You need to recompile your kernel for NTFS support, RH tends to exclude it when you install the OS due to the NTFS support being an experemential and dangerous , well it is dangerous if you want to be able to write to NTFS partition within linux but read access is neither dangerous nor experimential (I think it was included in the kernel tree for some time now, so we can eliminate experimentiality).
So, as for recompiling kernel per-use these forums search results and http://www.tldp.org
Have fun.

oh well guess im reformating . i dont feel like re compliling the kernel just yet. im to much of a newb.

fat32 works great

ok well i have a little problem.

i have 1x40 and 1x80gb hdds in my linux box. my problem i formated both drives (well i know i did the main 40 but im not sure on the 80) i have linux on the 40 and i was going use the 80 for storage and FTP stuff. well when i run in the /sbin dir "./fdisk -l" it shows

Device Boot Start end blocks id system
/dev/hda1 * 1 5005 40202631 83 linux




then it goes down

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System

doesnt show anything after that.

i am guessing that its not formated. so im not sure what to do after this.

if there is nothing on the 80 G drive then just format it

we know it's not hda, so I will guess it's hdb

if it's on the primary slave it's hdb
now you may need to reboot to sync the kernel with the filesystem. Probably not in this case, since there is nothing on the drive.

im sorry im so stupid on this stuff but i cant figure out this part:
code]
fdisk /dev/hdb

n

p

1

enter

enter

t

c

w
[/code]
i dont know where to put the

n


p

1 or whatever.

when i type fdisk /dev/hdb
says command not found *shurg*

if you open /dev/hdb in fdisk then fdisk will ask for input

n = create partition

p = primary

1 = hdb1

enter = accepts default start position of partition on the disk

enter = accepts the default, create max size partition ( the whole disk)

t = set filesystem type

c = type fat32 (LBA)

w = write changes

i think i figured it out lol u make it so easy and i still cant figure it out. dang im stupid.

well i guess i didnt format it right bc it said that NTFS is not supported by the kernel. ill just go threw the setups again i suppose.

ok when i do a /sbin/fdisk -l it shows my HDD as


/dev/hdb1 which is ok.

it also shows under the system
win95 FAT32 (LBA)

but when i try to mount the drive it says NTFS not supported.

what mount command are you actually using? also, read your fstab file with and see if the filetype for that partition is still listed as ntfs. if so, change it in a text editor (you will need to change to being root with su to do this) to read 'vfat' instead of 'ntfs', then try to mount again.

edit: you might want to read this, it helped me a lot when i was first coming to terms with the idea of mounting partitions.

one way to do it all from the command line
this will bypass fstab, in fstab you need something like this

It appears that you must not have windows on the machine, is there a reason for not using linux filesystems.








Did you run mkfs -t vfat /dev/hdb1

you are right i do not have windows in this linux box anymore i have no reason for it. all i want to do is use the 80gb hard drive for storing files for a FTP server like mp3s and such. i also want to be able to access the drive threw samba on my windows 2k box and nt. I have no problem formating the drive with a linux file system if i can do what i have listed here.

i tryed mkfs -t vfat /dev/hdb1

but it comes back saying "command not found".

ok, It is possible that mkfs.vfat is missing.

You would be better off using a linux partition, here is how you can do it

run fdisk as before, you need to delete the partition first
d = delete partition

1 = delete hdb1


then you can repeat the creation proceedure, only instead of using type c use type 83 ( the default )
After that's done format the partition
then if you want ext3 use this
update your /etc/fstab entry