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Linux is able to read Windows partitions by mounting them onto the filesystem.

If you have a modern distro, your windows partiton was probably added when you installed. Try looking in the /mnt/ directory using your FileManager and see if there is a directory called 'windows' or similar. If so, then simply clicking on it should show the contents of your C drive.

If there is no such folder you will have to make one yourself.

Run (as root):

mkdir /mnt/windows

If you are running Windows 9x then runing

mount -t vfat /dev/hda1 /mnt/windows

should be enough to mount your C drive onto /mnt/windows where you can access it.

If you are running Windows 2000 or XP you will have to use

mount -t ntfs /dev/hda1 /mnt/windows

FedoraCore doesn't have NTFS drivers built into the kernel, so you can't read windows 2000 / XP drives with it. You can however install pre-compiled NTFS kernel RPMS for Fedora to make it work.

Could someone with an /etc/fstab line for a windows partition add one here?

These instructions allow you to have read/write access to your windows drive as a normal user.
WARNING: it is a BadThing? to write to an NTFS drive from in linux. Chances are you will lose your Windows install (which isn't always a bad thing :) Don't follow these instructions if you run an NTFS drive.

1. Login as root user

2. Create a new group
  1. groupadd windows
3. Find out what the new ID number for the group is
  1. cat /etc/group
Output will look similiar to this
windows:x:501:
501 here is the new group ID
4. Make your user a member of the new group
  1. usermod -G windows username
Replace username with the name of the user you want to have access
5. Check and see if you are now a member of the windows group
  1. groups username
Output will look like this:

username : username windows

6. Edit /etc/fstab and save the changes
/dev/hda1 /mnt/win vfat auto,gid=501,umask=007 1 2

7. Unmount/remount the drive

  1. umount /mnt/windows
  2. mount /mnt/windows

Login as your regular user and you should have read/write access.

CategoryBeginners