Hi all,

My situation is this---I have a 30gb HD with Windows XP which acts as the primary drive on IDE1 and I have a 120gb HD with RedHat 8.0 as the slave drive on IDE1 on the same PC. I would like to know, for instance, if its possible to transfer files, programs, MP3s from my XP HD to my Linux HD without having to do a RAID setup. I would like to be able to access the data on the XP drive while I'm in Linux.

Is SAMBA the answer? How would I get my Linux HD to see the XP HD? Is there a thread that already exists which tackles the same problem?

By the way, I use GRUB to load my dual-boot, dual-drive box.

Search for using ntfs (the XP filesystem) support so you can mount and read from (not write to) your XP drive.

btw, RAID would probably not be the answer, even if it could be setup.

Thanks guys for the quick response.

In regards to Proud's answer, would i do a mount command
like: mount -t ntfs /dev/hda /mnt/windows where hda would be my XP drive and /mnt/windows the mount point for my XP HD.

Do I put this line in the /etc/vfstab file?

What can I do to make it read-only for root? maybe umask 077?

Please let me know if I'm on the right track.

Thanks.

Yes to your first question (though it might be necessary to use /dev/hda0 -- for the first / only partition, I'm not sure).

Yes again (SuSE does that automatically in my distro), though here it is /etc/fstab not /etc/vfstab.

The ntfs-driver is read-only anyway. No need for umask 077.

Yes.

Thanks JZL. Before I create a mount point for my XP HD, I'm wondering whether RedHat 8.0 or any other Linux distro automatically sets up a mount point for Windows drives upon installation or does Linux leave it up to the user to create one should the need arise?

Also, once mounted where can I look in the KDE desktop to see that the XP drive is indeed mounted?

Straight answer: sometimes. That is at least my experience with SuSE 8.1. Worse: I don't understand the whys and hows, due to some hassle during installation I just noticed the fact. I think it is easiest to do it just the way you intended to in your first posting. So: just install and if the mount-points are not there, create them manually in /etc/fstab. Don't forget to create the directories as well, like md /windows/C /windows/D ...! Then mount -a if you don't want to reboot.

If no symbol was created during installation: right-click with the mouse on an empty place of your desktop, chose new, Hard-disk and label appropriately -- after having followed the first part of my answer .

Once you click on your new symbol, Konqueror will open just normally. The drive-symbol on your desktop will have a green arrow / triangle at the lower right corner as soon as it is mounted (try it with your floppy / CD).

KDE3.1 should automatically do this for you by default, and the option can be found by right-clicking the desktop -> Configure Desktop... -> Behavior, the devices section at the bottom

Numbering starts at 1, ie. /dev/hda1

And yes, you have to give a partition number - /dev/hda will refer to the whole HD, or the MBR (depending on context).

Thanks for the correction. I couldn't remember exactly, and since I am writing this from a Windows machine...

My XP (which is on my C: and takes up all the 30gb of my HD) is setup on a FAT32. I never bothered to convert to NTFS. Now you said the ntfs-driver is read-only so will my FAT32 partition have to be configured so that it's read-only for other users or do I leave it as is?

Well, in an earlier post you wrote of ntfs yourself...

Your mount should be mount -t vfat /dev/hda1 /mnt/Windows then...

If you want, you can convert to ntfs, then you have your write-protection (easy procedure, though I don't have the details at hand -- just a few mouse-clicks as I remember. But then, never touch a running system...). Question is also, whether your distro knows the WinXP-Filesystem, I seem to remember that µsoft tinkered with it (again) at the release of XP.

I do not know, whether one can configure a FAT32 partition so that it's read-only for other users, since Windows only knows about itself. Maybe you can do it from the Linux-side, don't know either for a whole drive -- probably yes.

Why do you think you have to protect it against Linux?

You're correct JZL. I should have written "vfat" in my first post. I'm so hooked into Linux now that I'm forgetting the specs for my Windows drive.

Anyhow, I was thinking about security. I believe you can't be careless in such areas. I thought of a scenario where one of my hard drives was compromised and a hacker was able to access the other drive only because I didn't take some minor step in protecting my files. Of course I have a firewall setup but I wanted to learn additional methods for securing data.

Knowledge is good.

(In SuSE 8.2' KDE 3.1) is simply pointing the mounted C or D or E windows drive icon, right click -> Properties -> Permissions un-check the Write checkbox.

To have these icons you just right click anywhere in KDE desktop space -> Create new hardisk ...


Have fun :-)

Well, yes, but I think zaseny2002 thought of something more substantial. I would not be sure, that your way works outside KDE and in particular after you open a console.

What he needs is something like chmod 444 on the drive-level (no use to chmod the mount-point). I don't know whether that works.