If i'm dual booting, can I access my music files from my xp harddrive?

mr_coffee · 01-09-2006, 11:51 AM

Hello everyone!! I was wondering if i was able to access my gigs and gigs of music files from my windows system instead of copying them over? I am going ot have SuSE 10.0 on my 200 gig and my 160 gig is windoze. I use itunes on my windoze system to manage all my music files, and i think they convert it to some odd format, so i was wondering if linux will have any problems playing .mpg's or itunes music format. Also how would I access the files if it is possible?

abisko00 · 01-09-2006, 12:01 PM

You can mount any NTFS partition read-only, so you can play music. Add a line in /etc/fstab for the partition to mount, e.g.:

/dev/hdxy /windows/C ntfs defaults,umask=000 0 0

The drive will be mounted automatically on the next boot. You certainly need to create the mountpoint (e.g. /windows/C) first with 'mkdir'.

Linux will not be able to play songs that you bought from the iTunes shop, however mp3 and unprotected m4p work just fine.

Conjurer · 01-09-2006, 12:04 PM

I was doing that myself initially - SUSE 10 should by default find all foreign file systems on your computer and automount them. Just bear in mind that AFAIK you will not be able to modify files residing on an NTFS partition from within Linux. Read access works perfectly though.

Conjurer · 01-09-2006, 12:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by abisko00

... Linux will not be able to play songs that you bought from the iTunes shop...

I take it you did mean amaroK, mplayer, or something else?

acid_kewpie · 01-09-2006, 12:06 PM

yes, sure. if it's fat32 then you can mount it and read and write just fine, if it's NTFS then you can only read.

mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/windows

where hda1 is the windows partition

abisko00 · 01-09-2006, 12:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Conjurer

I take it you did mean amaroK, mplayer, or something else?

Some time ago, VideoLAN (vlc) was advertised to be able to play DRM protected iTunes files. I gave up when I found that iTunes has changed the encryption system and vlc stayed quiet. But maybe the code has been cracked again? I don't know.

mr_coffee · 01-09-2006, 12:12 PM

Awesome thanks guys!