Hello and thank you for reading this. I'm an absolute newbie as far as Linux is concerned. If the answer to my question is somewhere in this forum it's written in a way that I don't understand.

One of my partitions didn't get mounted automatically when I installed Linux alongside my Win2k.

Details:

SuSE 9___________________________________Win2k
Device_____mount_______type
/dev/hda1__/windows/C___hidden HPFS/NTFS___c:__1stHD 1st part.(primary)
/dev/hda5__/windows/E___HPFS/NTFS_________d:__1stHD 2nd part.(extended)
/dev/hdb3__/windows/D___Win95 FAT32 LBA____i:__ 2ndHD 1st part.(primary)
/dev/hdb5___swap_______Linux swap
/dev/hdb6___/___________Linux native

The first partition on the second disk is actually FAT16(for PQ Boot Magic).
For Linux I created a third partition(primary) on the second HD and let the setup partition this partition automatically.

Both HD's are on the same controller and have 40GB each.

What I can't (don't know how to) access is the 2nd(primary/NTFS) partition on the second HD which is drive j: under Win2k.

n.b.:The reason I still have Win2K is that I do a lot of audio stuff and I need to get used to Linux first and I need to access the 2nd partition on the second HD becaus a lot of my audio files are on it.

To have partitions mounted automatically, they must be listed in the file /etc/fstab and have a mount point allocated to access them later, eg /mnt/hdb2
Copy one of the existing lines and change the partition info..

If both exist ok, from a command line you can do mount /mnt/hdb2 or mount /dev/hdb2 to access the files.

Hi!
You can list all the partitions using :
#/sbin/fdisk -l
when logged as root and with an `l` like in list
Careful when using fdisk you can do a lot of damage to your system.
Read the man page..
On linux the first drive partitions begin with hda and the second with hdb (could also be hd-c, -d,... if you got more on your ide controler !)
The primaries are listed as 1,2,3,. The logicals in an extended start at 5 like your linux partition.
The fdisk command should have listed the ntfs partition you're looking for (as hb2 or 3 ?). Notice that Windows lettering doesn't mean much - you can change it yourself in XP.
Now that you now the ref of the partition you have to mount it.
You could try right now to see if it works :
#mount /dev/hdb2 /mnt-directory/mntpoint
(linux can usually figure out the filesystem itself)
You need to be root and have created the mntpoint directory beforehand (mkdir cmd) in the directory where you usually mount the other partitions.
For a more permanent solution (i.e. mounted automatically when you boot up),you have to add an entry in the /etc/fstab file. There is several options possible. Look what you got for the other entries and man pages.
By the way ntfs: read only ! (check threadid=132854)

If the two of you were here I'd kiss you If only manuals were written the way you explained it. Can you recommend any books?

It's /dev/hdb1 by the way. (This paritition was originally the first primary partition on the 2nd HD. To prepare the disk for Linux, I had as mentioned above created the FAT partition for PQ BootMagic, by moving the NTFS partition with PartitionMagic and leaving free space for the FAT partition in front of it.) I edited the fstab and mtab files.

The reason the partition has the letter j: assigned to it is because I put the disk into the system much later and wanted to keep the lettering for CD Drives and removable devices so that I wouldn't have to reassign the drive letters in all the programms which were already installed.

I know that NTFS is read only but I have a lot of raw material on it which needs editing. So working on the material in Linux and saving it appropriately will also help me organize things a bit.

I don't use XP by the way. XP is the main reason why I'm changing to Linux. So far Win2000 had done the job. But MS, TCPA, Palladium and all that is making me too paranoid.

Another thing I've learned from this is that Linux isn't more difficult, it just requires a different way of thinking.

Thanks again

you're welcome

cdlen