hi all. having trouble mounting my windows hard drive. i installed linux about 2 months ago for the first time, upgraded it, didn't use it much, and then the family moved, so getting back to it, my brain is a bit fuzzy on the exact details. hence, my hesitation.


I have 2 hard drives. 1 for linux and 1 for windows. the windows hard drive, for linux, is A, the linux Hard drive, for linux, is B. Grub is on A1.

I do believe that A1 in linux for me is my windows C partitioned drive - this is NTFS file system
I do believe that A2 in linux for me is my windows D partitioned drive - this says FAT32 for the file system.

when i run the mount command in linux, I type in what they tell me to type in.
"mount -a"
to mount everythign (and checking that fstab file in question, i don't see any reference to my windows hard drive in there. ) That didn't work. I also tried to mount with the
"mount -t vfat /dev/hda1 /dosc"
command. That didn't work. Realizing the drive was ntfs anyway, I replaced vfat in my command line with ntfs. that didn't work. i also tried
"mount -t vfat /dev/hda2/dosd"
command. no dice. i replaced the vfat in that command line with fat32, and then with just plain old fat. again, no dice. in each case, when i write the command line with the vfat in there , I get something coming back to me that essentially says that no such file system is found. i check the log, and it says the same thing essentially. that's understandable b/c i don't infact have vfat. but according to linux admin for beginners, an old osbourne book that has linux redhat 7 to go with it, fat32 and fat are other valid options to type in the command for where it asks for file system types. but when i type in fat32, fat, the response that comes back to me is no such file system, and
"don't you mean vfat?"
when i type in ntfs, it doesn't recognize that as a file system, period.


I NEED to mount my windows hard drive. 1 partition will have to do if there is absolutely no other option, but i'd much rather mount both partitions, if there is any way possible.

PLEASE HELP!

Thnx.

If your windows partition is not listed in fstab, it will never be mounted by using "mount -a". Instead, you'll have to specify it manually, which you are already trying:
What is te exact error you are getting? Are you sure /dev/hda1 is your windows C partition?
For your windows D partition, vfat is type if it is fat32. Your used command probably contains a typo:
should be Do your mount points exist, ie is there already a directory called /dosd and /dosc?
Finally, you must be root to mount filesystems.

well, i am in root, as it took me a long time how to do that when i forgot the root password, so after hours on that, I KNOW i'm in root.

in my commands, i did it a few times. there is no typo mistake. i noted the space-bar keystroke that is required when i first put in the command. yes, mount points do exist. i think they were made when i tried to do all this. anyway, they are there, but are completely empty.

exact errors? I can't tell you that until i get back to my home computer, write them down, and then restart the computer to get internet access in windows. (the whole point in this grand task is to get my newly aquired external modem working in linux. to do that, i need the correct drivers installed. to do that, i need to access what i downloaded through the mounted drive. see my handicap here?)
i just got to work to start my work day, so..

meanwhile, i got some advice on fedoraforum. does this look like it may be the right path? I haven't checked it out yet myself other than a cursury read-through.

here it is:
-----------------------------------------------------------

FOLLOW THESE INSTRUCTIONS http://www.linux-ntfs.org/content/view/127/63/

Then install the correct NTFS rpm can be found here http://www.linux-ntfs.org/content/view/128/64/
-----------------------------------------------------------

knowing how these things work, i know it can usually take a while, piecing different info from different sources together until i get the complete answer i'm looking for. so, that's why i put it here. I'll now look into these links myself, as well.

If your kernel does not have the filesystem support compiled pr supported, then installing those kernel modules will help.

However, especially for fat32, it is strange that your distro doesn't ship with support. Try installling the relevant modules as listed on that site and see if that helps, and post errors if that still fails.

had my wife check on the home computer in question...

here's what she got with some commands i had her type..

there was apparently a lot of output when typing in fdisk -l, right? so, the first line is :

disk /dev/hda: 40.0 gb, 40020664320 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors /track, 4865 cylanders


moving ahead to wherever it said "fat" or "ntfs" , i asked her to read that..

devise boot dev/hda5 start 4355 end 4864 blocks 4096543+ id B system Win95 Fat32

and then the other line..

dev/hda1 * start 1 end 4354 blocks 34973473+ id 7 system HPFS/ntfs

-------

so that's it for that. odd, b/c it's a windows 2000 OS, not 95.
asking her to type in uname -a and she tells me that the computer spits out this:

linux localhost.localdomain/2.6.11-1.1369_FC4 #1 THU JUN 2 22:55:56 EDT 2005 i686 athlon i386 GNU/Linux