Accessing a Windows Partition

I have a dual-boot system with Red Hat Linux and Windows 98. Is there a way to access my Windows partition while I am running Linux?

You can access another partition on your system (for example, a Windows partition), in two different ways.

First, assume that your Windows partition is on your first IDE hard drive, in the first partition (/dev/hda1).

At a shell prompt, log in as root (type su and then enter the root password).

Create a directory at which the Windows partition will be mounted by typing the following command:

mkdir /mnt/windows

Before you can access the partition, you will need to mount it at the directory you just created. As root, type the following command at a shell prompt:

mount -t vfat /dev/hda1 /mnt/windows

To automatically mount a Windows partition, you must modify the /etc/fstab file.

At a shell prompt, su to root, following the above example.

Next, open the /etc/fstab in a text editor by typing (for example):

pico /etc/fstab

Add the following on a new line (the /dev/hda1 may vary, but for most users this is correct):

/dev/hda1 /mnt/windows vfat noauto,owner,users 0 0

Press [Ctrl]-[x] and then press [y] for yes when prompted to save the changes. For more information on the mount command, refer the man page by typing man mount at a shell prompt.

To access the partition, type cd /mnt/windows. To navigate through Windows 98's embedded spaces in their directories, surround the directory in quotation marks, as in ls "Program Files".