[R-sig-Debian] accessing the Windows side from Debian

[denis brion]

To add to this explanation, you need to know where are and which is the name of your windows partitions; there are many solutions I forget ("mount -l" seems to work) and I -now- tried as root (sudo must work) the following:
/sbin/fdisk -l

The name of each portion of the disk(s), whether it is mounted or not, can be read, and, according to its size and its nature, you can find out which is your windows partition:
the following (between ---) shows what can be obtained :
--------------------------------------------------------
[tttents]# /sbin/fdisk -l

Disque /dev/sda: 80.0 Go, 80000000000 octets
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9726 cylinders
Unités = cylindres de 16065 * 512 = 8225280 octets

Périphérique Amorce    Début         Fin      Blocs    Id  Système
/dev/sda1   *           1          12       96358+  83  Linux
/dev/sda2              13         266     2040255   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda3             267        3074    22555260   83  Linux
/dev/sda4            3075        9726    53432190    5  Extended
/dev/sda5            3075        4042     7775428+  83  Linux

Périphérique Amorce    Début         Fin      Blocs    Id  Système
/dev/sdb1   *           1        6099    48990186    b  W95 FAT32
/dev/sdb2            6100       14593    68228055    5  Extended
/dev/sdb5            6100       11906    46644696   83  Linux
/dev/sdb6           11907       14593    21583296    7  HPFS/NTFS

Périphérique Amorce    Début         Fin      Blocs    Id  Système
/dev/sdc1   *          51       98740     7895104    c  W95 FAT32 (LBA)

--------------------------------------


/dev/sdb1 and /dev/sdc1 are FAT partitions, and might be Windows sdc1 is tiny -8 Go, from their blocs size-, sdb1 is bigger ca 50G, from the number of blocs ;

/dev/sdb6 IS *most* likely a windows partition (NTFS); if debian can read and write ntfs ( recent scientific linux can but some other linuxen cannot), one can give it the name one wants (
"mkdir /full_path_the_name_I_want")
 and mount it
All these commands are done as root, and one should be very comfortable, not to make any typo, and read their manual before("man fdisk && man mkdir && make mount"  until one is sure).
Very sorry for my not knowing debian's ntfs-3g support, but I use the disk detections on many linux families;
Of course, you should not try this, for the first time, with (m)any external disks!!
Have a nice night
denis
dbrion1 at yahoo.fr
 


--- En date de : Dim 31.1.10, Tyler Smith <tyler.smith at eku.edu> a écrit :

> De: Tyler Smith <tyler.smith at eku.edu>
> Objet: Re: [R-sig-Debian] accessing the Windows side from Debian
> À: r-sig-debian at r-project.org
> Date: Dimanche 31 Janvier 2010, 22h52
> "Hodgess, Erin" <HodgessE at uhd.edu>
> writes:
> 
> > I have a desktop which has both Windows and Debian
> operating systems.
> >
> > If I am on the Debian side, is there a way to access
> file from the
> > Windows side, please?
> 
> You need to 'mount' the windows partition to your Debian
> file system,
> and then you can read files from within Debian.
> 
> To do this, you need a mount-point, and an appropriate
> entry in your
> /etc/fstab file.
> 
> In my case, I have an empty directory in home (~/) named
> 'windows'. 
> 
> The corresponding entry in /etc/fstab is:
> 
> /dev/sda1   
> /home/tyler/windows    ntfs
> noauto,ro,users,noexec,umask=000 0 0
> 
> I can then mount the windows side with the command 'mount
> ~/windows' and
> read files like I would any other directory.
> 
> Some caveats:
> 
> 1) I use a pretty minimal setup, and use the command-line
> as my primary
> user interface. If you're using Gnome or KDE, you may have
> more 'point
> and clicky' alternatives
> 
> 2) I haven't tried writing to the windows partition from
> within Debian.
> It used to be impossible. I'm not sure where we are in the
> transition
> between risky and safe, so I just avoid it altogether.
> 
> 3) Depending on your hardware, the windows partition might
> not be at
> /dev/sda1, so you might have to do some poking around to
> figure it out.
> 
> 4) I don't remember the details for the fstab options. What
> I've got
> above works for reading an ntfs-formatted partition. You'd
> have to
> change it to read a fat32 partition, or to mount a
> partition read-write.
> 
> 5) Possibly another out-dated concern, I always unmount the
> windows
> drive before hibernating or shutting down. Unmounting is
> done via the
> command 'umount ~/windows'
> 
> 
> HTH,
> 
> Tyler
> 
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