Accessing windows partition

[oldnoob]

I cant seem to access my windows partition, or i dont know how!

I have recently installed mandrake on a second hard drive

my first drive is purely windows, 2 ntfs partitions

my second drive has usual linux partitions and a 15 gig fat 32 partition at the end (hdb8)

and i dont know how to access it. if i go through a browser it says permission denied

the partition was formatted through linux and can be accessed through windows.

in windows i have put some sound files and some pictures on it. and under windows i have shared the drive.

under linux i have gone to a terminal and su root, i enter password and then

try /dev/hdb8 /mnt/15 gig Fat 32, (cause that is the partitions name), and i get "Permission denied"

i have also tried /mnt/vfat/ and i get the same response

What am i doing wrong???

 

cause of my misguided attempts i have noticed as linux is shutting down that there is a few "Failed" warnings about trying to unmount drives that dont exist ( names that i have misspelt while trying to mount fat 32 )

 

Can anyone please steer me in the right direction?

[aioshin]

try to configure your partitions thru MCC, disk partitions, toggle to expert, click options.. you'lle find several options there.. hope that helps

[polemicz]

Couple of things: post your /etc/fstab file and if you have blank spaces in your names (15 Gig Fat32) linux will see the space as a delimiter, not as part of the command.

You could run fdisk /dev/hda and print the partition table for hda.

Finally, Mandrake will put all your Windows partitions under /mnt. Look at what is in that directory. Also check permissions. But first let's see your /etc/fstab.

[arctic]

open your /etc/fstab file as root. as your partition is a fat32 type, the line for the windows partition should look like this:

 

/dev/hdb8 /mnt/windows vfat umask=0,iocharset=iso8859-15,codepage=850 0 0

 

for mounting the drive, type in a terminal as root:

mount -t vfat /dev/hdb8 /mnt/windows

 

good luck

[oldnoob]

am i doing this right????

 

[everyone@localhost everyone]$ su root

Password:

[root@localhost everyone]# /etc/fstab

bash: /etc/fstab: Permission denied

[root@localhost everyone]# ls /mnt

cdrom/ floppy/ win_c/ win_d/

[root@localhost everyone]#

 

why does it list my partitions on my windows drive and not my fat 32 partition on this drive?

and why do i always get permission denied??

[adamw]

because /etc/fstab is not an executable file; you need to edit it. try 'kedit /etc/fstab' or 'gedit /etc/fstab' or something.

[oldnoob]

thats better, this is what comes up

 

/dev/hdb1 / ext3 defaults 1 1

/dev/hdb8 /15\040gig\040Fat\04032 vfat defaults 0 0

/dev/hdb7 /home ext3 defaults 1 2

/dev/hdc /mnt/cdrom auto umask=0,user,iocharset=iso8859-15,codepage=850,noauto,ro,exec,users 0 0

none /mnt/floppy supermount dev=/dev/fd0,fs=ext2:vfat,--,umask=0,iocharset=iso8859-15,sync,codepage=850 0 0

/dev/hda1 /mnt/win_c ntfs umask=0,nls=iso8859-15,ro 0 0

/dev/hda2 /mnt/win_d ntfs umask=0,nls=iso8859-15,ro 0 0

none /proc proc defaults 0 0

/dev/hdb6 /usr ext3 defaults 1 2

/dev/hdb5 swap swap defaults 0 0

[arctic]

try this fstab file contents (copy it as root using kedit or gedit)

/dev/hdb1 / ext3 defaults 1 
/dev/hdb8 /mnt/windows vfat umask=0,iocharset=iso8859-15,codepage=850 0 0
/dev/hdb7 /home ext3 defaults 1 2
/dev/hdc /mnt/cdrom auto umask=0,user,iocharset=iso8859-15,codepage=850,noauto,ro,exec,users 0 0
none /mnt/floppy supermount dev=/dev/fd0,fs=ext2:vfat,--,umask=0,iocharset=iso8859-15,sync,codepage=850 0 0
/dev/hda1 /mnt/win_c ntfs umask=0,nls=iso8859-15,ro 0 0
/dev/hda2 /mnt/win_d ntfs umask=0,nls=iso8859-15,ro 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/hdb6 /usr ext3 defaults 1 2
/dev/hdb5 swap swap defaults 0 0

Edited April 9, 2005 by arctic

[oldnoob]

I have modified fstab as above, but i still cant access partition

Should i be able to access partition through konqueror or terminal?

if so, how?

[Guest riscphree]

hehehe. instead of using gedit, or kedit, i suggest using the "cat" command while in the console to output file contents. and i also suggest the program nano for editing files. vi is also cool, but its a bit more complex.

 

to get into your drives, you can use both. in the terminal all you have to do is "cd" to your directory. navigating from the console is a VERY important thing to learn. i highly suggest you read up on that now.

 

and in konquerer, you can use file:/mnt/what ever your drive is here

[polemicz]

After changing /etc/fstab you need to run as root mount -a, which will mount all the files in /etc/fstab.

To access them all you need to do is brouse in Konqueror (under /mnt).

[oldnoob]

i am obviously still doing something wrong

 

using terminal i get this:

 

[everyone@localhost everyone]$ su root

Password:

[root@localhost everyone]# mount -a

mount: mount point /mnt/windows does not exist

[root@localhost everyone]#

 

 

konqueror doesn't see it

 

my fstab currently looks like this:

 

/dev/hdb1 / ext3 defaults 1

/dev/hdb8 /mnt/windows vfat umask=0,iocharset=iso8859-15,codepage=850 0 0

/dev/hdb7 /home ext3 defaults 1 2

/dev/hdc /mnt/cdrom auto umask=0,user,iocharset=iso8859-15,codepage=850,noauto,ro,exec,users 0 0

none /mnt/floppy supermount dev=/dev/fd0,fs=ext2:vfat,--,umask=0,iocharset=iso8859-15,sync,codepage=850 0 0

/dev/hda1 /mnt/win_c ntfs umask=0,nls=iso8859-15,ro 0 0

/dev/hda2 /mnt/win_d ntfs umask=0,nls=iso8859-15,ro 0 0

none /proc proc defaults 0 0

/dev/hdb6 /usr ext3 defaults 1 2

/dev/hdb5 swap swap defaults 0 0

 

control centre says partition is mounted, mount point = /mnt/windows

[adamw]

mkdir /mnt/windows

[arctic]

hehehe. instead of using gedit, or kedit, i suggest using the "cat" command while in the console to output file contents. and i also suggest the program nano for editing files. vi is also cool, but its a bit more complex.

although you can actually do almost everything from a command line, let him learn the basics first, before exploring the system step by step and learn some "advanced" stuff. ;)

[oldnoob]

Thank you all for your patience and your help!

 

now i can see the partition, so my problem is solved,

...but i dont know why?

 

since my last post, all i have done is this

 

[everyone@localhost everyone]$ su root

Password:

[root@localhost everyone]# mkdir /mnt/windows

mkdir: cannot create directory `/mnt/windows': File exists

[root@localhost everyone]# mount -a

[root@localhost everyone]#

 

so if the file exists i look through konqueror and sure enough its there

 

if anyone can tell me what has changed i would appreciate it,

if not thanks again for your help!!!