Total Linux Noob help with acessing windows partition
 

I am having problems with getting Fedora Core 4 to access my windows partitions. It dosen't display them, and I can't get it to mount them. When I try to mount them, it tells me that I don't have access. So I log in as root, and same thing. I even tried to su to root in the console, but it didn't give me the login prompt.

Also, I downloaded and sucessfuly installed wine, but I can't seem to find where the program is, or how to launch it. I checked the wine website and read the faq's but they aren't very clear (or I just don't understand what they are asking me to do). I know it's installed because I tried to install it again since I didn't get a confirmation and it told me that it was installed.

So far I have downloaded 3 different distros, and this one seems to support all my hardware in a working status.

Hardware:
NVIDIA 6800
Sound Blaster Live
NVIDIA integrated lan on my DFI Lanparty Ultra B

My windows partitions are NTFS

I checked this thread:
****://***.linuxquestions.org/questions/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1117&perpage=15&pagenumber=1

but it didn't really answer my questions

Being still on Redhat 9, i don't know whether FC 4 support NTFS or not...
at least Redhat 9 not.

so either try
mount -t ntfs /dev/hda1 /mnt/dir

or you will have to recompile your kernel to add the NTFS support

You can't mount them because Fedora doesn't come with NTFS support built-in. There are some links on how to enable it on this thread. For Wine, open a terminal and try typing "wine" without the quotes (but I'm not 100% sure on this as I've never used Wine).

Since your partition is NTFS, it will be read-only. Linux can't consistently and successfully write to NTFS.

These instructions should help. You can't use sudo because FC doesn't do that, but the same principle about editing the /etc/fstab file as root is the solution:

http://ubuntuguide.org/#automountntfs

Also, to use Wine, you just double-click on the .exe you want to launch, and Wine will automatically be invoked. Of course, first you have to have access to your Windows partition...

Ok I was able to access wine through the terminal. So much for that problem. As for mounting my partitions, I type in the following command: mount -t ntfs /dev/hda1 /mnt/dir I get this response: mount: mount point /mnt/dir does not exist Now what? Sorry for the stupid questions, I just don't know this OS at all.

As it says, that directory doesn't exist. You need to change to root in a terminal:

$ su
Password: <enter root pass>

and then create the directory. So, if you wanted to make dir in /mnt, you would:

# mkdir /mnt/dir

HTH.

Ok. Successfully created the directory, but when I try to mount, it tells me: unknown filesystem type 'ntfs' So I assume that there is no ntfs support in Fedora Core 4. I am not sure if I will be happy with read only access if I configure it to read the file system. What distros support read/write access to NTFS?

No distros support writing. But I've been able to successfully read from NTFS using Ubuntu and Mepis.

As yet, Linux doesn't support writing to NTFS as far as I know (it may be in some kind of "experimental" stage, but I'm not 100% sure). You could always use FAT 32 because Linux can read/write to those partitions safely.

Would it be easier to just start fresh with windows, and use fat 32 file system?

Yeah, I guess so if you want to be able to write to your Windows partition.

It'd be easier to install a new Linux distro, actually. Try Mepis--it's a live and installer CD, and all your partitions will automatically show up on your desktop. You click on them, and they'll mount and open (even NTFS). This will happen during the live boot-up. If you want to install it after that, you just click the "Install Me" icon on the desktop.

I'll give mepis a try. I reformatted and partitioned my drive, and reinstalled windows using fat 32. Updated windows, and am now back up and running with it. Just have to download mepis and burn it to disc. Thanks for all the advice, I really appreciate it.