[Sderby] Accessing Windows partitions

[Ian Simpson]

Hi,

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

worked OK but

mount -t vfat /dev/hda2 /windows/D

threw up the message "wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock
on /dev/hda2, or too many mounted file sytems (aren't you trying
to mount an extended partition instead of some logical partition
inside?)

I thought about typing "B******d if I know John, I'm just doing
what the man said"  but instead tried

mount -t vfat /dev/hda3 /windows/E

which failed with the message "special device /dev/hda3 does not
exist"

ditto for 

mount -t vfat /dev/hda4 /windows/F

Thinking there must be an easier way, I decided to RTFM again
and Lo and Behold, in the Mandrake Control Centre is a wizard
that allows you to mount / unmount the partitions using the
Manually Operated User Selection Equipment :-)  It warns you to
make back ups first (Yeah. Right, 20GB divided by 1.44MB is...
how many floppies???) but seemed to do the trick as I can now
access all areas - Hoorah! :-)

On 03/10/2002 at 09:54 you wrote:

>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Ian Simpson" <iansimpson@clara.co.uk>
>To: <sderby@mailman.lug.org.uk>
>Sent: Thursday, October 03, 2002 8:37 AM
>Subject: Re: [Sderby] Accessing Windows partitions
>
>
>> Hi Mike,
>>
>> I have two HDs, one 20GB partitioned 4 ways (drives C, D, E,
F),
>> all being used by WinMe and one 6GB that I put Linux on.
>>
>> When I browse around using Konqueror, or view the file system
>> from a shell window, I can see a /windows directory directly
>> under Root.  Inside this directory are 4 more called C, D, E
and
>> F. If I try to view the contents of these directories, either
as
>> root or user:ian, they all appear to be empty.
>>
>> If I list the contents of the /windows directory in a shell
>> window I get...
>>
>> drwxr-xr-x  2  root  4096  Aug 18  17:22  C/
>> drwxr-xr-x  2  root  4096  Aug 18  17:22  D/
>> drwxr-xr-x  2  root  4096  Aug 18  17:22  E/
>> drwxr-xr-x  2  root  4096  Aug 18  17:22  F/
>>
>> I still can't get my head around *nix's way of referring to
>> drives - does 'hda' refer to a physical drive or a partition?
>> and apart from behind with your wellies on, just what is a
mount
>> point?
>>
>
>Ian,
>
>try the following command:
>
>    mount -t vfat /dev/hda1 /windows/C
>
>then have a look if anything is in the /windows /C directory.
>
>If it works then mount the other three drives as follows:
>
>    mount -t vfat /dev/hda2 /windows/D
>    mount -t vfat /dev/hda3 /windows/E
>    mount -t vfat /dev/hda4 /windows/F
>
>I will try and find time later to post more details on mounting
partitions
>and how to mount the drives at boot time.
>
>Regards,
>
>Peter


Regards,

    Ian
    iansimpson@clara.co.uk

    http://home.clara.net/iansimpson