running XP. it does not have anything directly related to my previous OS. it is also partitioned into about 4 partitions labeled D: E: F: and G:* I think g is there otherwise its got about 11.8 gb of unpartitioned space. and since it was set up as a dynamic drive partition magic treated it like it was TOTALY full.

So basicaly I need to know how to mount the whole drive and all of its partitions

[Dolda2000]

You will need to mount the partitions seperately (although they can all be mounted at the same time.
I'd create a directory called /mnt/win, and in that create four directories called 1, 2, 3 and 4. Then I'd run this:

for i in `seq 1 4`; do mount -t ntfs /dev/hdb$i /mnt/win/$i; done

[DigitalVapor]

<----total linux newbie could you run that by me again...with a little bit of explanation? please?