Accessing Files on a Windows Partition from Linux and Vice-Versa

[Andrew Kaplan]

Hi there --

I am installing Fedora Core 2 and then plan on installing Windows 2000 or XP on a single harddrive. The system will then be configured with Partition Magic to enable dual-boot capability.

I would like to be able to access files on the Windows partition from Linux and be able to the same for Linux from Windows.

My thinking was to install the Samba server and client on the workstation. I am not sure what the correct configuration would be if I went this route. Can someone enlighten me on this?

Also, if there is a better way to accomplish the the above, please let me know. Thanks.

[Stuart Browne]

Samba would only be useful if you wanted to access files from a different computer on the network.

To be able to access files on the current computer of which you are dual-booting, then you need a whole new kettle of fish.

You need to look at the NTFS read-only driver for Linux (see http://linux-ntfs.sourceforge.net/ ), which will allow you to read the content of NTFS file systems, but not write to them.

From the windows side, you need an EXT2/EXT3 driver for Windows 2000/XP (see section 3.2 of the FAQ at that site).

Both have freeware options. These will allow you to swap files back and forth.

The other option is to create a shared space using Fat32. This way both Windows and Linux will be able to read the same filesystem.

[Andrew Kaplan]

Thanks for your reply. I was doing some additional planning and I believe this is what I'll do:

Create an additional partition, after the initial Windows install, that is formatted with the FAT32 filesystem. Modify the fstab file in Linux to mount the partition on boot.

My only question is what would the correct syntax be within the fstab file?

[Christian Deutsch_1]

Dear Andrew,

A somewhat different idea for you. This is what I do: use a CompactFlash card reader/writer (you can buy one for $10 or so) and a CompactFlash card (e.g. 256MB for $40 or so, in fact an old 10MB card is sufficient for me up to now).

Don't know if this is an option for you but it works fine for me.

Plus for Windows to Linux (read only) I also set up my Linux to mount the windows NTFS partition.

I didn't want a FAT partition on my hard drive because of the associated security and file system corruption problems etc.

Kind regards, Christian

[Gopi Sekar]

looks like you want to access windows partition when you have booted in to linux and vice-versa. then samba is not your friend, samba can be used only when you want to access linux files from other windows machines and vice-versa.

following is the fstab entry to be added in linux to mount windows partition always.

create a directory /mnt/windows and add following line in /etc/fstab

/dev/xxxx /mnt/windows fat32 defaults 1 1

where xxxx is windows fat32 partition (eg: /dev/hda3)

Check this link for an application which can be used to access linux partition(ext2, ext3) from windows

http://uranus.it.swin.edu.au/~jn/linux/explore2fs.htm

Regards,
Gopi

[Andrew Cowan]

Is there any reason why you are stuck with Core-2? Core-4 is available in beta and will go GA very soon. This version is likely to be far more stable as well as include many new features, plus anything you get from Sourcforge will likely be compiled against the newest releases of Linux.

[Steven E. Protter]

Linux has a facility for being able to mount ntfs filesystems within the system itself, but be default its not built into the kernel.

Otherwise, Samba is the common element and should be the tool of choice.

SEP

[renarios]

Hi Andrew,

My choise would be Samba. For a nice (web-based) admin tool you could install swat or webmin.

Cheerio,

Renarios

[Stuart Browne]

The 'fstype' in the '/etc/fstab' wouldn't be 'fat32', it'd be 'vfat'..

/dev/xxx /mnt/windows vfat defaults 0 0

bkx