Hi All,

Well lets start by saying "I am no Linux person" but as I have a desperate requirement to access NTFS from a command line I thought about Linux, this was after spotting that Linux can read write to NTFS and from what I remember of Linux was mostly command line.

All I want is to read/write/delete files folders on a NTFS drive using CLI commands, I have tried everything I can under DOS but nothing works

NTFSPRO (buggy)
NTFS4DOS (cannot find professional version)
Building a boot disk as per M$ instructions (simply did not work)

So what I am looking for is:

USB boot pen that drops to a CLI without any GUI or logos
Then copy a few files etc.
Reboot

I thought maybe a small Linux distro with the NTFS drivers on but as I have said I would not know how to start and build this or the best distro to use, I have used a few ISO's to made a bootable USB pens and they work but are full of network drivers and other stuff and I just do not want or need all this. Even if I did find a distro without all this on I would need major help adding the NTFS drivers, so here I am any help will be much appreciated

Thanks

Pete

I'm willing to be that most of those distros you have already support the NTFS filesystem. Assuming the hard drive your using is a SATA, the only one attached to the system, and the partition is the 2nd one on the drive (Generally good assumptions for a hard drive windows was setup on.)

Not sure what you mean by dos, there is only dos emulation on linux. I take it that you mean bash or sh when you say dos

Anyway ntfs-3g is more so what you are looking for, its a userspace tool that allows you to do what you are looking for. If you have a distro that you use then that should allow you to include this from its reposistories.

hope this helps

Hi there,

that's a reputation which GNU/Linux has been fighting for more than ten years. True, in the early 90's Linux was a system for freaks and experts, required a lot of interaction by means of the console.

Today's Linux distros have made progress. Of course you can still use them strictly console-based as it was typical twenty years ago. But they're also addressing the broad public now, offering a GUI and an ease of use that measures up with Windows, even makes Windows blush.

Whatever you really want to achieve: Take a Live CD of a popular Linux distro, whether it's Knoppix, Ubuntu or Mint. They all offer a GUI with advanced file managers, but if you like, you can also use the console. They all offer USB mass storage support, and they all support NTFS out of the box. That's standard nowadays.

[X] Doc CPU

Most of distros and special editions have ntfs/ntfs-3g driver. You can mount any NTFS partition using mount command. R/W operations are full supported.

Hi there,

from what the OP tells, I rather think he really means DOS, because NTFSDOS and NTFS4DOS, for example, are drivers for traditional DOS that allow access to NTFS volumes, though restricted to Read-Only access in the free versions.

[X] Doc CPU

Wow, it looks like this forum will help me sort my problems as I have had loads of replies already, other forums I get nothing or very little

Anyway, I think it best to outline what I need clearly so I get the best advise / help

A small CLI Linux
Load this on a USB and boot from it (smaller the better)
Copy / delete / files and folders etc. on a single NTFS drive

I want as little as possible in the way of drivers, just enough to boot and give me a CLI and NTFS access (even if this means altering things to strip them out)

a) Suggest the smallest CLI distro ideally on ISO so I can install it on USB easily, using Universal USB installer
b) I might need help removing any drivers I do not want, but we will see
c) I will need help adding the NTFS drivers I am sure
d) Finally figuring out how to write a batch file or similar in Linux lol


Thanks Pete.

P.S. Does the NTFS need to be a SATA drive as think I read in one of the replies?

I use Fedora there is the NTFS driver by default and it works perfect. You needn't do nothing so special. However if you want to use something small, google it or try to find a "spin".

The following tool (also works in M$) helps you make your boot USB very easy
http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/

For scripts such as ".bat" files it is not so easy to explain. Look for "linux shell scripts" or "bash script". I guess you are able to find some books or PDFs.

I have had a thought, am I asking the wrong question? is it a Linux boot disk I am looking for + NTFS drivers?

As I said all I want to do is the equivalent of a old DOS boot disk with NTFS drive access. If this is what I mean then sorry for confusing everyone


Pete.

