FAT partition problem

Mickaletto · 11-25-2005, 04:07 PM

Hello guys,
I have installed Mandrake linux 9.0 and during setup I created partitions:
/, swap, /home and also one partition FAT32 to be shared between Windows XP and Mandrake. Windows is installed on one hard disk and linux on the other.
However I have a problem. That FAT partition is mounted as /zajednicki and I can see it when using Nautilus and type / as address. Also when I first time booted in windows after installing linux I saw that partition like D: but windows ask me to format it as FAT32 and I choose yes. Now windows see it like 1.5 GB FAT32, and linux like /zajednicki, When I copy some file on /zajednicki and boot in windows I don't see it. IT seems like these are two completely different partitions.... Any advices are welcome!

jadedbat · 11-25-2005, 05:51 PM

Hi,

Windows is wierd about native linux partitions, among other things. If your wanting to dig around your linux partitions in windows try this little proggy, worked for me.

http://uranus.it.swin.edu.au/~jn/linux/explore2fs.htm

Or if you want ntfs support in Linux, try mounting the hd within your fstab... or manual from the command line.. visit:

http://www.linuxforum.com/linux_tutorials/1/1.php

Hope this helps.

dogpatch · 11-25-2005, 06:11 PM

Yikes! Partitioning is such fun. First off, are you at all familiar with fdisk? Assuming this is drive hda, you enter

fdisk /dev/hda

then 'p' to view the partition information as linux sees it.
then 'l' to see the partition types available (i don't know what a zajednicki is, i think DOS32 is type 0xb)
then 't' to change the type of the partition in question,
then 'w' to save these changes
and 'q' to exit fdisk
then shutdown & reboot to reset the partition table
(type 'm' at any time to see other options)

The man page for fdisk suggests using DOS fdisk to create FAT partitions, but i've done it ok with linux fdisk.

Mickaletto · 11-26-2005, 03:28 AM

I have installed windows XP on one disk that has two partitions. These partitions is recognized in /mnt like nt and nt2.
Liniux is instaled on other disk and that FAT partition is on hdb7. So I'll do this, by replacing hda with hdb7 in your example, right?
Here is copy of fstab:

Code:

/dev/hdb1 / ext3 defaults 1 1
none /dev/pts devpts mode=0620 0 0
/dev/hdb6 /home ext3 defaults 1 2
none /mnt/cdrom supermount dev=/dev/scd0,fs=auto,ro,--,iocharset=iso8859-1,codepage=850,umask=0 0 0
none /mnt/cdrom2 supermount dev=/dev/hdd,fs=auto,ro,--,iocharset=iso8859-1,codepage=850,umask=0 0 0
none /mnt/floppy supermount dev=/dev/fd0,fs=auto,--,iocharset=iso8859-1,sync,codepage=850,umask=0 0 0
/dev/hda1 /mnt/nt ntfs iocharset=iso8859-1,ro,umask=0 0 0
/dev/hda5 /mnt/nt2 ntfs iocharset=iso8859-1,ro,umask=0 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/hdb7 /win vfat umask=0 0 0
/dev/hdb5 swap swap defaults 0 0

Remember I'm trying to configure my FAT partition so that I can copy file in linux on it, boot to windows, and accesing it from windows. I have deleted /zajednicki and mount that 1.5 GB FAT32 partition as /mnt/win.
All I want is to exchange files between linux and windows throught this FAT partition, and not NTFS
Thanks

tskears · 11-26-2005, 03:51 AM

My experience has been that it is better to create and format Windows partitions using Windows Disk Manager. Linux seems far more tolerant of partitions created using Windows than the other way round.

It sounds like I have a similar setup to yours:
hda1: Windows system
hda2: Windows programmes and data
hdb1: Windows page file
hdb5: VFAT partition for sharing files
hdb6: Linux swap
hdb7: Linux /boot (ext2)
hdb8: Linux root (reiser)

All the partitioning was done under Windows, as was the NTFS and VFAT formating. Only hdb6, 7 and 8 were formated under Linux.

Timothy.

dogpatch · 11-26-2005, 10:05 AM

Two small corrections: You would use hdb not hdb7 as you invoke fdisk

Code:

fdisk  hdb

and fdisk option 'p' to see how Linux views partition #7 on hdb

Plus, are you mounting this as /mnt/win or as /win ? (I don't think this matters.)

I guess i would agree with the previous reply, and, if you don't have too much invested in this partition,
repartition and reformat with Windows Disk Manager.

Mickaletto · 11-26-2005, 01:43 PM

I manage to solve problem
See thread accessing FAT partition in linux
Thank you all for your effort