Mounting an NTFS Partition
Read a secure Windows drive in a dual-boot system (RedHat 9.0)
Posted 31.05.2004 | Updated 23.05.2006 | Contributed by Dylan Carmichael & Andy Mallett


A knowledge of file systems, both Linux and Microsoft, would be an advantage here and the reader is directed to Andy's Tech Page for some background info on Windows file systems.

Also see Mounting Windows FAT Partitions for an overview of mounting Windows drives from Linux.

We installed Windows XP Pro on a native NTFS primary partition, followed by Red Hat Linux 9.0 on its own EXT3 partitions, using GRUB for dual booting the two OSs.

Although NTFS is a more secure file system than FAT16/32, it is possible to access NTFS from RH Linux 9, with an RPM plug in.
There are many different RPMs for the NTFS Reader, depending on platform, CPU, etc. so it is necessary to download this whichrpm script and run it. Right click on the link and Save Target As to a Linux directory.

Logged in as root, type chmod  700  whichrpm - this makes sure it's executable,

Next, type sh  whichrpm. This will run the script and indicate which RPM to use for your machine. Then pop over to Sourceforge.net and grab the required RPM.

For our example we needed
Version 2.4.20-8
Sect: Single processor
Arch: i686.

Save the file to disk and then install the RPM:

rpm  -ivh  kernel-ntfs-2.4.20.8-i686.rpm using your filename.rpm

Create a local diectory which will 'map' to the Windows NTFS directory, i.e.

mkdir  /mnt/windisk

Finally run the new command to mount the Windows partition to the local directory,

mount  /dev/hdc3  /mnt/windisk  -t  ntfs

To find the name which Linux refers to your partitions, type

fdisk  -l (small L)

Happy Windows Hacking!



- D&A.