I have a dual boot system.XP Pro on one drive and Debian on a seperate drive.I have used a couple of linux os's before (mandrake,Suse,Ubuntu) and in each linux os i could see the drive my xp pro was on.I have looked for ages trying to find my other drive in Debian so i can use some of the windows files that are used by both and they are nowhere to be seen.In devices which i thought it would be theres a couple of files: hda, hdb but they have a lock on them.

Can you post your fstab file?

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/hdb1 / ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1
/dev/hdc /media/cdrom0 iso9660 ro,user,noauto 0 0
/dev/fd0 /media/floppy0 auto rw,user,noauto 0 0





using fdisk my devices are as follows:

Disk /dev/hda: 40.0 GB, 40060001280 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4870 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 4869 39110211 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/hdb: 10.2 GB, 10245537792 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1245 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdb1 1 1245 10000431 83 Linux

Looks like you need to add:

/dev/hda1 /mnt/WinXP ntfs ro,user,defaults 0 0

This will allow you to mount the partition (be sure to mkdir /mount/WinXP) read only. Write support for NTFS is still experimental and not recommended (you can lose data and make your XP partition unbootable).

Best way is to create a data partition (ideally on a separate drive). Format FAT32 and it is easily accessible from Windows or Linux

tried that it makes a Xp folder but its empty.

Using FAT32 will solve some issues. Backup your data and delete Windows. Reinstall Linux and make a new partition as your backup, install a second HDD or RAID array, or just use good ol /home.

This is my fstab file, the windows drive represents winxp

Now even though I have "auto" I still had to activate the hard drive, which now mounts and loads every time I boot debian. Here is how to activate it.

(In gnome) click - Desktop--->Administration--->Disk
enter your root password then select the hard drive or partition that has windows (this list will be on the left side of the box) on it then click "activate". However make sure the "access path" has (in your case) /mnt/WinXP (mine has /mnt/windows). One more thing, if your file still comes up empty delete it and recreate it.

rsuave, sorry, I should have said that once you have it in your fstab, you still have to mount it. Type mount /mnt/WinXP (you might have to do that as root).

Oh, and it looks like I made a typo. It should have been mkdir /mnt/WinXP in post #6...

Thanking you very much .I can see my XP files.It worked.now the last bit.cant find administration under desktop.

If you are using gnome at the top on your panel you should have these three

Applications Places Destop

click Desktop. If you don't see this you may need to add it by right clicking on the panel and clicking "Add to Panel".

Oh...you're welcome.

I just have Applications and Actions at the top.then icons for filesystem and terminal.Went to add panel no Desktop just show desktop .

Before we get into adding this to the panel lets see if we can bring it up.

Open a terminal and log in as root at the prompt type

disks-admin

then press enter. If you have this application it should come up, if not then you'll have to download it through apt-get or synaptic.

whats the package called?

I believe it's gnome-applets or gnome-system-tools.