Sorry to ask a question Im sure will be considered simple by most. My problem is I cant access my ntfs storage partitions as user in slackware 13. Ive tried many things Ive found doing searches with no luck. When I attempt to access the drive I get the message "could not enter folder DATA". Here is a copy of my fstab.

/dev/sda5 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/sdb6 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/sdb9 / ext3 defaults 1 1
/dev/sda1 /win ntfs defaults 1 0
/dev/sdb1 /DATA ntfs defaults 1 0
/dev/sdb5 /data vfat defaults 1 0
#/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom auto noauto,owner,ro 0 0
/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto noauto,owner 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0

I have no trouble accessing it as root but really need to access as user.

I think you may have neglected to mount them during the install.

Heres my fstab

/dev/sdb3 /media/sdb3 ext3 defaults 1 2
/dev/sda5 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/sda6 / ext3 defaults 1 1
/dev/sdb1 /media/sdb1 ext3 defaults 1 2
/dev/sda1 /media/Windows ntfs-3g umask=000 1 0 <--see post #4
/dev/sda2 /media/NTFS ntfs-3g umask=000 1 0 <--see post #4
#/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom auto noauto,owner,ro 0 0
/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto noauto,owner 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
none /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0

My own notes for opensuse are

"To enable user write permissions on NTFS drives, add dmask=002 in /etc/fstab for the NTFS drive entry."

Note the parts in red. The ntfs-g is required for read/write, the umask value for user read/write.

Change your disk/partition to correct values.

This is Slackware. In the install, it even asks you if you want it to change to 'umask=000' for user read/write access. Fairly easy to miss.

Thanks, but I did it on purpose. But your are correct, with my setup it's easy bork windows.

You were fine, SA....

I just wanted to point out the relevant parts in red, to make it easier for the OP to see what the issue was between yours and the OP's fstab, and to explain what was going on...

I love Slackware, because it teaches you what you need to know, not just "Point and click", so you learn the whys of what is going on.

Now the OP knows why those are needed.

Your post was fine, just needed a little clarification for future reference, and for future users to see.

Actually, you are right. I should not have posted my fstab without making sure that the OP knows of the dangers of screwing up C drive with user read/write

Thank you both for your answering posts. But root already has read/write access to the disk and I dont need that for a user only read only. So what would I add to simply give users ro access? Im really sorry as this is certainly one of my weakest areas of knowledge.

I'm not very sharp on this stuff because I always setup my windows partitions during the install but I "think" your fstab lines should look something like this.

/dev/sda1 /Windows ntfs-3g umask=022 1 0
/dev/sdb1 /NTFS ntfs-3g umask=022 1 0

Also no joy with ntfs-3g edits. With that added to fstab I no longer get the "cant access folder DATA" error but it appears to open but shows partition empty. Im looking forward to getting this done so Ill know how to handle an issue like this in the future. And I agree cwwilson I love slackware myself for the same reason. I just dont usually get so stumped by something that seems should be simple.

Thank you slackass Ill give that a try now.

No luck with that one either Slackass. Same result as other edit - appears to open with no error message but shows empty.

If you don't mind can you post your /etc/fstab and fdisk -l

Thank you guys for all the help I found what I needed in another thread I didnt see earlier. Heres my new fstab that works.

/dev/sda5 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/sdb6 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/sdb9 / ext3 defaults 1 1
/dev/sda1 /win ntfs defaults 1 0
/dev/sdb1 /DATA ntfs ro,user,umask=022 1 0
/dev/sdb5 /data vfat defaults 1 0
#/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom auto noauto,owner,ro 0 0
/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto noauto,owner 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0

Ill mark this solved and hope it will help others in the future.

EDIT: glad you solved it.