Hi,

I have two linux partions on my PC. One is HDC5 which is the / drive running the system. I also have another drive HDB5 on another disk, i can't seem and don't know how to access this drive to save files to it. Any advise please on how to do this. Thanks in advance.

jon

Welcome to LQ

To view/add partitions in linux they must be mounted. To mount a partition means to place the partition on a directory for accessibility. So...

Since we know what partition it is (hdb5) we'll move along quickly. First make an empty directory, preferably in the /mnt directory, so as root type:
mkdir /mnt/hdb5
And then we need to know what filesystem is on the drive. Assuming it's ext3 you would mount it with:
mount -t ext3 /dev/hdb5 /mnt/hdb5

See man mount for more information on that. After you get it mounted to your liking it's time to put it in your /etc/fstab file. So an entry in there might look like this (for an ext3 filesystem):
/dev/hdb5 /mnt/hdb5 ext3 defaults 2 1



So let us know what filesystem is on the drive for more specific info

Cool

Hi jmrjohan

I'm a little confused by the post - This example might help.

You've got 2 hard drives, one on primary master, the other on primary slave , each with 2 partitions on

1st hard drive - on primary master

/dev/hda1
/dev/hda2 ROOT partition

2nd hard drive - on primary slave

/dev/hdb1
/dev/hdb2 ROOT partition

Now - you want to access files on /dev/hdb2 from /dev/hda2

First create a mount point in the /mnt directory in /dev/hda2

mkdir /mnt/jon

then mount /dev/hdb2 into /dev/hda2

mount -t ext3 -o rw /dev/hdb2 /mnt/jon

You've now temporarily got access to your files on the root partition on the 2nd hard drive while being in the 1st hard drives root partition- remember to put in the relevant filesystem and your chosedn directory name etc.

Its best testing it this way - then when youve got it right make an entry into /etc/fstab to automatically mount it

re post if you still need help then.

Can Linux view a vfat partiton?

Hi PionexUser

YES.

Mount the VFAT filesystem into a mount point in your Linux filesystem

as root

mkdir /mnt/pionex

mount -t vfat -o rw /dev/hda1 /mnt/pionex

asssumes windows is on /dev/hda1

Would the same mounting procedure be used to mount a FAT32 partition on the same HDD? What about using samba to do this? Thanks.

-rikkulinux

Hi RikkuLinux

VFAT covers amongst other things FAT32.

So - YES - if youve got a Windows FAT32 partition and a Linux distribution on one drive then its the same procedure.

The routine is:

• Create a mount point
  
• Test the situation with a temporary mount
  
• Put an entry in /etc/fstab when your sure youve got it right

You dont need Samba here.

# Managing drive devices
Rute guide - Device Mounting
LNAG - Accessing my drives