I installed Linux Mint recently. I have an external HD connected to my Windows desktop that I use to store all my photos and my iTunes library/music. If I connect it to my laptop running Linux, will it recognize it and will I be able to access the files?

Thanks.

As long as ntfs3g is installed and I think Mint has it installed by default.

So you should be able to connect and see you files without a problem

-C

Short answer is yes. Linux should recognize the removeable media and the files can be manipulated through the Linux machine. Now changes that you make or new files from the Linux box added to the drive won't neccessarily be recognized on Windblows though. Audio files and picture files should be recognized as long as it's a format that Windows uses, (example: mp3, jpeg, .doc, etc.)

Take it for a spin, hope this helps & Welcome to LQ

It should work just like plugging the thing in any other computer.

Let us know how you did!

Thanks for all of your quick replies. I appreciate it.

2012 end of the world scenario ?

srsly, you would get better results by posting what happened when you tried it... most harddrives/ cd's/ mp3 players i plug into my pc tend to pop-up a window asking if i want to see the files on the medium.

The partition can be detected only in few condition
1. the windows partition is ntfs and your linux is have ntfs-3g package installed
2. the windows is fat and you try to mount using vfat type


I have tried mounting other formats like Win 95 but it always returned with an error.
So it would be better to observer the hard disk type of your windows partition

or else you will return with an error of

unable to find proper mount point for the selected HDD

depends on your udisks settings any automounter you have running what gui you have running if any and what filesystem types and programs you have installed and what type the hdd is. Either absolutely nothing will happen or it will mount itself automatically or it will tell you you don't have the filesystem tools installed.

hey johntabita,

when you plug in your External HDD via USB, it works just fine like most people have said. Mint is designed to help new users of linux and make their work easy. Whether it is NTFS of FAT all file systems will work in form of plug and play because linux also has ntfs-3g and Vfat. But if it is an internal HDD then you need to mount it.

I had no problem connecting the external HD to my Linux laptop. It recognized both the drive and the files. I copied some mp4's onto the drive. A problem occurred when I ejected the drive. I got a black screen with white text (I'm sure there's a technical term. The only word I recall is "panic.")

I had to use the power button to shut down the laptop. When I connected the HD to my Windows desktop, all was fine for a while, then I got a disk write failure and everything on the disc disappeared (yes, I have a backup). So I connected the HD to another Windows computer and all the files were there.

I connected the HD back to the Linux laptop, transferred more files, but this time, I powered the laptop down and removed the drive. Then I reconnected it to the Windows desktop; all the files were there, except the ones I had just copied. So I restarted and then everything appeared. So far all is working as it ought to, but now I'm skeptical about the integrity of the external HD. I can only assume that the disk write failure had something to do with the "panic" that occurred when I ejected the drive.

Thanks again for all of your replies.

you can try running fsck on it if it's formatted ext or use windows chkdsk to test the drive. hope it's not a permanently bad cluster/sector.

You will boot.
Different messages will appear.
You will see a warning animated film: "Linus Torvald" eating "bill Gates"
Your disk will start burning.
The PC will explode.
;-)
;-)
Much more intelligent answers were here in this forum. But I had to express my current (small) madness.
I promise (before the moderator throw me out of the forum): I will make better answer in the future.
I like linux.
I like Windows, a bit too: I bough a netbook samsung nc10 + windows7 for christmas and immediatly putted the windows7 as optional operating system (I have linux as main operating system)