I have 2 hardrives on my comp, one for linux RH9.0 (slave) and the other is Win XP(master). i want to move a lot of files from the windows to the linux. How do i go about this procedure?

First of all, you have to determine what filesystem is on the XP drive. If it's XP Home it's probably FAT32, if it's XP Pro it's probably NTFS. If it is NTFS, then as far as I know there is only read access. If it is NTFS, got to the Linux-NTFS page and download the rpm driver. Next, run in console ls /proc/ide. It should look something like this:You want to pay attention to the "hda" "hdc" and "hdd" type things. Most likely you will have a hda, a hdb, and a hdc. hda should be your windows drive, hdb should be your linux drive, and hdc should be your cdrom drive. Now, assuming that's all correct, you should run "fdisk -l /dev/hda" to see what partitions there are. Here is the output from my dual boot, 1 hd system:
This will also tell you the file system. Now that you know everything important you can cd to /mnt and create a folder like this "mkdir windows" then you simply have to mount. "mount -t NTFS /dev/hda1 /mnt/windows" would be what I would use. You should adjust accordingly.

Hope this helps. Also, all command should be run as ROOT or SUPERUSER!

thanks so much for you help guru

Your welcome. I don't pretend to be a linux genius, but when I've already done that, well... I can help...

ok Guru3 i need your help again. i got around to trying to mount this and once i got to the fdisk -l /dev/hda it says the fdisk command not found. Also it's a FAT32 filesystem for windows xp does that matter?

Are you kidding me? That would mean that there is no fdisk, which is just WRONG! What distrobution are you using? And are you sure you typed it in correctly? If you are sure, change directory to /sbin and do a "ls". Does fdisk show up there? If it does just run "./fdsik -l /dev/hda". If it doesn't show up cd to / and run "find -name fdisk". If that doesn't turn anything up, let me know, and I'll try to find a copy for you.

Log in as root in your shell

su -

and fdisk will probably be found

FAT32 is probably better as you'll be able to safely read aswell as write to the windows partition from inside linux if the urge so takes you.

Substitute ntfs for vfat when mounting

ok just had to cd to sbin/ for the fdisk
./fdisk -l /dev/hda

Disk /dev/hda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 9728 78140128+ c Win95 FAT32 (LBA)

--------but when i do the mounting line this happens :
------------------------------------------------------------------
mount -t vfat/dev/hda /mnt/windows
Usage: mount -V : print version
mount -h : print this help
mount : list mounted filesystems
mount -l : idem, including volume labels
So far the informational part. Next the mounting.
The command is `mount [-t fstype] something somewhere'.
Details found in /etc/fstab may be omitted.
mount -a [-t|-O] ... : mount all stuff from /etc/fstab
mount device : mount device at the known place
mount directory : mount known device here
mount -t type dev dir : ordinary mount command
Note that one does not really mount a device, one mounts
a filesystem (of the given type) found on the device.
One can also mount an already visible directory tree elsewhere:
mount --bind olddir newdir
or move a subtree:
mount --move olddir newdir
A device can be given by name, say /dev/hda1 or /dev/cdrom,
or by label, using -L label or by uuid, using -U uuid .
Other options: [-nfFrsvw] [-o options].
For many more details, say man 8 mount .

OK, it's good that fdisk is there. What you need to remember is that fdisk gives you back the partitions, you may note: That it says /dev/hda1 NOTICE THE 1! Retry with "fdisk -t vfat /dev/hda1 /mnt/windows", and don't forget that 1!

says option -t is invalid

./fdisk -t /dev/hda1 /mnt/windows
./fdisk: invalid option -- t

Usage: fdisk [-b SSZ] [-u] DISK Change partition table
fdisk -l [-b SSZ] [-u] DISK List partition table(s)
fdisk -s PARTITION Give partition size(s) in blocks
fdisk -v Give fdisk version
Here DISK is something like /dev/hdb or /dev/sda
and PARTITION is something like /dev/hda7
-u: give Start and End in sector (instead of cylinder) units
-b 2048: (for certain MO disks) use 2048-byte sectors


EDIT: *it tried with the vfat and same message appears*

Uh hu! Just do this then:

thanks for dealing with a complete idiot guru3, this is such a simple operation and it took me like 14 steps. anyway thanks again. it's workin like a charm now.