mounting external hard drive and windows partition

[Guest mongooseman1128]

I have Mandriva installed on my computer on the fourth partiton. my third partition is swap, partiton 1 is my vista (ick) partition. I want to have access to my vista partition (I don't need write permission just read). My Fstab reads as follows

/dev/sda4 / ext3 defaults 1 1
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/sda3 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/sda1  /mnt/win_c ntfs defaults,umask=0 0 0

I ran diskdrake and it says that /mnt/win_c is the mount point for sda1, but it still isn't showing up anywhere but in mount where it gives the output

/dev/sda1 on /mnt/win_c type ntfs (rw,umask=0)

I assume i need to change the end of the /dev/sda1 line but I'm not sure which 0 to make a 1 (is the order possibly rwx?)

second, I want to be able to easily mount my external hard drive from Mandriva. It's a USB drive (the drive itself is SATA). Trick is, a lot of times I won't have the hard drive handy when I turn the computer on and need it to auto mount when plugged in.

[pmpatrick]

Try making the line:

 

/dev/sda1  /mnt/win_c ntfs defaults  0 0

 

and see if you can access the partition through /mnt/win_c after remounting with:

 

$ su
<enter root password>
# umount /mnt/win_c
# mount /mnt/win_c
# ls /mnt/win_c

 

The last "ls" command should list the contents of your NTFS vista partition. If you can access the partition through the above ls command but not as an ordinary user in konqueror, you probably have your security setting set too high. Post back and I'll go into how to reset that so ordinary users can access your vista partition.

Edited May 30, 2007 by pmpatrick

[Guest mongooseman1128]

okay, unfortunately I had to restore my mandriva partition (no big deal it's only been installed for about 12 hours) and when I got done I think of using diskdrake to do the mounting and everything. I used it and added the label vista to that partition and set the options so that ordinary users can mount it. When I did that it started showing up in nautilus, but when I try to explore it I get an error.

mount: special device label=vista does not exist

so I go back and explore fstab and it reads as follows

/dev/sda4 / ext3 defaults 1 1
LABEL=VISTA /mnt/win_c ntfs user,defaults 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/sda3 swap swap defaults 0 0

also, there is no mention of /dev/sda1 when I run mount.

Edited May 30, 2007 by mongooseman1128

[arctic]

As said, change this line in /etc/fstab

LABEL=VISTA /mnt/win_c ntfs user,defaults 0 0

to

/dev/sda1  /mnt/win_c ntfs defaults  0 0

and check again. If it doesn't work, then check if sda1 is the correct path. Check with

fdisk -l

[Guest mongooseman1128]

I tried changing fstab to that too, but all it accomplishes is removing the drive labeled "win_c" from nautilus and it still doesn't show up in mount. I ran fdisk -l and the partition is correct, but in the column boot there's an asterisk for that partition and it's the only one with an asterisk.

[pmpatrick]

The asterisk is nothing to be concerned about; it just means that partition has been marked as "bootable". You should see the asterisk under the "Boot" column in the fdisk output.

 

With the fstab entry I gave you before what do you get when you try to manually mount the partition:

 

$ su

<enter root password>

# mount /dev/sda1

 

Or you could try a completely manual mounting with:

 

# mount -t ntfs /dev/sda1 /mnt/win_c

[Guest mongooseman1128]

I put that line into fstab and when I run mount it sees the partition no problem and I can explore it no problem, but it doesn't show up in nautilus

[pmpatrick]

Then it's a gnome/nautilus problem, not a mounting problem. When you say you can't see anything in nautilus, exactly what do you mean? What happens when you navigate to /mnt/win_c in nautilus? Also, as root try running:

 

# draksec

 

The draksec window will come up showing you the security level. Draksec is mandriva's security hardening application. When set too high, it causes all kinds of access problems with windows partitions. Try resetting it to "Standard", reboot and see if the problem goes away.

[Mitchell]

I think I know what's going on for you, only as I've just been grappling with it myself, and now have succesfully mounted my windows partition. Firstly I'm using Gnome, not KDE, but I don't think that will matter. Oddly enough there IS a manual which describes this, but it's not obvious. WHen I installed Mandriva 2007.1 there is a link under the tool bar to Mandriva, with a blue "I" icon in front of it. It will take you to this page: http://easylinux.info/wiki/Mandriva#General_Notes

 

Scroll up to "9 Windows" under the contents section, and it will give you some advice about mounting partitions. Also see below:

 

Open a console.

$ su

password: (enter password)

# umount /dev/sda1

# mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/win_c -t ntfs -o nls=utf8,umask=0222

# exit

$

 

Now navigate to /mnt and list the contents of that directory:

$ cd /

$ cd mnt

$ ls

 

You should see win_c as a sub-directory. Enter win_c

$ cd win_c

 

You should have access now to your windows partition. You can navigate graphically through nautilus through filesystems>mnt>win_c as well. Using the mount command above this can be done as any user.

 

"mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/win_c -t ntfs -o nls=utf8,umask=0222" Lets you mount your windows partition automatically on boot for any user. "nls=utf8" is the command for it to automatically boot on mount, and "umask=0222" lets any user view the partition. If you want to have a link to your desktop, open a console again:

$ cd /

$ cd /home/"username"

$ su

# ln -s /mnt/win_c win_c

# exit

$

 

This will put a shortcut to your win_c partition in your user home directory. Simply navigate to home using nautilus, then drag the win_c folder to your desktop. When you reboot (not that you need to now) you will find your win_c folder on your desktop, and should be able to access your Vista partition. Enjoy!