Hello everyone!

I finally decided to try installing Linux so I'm completely new to everything and was told to try Mandrake 10.1 for my first time.

Well I got it installed just fine a few days ago, but decided I needed more room on the partition so I wiped that partition earlier today and remade it a bit bigger.

The first install on the new partition I must've done something wrong because my computer booted up with a screen of 99 99 99 99... etc. I popped in the installation CD and reinstalled it again, trying to remember the settings I used on the first install.

Well, I got everything working again but now I can't seem to access my Windows files. They used to be in filesystem\mnt\windows but now that folder is blank!

I'd really rather not install Mandrake again in case I get something wrong with those 99 99 99... again, which was really scary, I might add!

Is it possible I made some sort of setting to where I can't access the Windows files? Thanks in advance for any help!

The chances are, you're Windows partition wasn't added to the /etc/fstab (filesystem table) file. Take a look at the contents (as root, type cat /etc/fstab), and see if there's a line relating to your Windows partition (probably /dev/hda1).

If it isn't there, or its commented out, then add the following line (have to be root):
/dev/hda1 /path/to/windows/files ntfs noatime,user,ro 0 0

Important: this assumes that you're Windows partition is the first partition on your first hard disk (this is hda1). It will be in most cases.
/path/to/windows/files is the directory where you want you're Windows files to appear. It can be anywhere you like, but the directory must already exist.
If you're using FAT32, not NTFS, then change ntfs to vfat, and you can change the ro to rw (this controls writing to the partition - NTFS is still only safe read only, FAT partitions can be mounted read / write).

And then to get at your files straight away, run mount /path/to/windows/files

Thank you, it's odd though... I log in today and everything magically appears! I didn't do anything, either.... hmmm, oh well. At least it's working!

Hi there, i was looking for help for something i want to do.
I have winxp and Linux, but i would like to make a partition that i could use while using win or using linux, like a storage partition that i could read and write no matter what OS i'm using at the moment, maybe i should make that partition a fat32, right?
Thanks for helping.

Yes, you'd want to make that FAT32 to be able to read and write from Windows and Linux. Linux can read NTFS, but not write to it safely yet.

Thanks a lot...

and next time it boots with "99999999" or any other REALLY strang thing, insert your mandrake cd, at boot press F1.
this will ask you to give a command, type resque.
follow the program untill you reach your boot-loader

it will reinstall the bootloader without a full reinstall of your linux