how can i explore my windows hard disc from linux? any software? please help.

You have to mount the drive in order to access it.

A few questions first.

What distro are you using? (Some distros automount all drives)
Is the windows partition NTFS or FAT32?
If you were in windows, what would your hard drive setup be?
(eg. how many drives? How many and what partitions are there?)

I'll give you an example of my setup:

2 Hard drives

Hard Drive #1: has 2 partitions
Hard Drive #2: has 1 partition

Hard Drive 1 Partition 1 is set to /dev/hda1
Hard Drive 1 Partition 1 is set to /dev/hda2
Hard Drive 2 is set to /dev/hdb

so if I want to access partition #1 on Hard Drive #1 (which is FAT32) I type the following in the console.

mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/hda1

Where /mnt/hda1 is the destination in which I will see the files after the drive is mounted. You may have to create the destination directory.

Good Luck

-R

Is it a windows disc on the same machine as the linux install? If so you can use mount - eg:
mount -t vfat /dev/hda1 /mnt/win
(assuming the partition is FAT and that it is in hda1 - you will also need to create /mnt/win)

If windows is on another machine you will need to use samba.

thanks u rvk and david ross for ur help.
but what is destro?

i'll tell u all the details i know..

i've red hat 8.0 (psyche) linux.
the main os for me is win98.
my HDD is 20 gb drive.
i had c-f partitions. 4 partitions, 5 gb each..
i gave the f drive for linux.
so everything is in a single HDD.
i suppose my hd to be FAT 32.

i installed linux only 2 days ago. so i'm practically an infant to this linux world.
therefor i'm sorry if i'm asking any silly questions.
but where is this console? i mean, where should i type this to mount the hd?

To get a console window "Ctrl + Alt + 2" then "Ctrl + Alt + 7" to get back to Graphical mode. You will need to know the partition numbers eg:
Partition 1 on disk one is device /dev/hda1.
Partition 2 on disk one is device /dev/hda2.
Partition 4 on disk two is device /dev/hdb4.

If you are using Win98 then your partition type will be fat32 (or vfat in linux).

I assume you mean Distro and not Destro - It is simply short for Distribution - ie the OS (Operating System) you are running.

thanks david rose...i was able to explore the windows partitions successfully and the mounting was quite easier that i expected.. however i did all the things to install the modem driver as u experts advised but all were futile. i suppose, the driver is not compatible with red hat 8.0 and also, my modem is speaker phone model not the other type of the same build.

kiru