need fstab entry for windows partitions?

[shams]

hi,

i installed the mandriva 2006, after i attached the other hard disk with windows fat32 partitions, how i can add these partitions to fstab with read write and execute permissions to all users? i know little more like:

/dev/hda1 /mnt/win_c defualts 0 0

but need the correct entry as i want?

[pmpatrick]

The generic syntax for a FAT32 partition with read/write perms is:

 

/dev/hd** <mount point> vfat umask=0,codepage=850,iocharset=iso8859-1,exec 0 0

 

where hd** corresponds to the device file for the partition. Note, if you have a sata drive, the form of the device file will be sd** instead of hd**. The mount point can be anything you want but most people keep them in /mnt and use the form /mnt/win_* for windows partitions. The important part for read/write permissions is the "umask=0".

 

If you are not sure what the device files are for your new drive partitions, open a console and run:

 

$ su

<enter root password>

# fdisk -l

 

That will list all the partitions recognized by your system, whether mounted or not. Post the output here if you are not sure where to go from there.

[oshunluvr]

A fairly safe way to mount partitions if your not sure what entries to use is to use diskdrake. In a konsole as superuser just type "diskdrake".

 

It's a simple matter of selecting the drive and partition you want to mount, entering the mount location, clicking the "mount" button and then quit: making sure you answer "yes" to the "save modifications to fstab?" question as you quit. Older versions of mandrake sometimes had the wrong options selected by default, but since 10.1 I've had no problems. Diskdrake will also let you "browse" your hard drives and see all your partition sizes and types.

 

If you're looking to enhance your knowledge a bit - do the above and then take a look at /etc/fstab and see what entries diskdrake made. One modification I sometimes do is to set the "dump" and "fsck" fields (These are the last two entries in each line of fstab) to 0 for partitions I rarely access or don't necessarily want "repaired" prior to a crash/reboot. If you do this - make sure you leave the number 1 in last place for your operating system boot partition or you risk making your system unbootable and 2 in last place for other operating or commonly used partitions. In the event of a crash - I get my system back quicker and I then do a manual "fsck" of any additional partitions I feel might have been compromised by the crash. I currently have 12 partions on three drives so waiting for all of them to be checked can last a long time.

 

here's some sample lines from my /etc/fstab file;

 

/dev/sda1 / ext3 defaults 1 1

/dev/sdb5 /usr ext3 defaults 1 2

/dev/sda7 /home xfs defaults 1 2

/dev/hda6 /backup xfs defaults 0 0

/dev/hda1 /mnt/windows ntfs umask=0,iocharset=iso8859-1,codepage=850 0 0

/dev/hda5 /mnt/xfer vfat umask=0 0 0