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I have checked some of the questions/answers in this forum regarding this procedure but since I let Linux partition my hd automatically, I did not pay attention to the hdxy of which partition belongs to which hd..
Is there anyway under linux to see what is on the complete harddrive? I am currently dualbooting win2k and linux.. and I have 9 windoze partitions and 1 linux partition...
well to see what partitions are on the machine's harddrives, use cfdisk, or fdisk. on redhat you can used diskdruid, and mandrake you can use diskdrake, this wil list the harddrives, and the partitions.
after that it's all down to /etc/fstab, on which there is vast quantities on info on this site. some, if not all, the partitions should already be listed there tho
Yeah...what he said! LOL And if you want a comprehensive list of info at the console type dmesg |more You'll be able to find which one is ext2 and vfat etc...
First - Linux currently only supports read-only access to Windows 2000 partitions that are formatted as NTFS. (and write access to NT partitions in general is unsupported and *dangerous* - I've killed disks like that). So you can *read* all your files, but can't save anything to the disk.
If you want to be able to copy files between the systems you will need a FAT partition.
Second - If you mount NTFS partitions under Linux they are by default only readable by root. To allow other users access, you will want to pass a umask option to mount:
mount -o umask=0000 /dev/hda2 /mnt/2000
for example.
Didn't I read somewhere that SuSE could read and write to other Windows partitions? I'm thinking of installing Linux on a Win98 machine but haven't decided on which one yet.
This is my first post and I'm trying to get the hangola of this new (for me) forum format.
[QUOTE]Originally posted by 9nine9
[B]Didn't I read somewhere that SuSE could read and write to other Windows partitions? I'm thinking of installing Linux on a Win98 machine but haven't decided on which one yet.
Yes, you can read and write to any FAT/FAT32 partition. Torne was saying above that only the NT file system is under issue of read-only access. So you're fine with anything like Win3.1/9x...Can't say about XP, may be built on NT platform, haven't cared to look at another expensive Internet Explorer update! LOL
Originally posted by taz.devil Yes, you can read and write to any FAT/FAT32 partition.
Thanks for clearing that up for me taz. Does this apply to any of the Linux distros? I guess that begs the next question. Will Windows read and write to the Linux partition? Linux doesn't go on a Fat partition, right?
ALL linux distros can use fat32 fine, but are natively on ext2/ext3 or reiserfs typically, none of which are even vaeguely offical readble by windows. a prog called explore2fs can do ext2 tho, but it's not too hot.
Windows XP Home edition uses FAT32 for its filesystem, the Professional version uses NTFS. I think.
There are a few different programs to allow you to access ext2 partitions from Windows, and at least one whole filesystem driver (allows you to use the Linux drive directly from Explorer..etc) - however, these seem, without exception, to be almost as risky as writing to NTFS from Linux. =)
I can't remember where any of them are at the moment, searching on www.google.com/linux is probably a good bet.
Ext3 can be read by an ext2 driver (they are in fact the same filesystem with an extra property - the journal) but if you write to ext3 using an ext2 driver then the journal will be invalidated and will have to be recreated by fsck.ext3 the next time you use Linux.
ReiserFS, as far as I can tell, is not readable by Windows. It's likely not yet finalised enough to start writing drivers for other operating systems.
I use ReiserFS, btw. SuSE comes with Reiser support by default, new versions of RedHat come with ext3, and Debian has install disks for both, though they are not perfect yet.
Originally posted by acid_kewpie ALL linux distros can use fat32 fine, but are natively on ext2/ext3 or reiserfs typically, none of which are even vaeguely offical readble by windows. a prog called explore2fs can do ext2 tho, but it's not too hot.
Along with eplore2fs there are a few others, i use one called LTools. They do have write to ext2 ability, but most of those programs warn against it as per it can damage the filesystem. But it's nice to be able if you are in winders to see your ext2 tree.
XP, you always get a choice. unless you have NTFS to begin with...
i guess FAT converts to FAT32 and FAT32 converts to NTFS, but never in the opposite direction. in order to go back a stage, you have to back it all up, re-format, and start again... XP can use/reside on any of those 3.
Unless you want a windows-only drive, stay off NTFS. Only WNT, W2K, and WXP can use it. There are DOS and win9x drivers for it, but they aren't free. and like they said, linux can read but writing screws it all up. there's a fix proggie that comes with libntfs that's supposed to undo the carnage, and keep the changes, but i never even got the drivers installed.
use FAT32 if you have win9x, FAT if you have anything else (DOS, W3.1)
FAT is also necessary if you want to use DoubleSpace or DriveSpace. I have NO idea if anything but win9x can see DS... MSDOS can use DoubleSpace, but DriveSpace drivers for those volumes in W9x ask to upgrade the volume format and it gets ugly. i got all kinds of errors when i wrote to that one in W98 and back on the 486 overdrive in DOS things were said to be ruined.
WXP does not support any compressed volumes, they expect one to use NTFS's compression. Which is optional (and invisible, i think). but i don't care, i hate NTFS since it doesn't allow DOS-mode at all. I had to reinstall XP for my dude because he got some registry optimizer that created undo files in the form of .reg entries, which can't be entered unless you have either a working XP or at least a DOS mode from a boot floppy. XP died.
Linux is cool. I'd like to see my ext3 in WXP, but then again-- XP might invoke e-X-treme -P-ain and try to record changes or create a recycle bin system folder-- forget it. It's safer as an invisible, unmountable, unknown partition.
I like to use linux to mount and alter WXP. when XP cannot protect its precious system files and folders, I can hack up and change anything i like, e.g. NTOSKRNL.EXE has the boot logo, but you need another way in... that one's locked down. Look! it's that KDE fella! and his little friend, the gnome!
to see all partitions:
if you have grub ((cheers) I love grub!), you can enter its shell and have it show you everything it sees. type almost any command, like root or hide or install then hit tab and it will bug you for a pathname or blocklist. start with
grub> root (h
to see hard drives, then hit tab again and it will complete the d and ask for which disk-- i have 2.
hd0
hd1
which one? blah-blah....
grub> root (hd
so you supply the 0 and hit tab again:
filesystems on hd0:
0: filesystem is fat32 partition type 0x0c
1: filesystem is fat32 partition type 0x0c
2: filesystem is ext2fs partition type 0x83
grub> root (hd0,
or something like that, then continue with a number and hit tab again, you can put a root symbol (/) after it closes the parentheses and hit tab again, it will usually list the contents of the root directory. keep dropping a few letters and hitting tab, you can navigate fat and fat32 as well as ext_, maybe others?
a pathname looks like
grub> root (hd0,0)/windows/system32/ntoskrnl.exe
yea right!!! LOL
if someone used cat properly (it's easy) they could print the contents of any file to the screen without even booting!! that's why the grub password is so appropriate, on top of preventing kernel control before any login.
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