View NFTS after (FAT32 to NTFS)

Amir_1984 · 11-06-2005, 01:51 PM

Hello everyone.

I'm new to linux and this site, and I need all your helps.

I have 3 Hard Drives and 2 OS.

HD:
1) 200GB (two 100GB Partitions (C & D))
2) 80GB (one 80GB Partition (E))
3) 30GB (is used for linux)

OS:
1) MS Windows XP SP2 on Drive C
2) Linux SUSE 10 on HD 3.

When I installed Linux I had XP on my PC. and My C Drive was NTFS and my Other 2 (D & E) was FAT32. and I used the Linux DVD to install the Linux on my last HD (3).

Today I decided to convert my (D & E) Drives to NTFS and I used Windows XP command:

C:\> CONVERT D: /fs:ntfs
C:\> CONVERT E: /fs:ntfs

to convert them.

Well now everything works fine in XP but I can't view my files in D & E Drives any longer in Linux!
Now I can only view C and the Linux HD.

Is there a way that I could view D & E like C?
or
Is there a way that I could convert D & E back to FAT32 without losing any data?

Thanks in advance
Amir

SlackerLX · 11-06-2005, 02:06 PM

First, ALWAYS backup before major operations, such as converting formats.
Second, Linux has little support for NTFS and all NTFS partitions in Linux are READ ONLY
Try using external tool such as PartitionMagic. Again, no garantees

Keruskerfuerst · 11-06-2005, 02:21 PM

You have to change the entries in /etc/fstab to read your ntfs partitions.
It is better to format a partion with ntfs and not to convert a fat32 to ntfs.

tskears · 11-07-2005, 01:10 AM

You need to edit /etc/fstab so that it sees D: and E: as ntfs partitions... be warned, you're messing with system files here.

Open a terminal window and type "su -" (without quotes) then enter your root password.

Type "cp /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.old". This is insurance, so that if you totally mess up, you can always copy fstab.old back to fstab, (hopefully) recover your system and try again.

Type "kate /etc/fstab" and kate should open a text editor window with /etc/fstab in it. Find the line for your C: drive. It will look something like this:

/dev/hda1 /mnt/ABC ntfs ro 0 0 #where /mnt/ABC is your Linux mount point

You need to edit the two lines for D: (/dev/hda2) and E: (probably /dev/hdb1) to look like C:. These entries will probably look something like:

/dev/hda2 /mnt/XYZ vfat defaults 0 0

Change the "vfat defaults" to "ntfs ro", save, and quit kate. Exit the terminal window and reboot. You should be good to go.

Timothy.