P.S. as I type this and think it through a DOS boot disk is a OS just very small one so maybe my original question was right, I will leave this as I think it gives any reader more of an idea of what I can looking for.

Hi,

Welcome to LQ!
Look at Get Your ISO, LiveCD & Pocket OS or Boot and run Linux from a USB flash memory stick to hopefully fulfill your needs.

Look at 'salix' core install. You really should not need to remove drivers/modules. My one question is why would you want to remove the modules? Salix should recognize your hardware and load necessary modules but if not then we can aid you with issues/problems.

Please consider using LQ Search since it is likely your problem/issue has already been addressed.

Just a few links to aid you to gaining some understanding. I would start at 4,5 &6 for writing scripts while the other links will enhance your experience;



1 Linux Documentation Project

2 Rute Tutorial & Exposition

3 Linux Command Guide 

4 Bash Beginners Guide

5 Bash Reference Manual

6 Advanced Bash-Scripting Guide

7 Linux Newbie Admin Guide

8 LinuxSelfHelp

9 Utimate Linux Newbie Guide

The above links and others can be found at 'Slackware-Links'. More than just Slackware® links!

Hi OneBuck,

In answer to the question "why would you want to remove the modules?" as this is only going to be used to fix NTFS files / folders, and the BIOS supports USB, and I only want CLI. I want a fast loader without any extras that will not be used + I want to automate a few bits so I do not want to confuse anyone I give it to (including myself lol) with lots of driver installs, I just want it as clean and quick as possible.

Hope this makes sense

Pete.

Hi there,

that's a point I don't understand. Usually, today's systems are configured for flexibility. And if you want to put it on a CD or USB drive and boot it on different PCs, you'll need this variety of drivers at least for core components like IDE/SATA/SCSI controllers, USB controllers, and so on.
If size is an issue for you, you might take a look at Tiny Core Linux, or it's little brother Micro Core that doesn't have a GUI.

Tiny Core is a 12MB ISO, Micro Core is only 8MB. Small enough? ;-)

You don't really want to remove anything, do you? And the NTFS driver can easily be installed as an Extension.

No, these two have nothing to do with each other.
SATA is a connection type for hard disks and similar devices. It has now widely superseded IDE.
So SATA is a hardware related term.
NTFS is a file system usually used by Windows, like FAT (also Windows), ext2, ext3 or ext4 (all Linux).
So NTFS is software.

You can use *any* file system on *any* kind of hard disk. There's no dependency among them.

[X] Doc CPU

Hi,
You are not going to decrease the boot time or load by removing modules. The kernel will load the modules necessary if not already available by inline. Your improvement or attempts of such by removing modules will be negligible changes thus not noticeable. Let the system you choose do it's thing. Tweaking for the sake or hope of decreasing load times has always been a fallacy that new users have wished for. If you wish to change anything then possibly look at unnecessary 'services'.

Answer to few few questions

Yes I will need SATA+IDE but nothing else (I don't think)
As for removing some drivers not speeding things up, then I am happy to leave them I just thought it would speed it up that's all

I will look at micro core but I will need help adding ntfs that's for sure

Thanks

Pete

Starting to love Linux

OK, I managed to get/install and run the Core distro, I even changed some settings like "quite" on the kernal

http://distro.ibiblio.org/tinycoreli...re-current.iso

I end up at a "tc@box:~$" prompt, could someone guide me on how to load the NTFS drivers from here, I have downloaded ntfs-3g_ntfsprogs-2012.1.15, is this really "ntfs-3g" but under its version name? and do I just rename it to ntfs-3g and put it on the pen somewhere, then attempt to mount it using "mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sda1 /mnt/windows"

I have typed the following to see if the NTFS driver was already installed "ls -F /usr/src/linux/drivers" but upon examination I could not find the /usr/src/ directory!

Sorry to be a pain but there is a lot to get confused by in Linux

Thanks

Pete

P.S. what is the easiest way to tell if the ntfs-3g is already part of a distro?