Hello:

I am using Mandrake 10.1 Official dual boot with Win2k. When I installed Mandrake it saw the NTFS drive and it is mounted in the directory /mnt/windows.

I have just added a new NTFS hard drive with my MP3 collection on it and want to start listening to some tunes while using Mandrake.

However, I had hoped that Mandrake would see this new drive and mount it in /mnt/windows directory but it has not. I am still a newbie and am wondering if there is a "idiot proof" way for me to do it and if so, could someone be kind enough to tell me how.

Thanks a lot.

Daffy

read "man mount"
basically... mount -t ntfs /dev/hda1 /mnt/windows

replace hda1 with the drive and partiton number.

hda = primary master
hdb = primary slave
hdc = secondry master
hdd = secondry slave

the number directly after is the partiton number, where 1 is the first partiton.

you will need to be root.

to allow un-privilaged users to use the disk, add it to /etc/fstab

and use the search function on this site.

ok, hard drives are listed in /dev as hdCX where C is a character starting at 'a' for primary master and 'b' for whatever hard drive is next and so on, and 'X' is a partition number. The mount options are stored in /etc/fstab so... pop open a root console and take a look.
Now, I can help you, but to make it idiot-proof I need more info. Specifically, I need to know how many drives you have and how your new NTFS drive is partitioned.
I'm going to assume, for now, that your Win2k isn't actually on another hard drive but on a partition on your primary hard drive and that the new NTFS drive has only one partition and is the second hard drive in your computer.

If this is the case then you need to add a line similar to the one below to /etc/fstab:
The above line will mount your second hard drive's first partition at /mnt/mp3s (please note that you have to 'mkdir /mnt/mp3s' first or the mount will fail.) The fstab will mount the directory wherever you want it, so, if it so pleases you, you can mount it on your desktop or in your home folder. the /mnt directory is just a standard place to mount things to.
Also, please note the 'ro' in the options(fourth) section up there. That mounts the drive read-only. You can take your chances trying to write to an NTFS drive in Linux, but every time I've done it it corrupts the NTFS filesystem so...

If you need more help then please post back here with your hard-drive set up(how they're layed out) and the contents of your fstab file.

edit: Oh, yeah, and once you're done editing you need to reboot... There's probably a way to reload the mount table without rebooting but I don't know it so... reboot...(sorry but I HAVE actually had someone assume that saving the file automatically makes all the changes take effect)
edit2: And i'm a slow typer so half of what I said was already said by the time I said it...

Hey Kierl, that worked perfectly so I guess I must be an idiot :-) Thanks for taking the time to explain in detail what the commands and switches do. You made a good assumption....I have windows installed on a partition and the drive with the MP3s is on a separate drive.

I am listening to my MP3s with Xmms as we speak. I have an Audigy 2 ZS sound card and it sounds pretty darn good with Mandrake and Xmms pumping out the tunes.

Once again, thanks a lot for the help.

Regards,

Daffy

For newbies reading this thread who use Mandrake Linux, I want to point out that the graphical program 'diskdrake' could also be used to mount a new NTFS partition. This could have the benefit of picking up details you may miss when doing it manually, such as analysing which font encoding option should be used.

Sorry, for the heinous delay, but anyhoo, glad to be of service.