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how to share partitions between windows and linux debian

Following advice from an article written in 02/2005 I have reformated my newsecond hard drive to type fat32 because both linux and windows support this file type. However I am having trouble understanding linux jargon to get linux to make the HD accessible and therefore share acccess between both OS. I have managed to create a new directory under linux but the references to use the mount command and edit the etc/fstab file are beyond me. Is there an idiots guide available somewhere to clearly show how to do this? If there is a better way to share files I would appreciate help.

man fstab will help and go a long way. you can also google for automount fat32 fstab and that should give you more information.

in short you have to tell the fstab that your fat32 partition is there and then set permissions to it for root and users.

this is and example of an fstab

Code:

cat /etc/fstab

# This file is edited by fstab-sync - see 'man fstab-sync' for details

/dev/sda3      /                      ext3    defaults        1 1

/dev/sda1      /boot                  ext3    defaults        1 2

/dev/sdb1      /b                      ext3    defaults        1 2

none            /dev/pts                devpts  gid=5,mode=620  0 0

none            /dev/shm                tmpfs  defaults        0 0

none            /proc                  proc    defaults        0 0

none            /sys                    sysfs  defaults        0 0

/dev/sda2      swap                    swap    defaults        0 0

none            /var/qmail/scan/tmp    tmpfs  defaults,noatime 0 0

/dev/hdc                /media/cdrecorder      auto    pamconsole,exec,noauto,managed 0 0

that tells you how many drives there are, what type they are, etc... no fat32 on that comp as it is a server so no need to have windows formats on it.

You might have a bit of trouble even reading the manual page for fstab (i.e. not knowing which of /dev/* to mount, etc.). Give us the output of:

Code:

fdisk -l

as you see i am newbie as well

here comes a link to a fstab guide to get you started real quick:

http://www.tuxfiles.org/linuxhelp/fstab.html

Quote:

Originally Posted by reverse (Post 2863062)

You might have a bit of trouble even reading the manual page for fstab (i.e. not knowing which of /dev/* to mount, etc.). Give us the output of:

Code:

fdisk -l

Had trouble getting this command to work, tried i, 1, caps l but eventually it worked, this is for other beginners that have trouble, don't give up!

The output for the new hard disk is :

Disk /dev/sdb: 300.0 GB, 300090728448 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors /track, 36483 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16085 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 36483 2930496666 b W95 FAT32

Already this clarifies some of the things I have seen in the documnetation with the help of other replies received (thks) If I was not clear in my objective, I want to be able to see files in the HD either on windows or on linux, I know I can do what I want with them in windows, eg: look at a film or listen to MP3, will I be able to do this on linux? possibly dragging and dropping or just being able to access the file, the inmportant thing is to not have to continually reboot. There is no data of any consequence on this disk. Thank you for your comment about the manual it reassured me! Is there a way to copy output and put it into the forum? The initial output containing the boot HD0 I am assuming you do not need. OK? thks

Quote:

Originally Posted by Michaelx (Post 2863332)

as you see i am newbie as well

here comes a link to a fstab guide to get you started real quick:

http://www.tuxfiles.org/linuxhelp/fstab.html

Thank you Michael, this is very helpful for this and other things, appreciate it. rgds