Accessing Data from the Windows Partition

Given the fact that Windows and Linux reside on different partitions, accessing data in the Windows partition from Linux can sound difficult. The geeky way to do this is to open up a configuration file

and add a strange sounding line at the end.

Of course, there is an easier way out.



At the command line (terminal), type in linuxconf and press enter. If you are using PCQLinux 7.1, then nothing may happen, as linuxconf does not get installed by default. In that case, you can install linuxconf as below.

Put in CD1 of PCQLinux 7.1 (PCQuest July 2001), and click on the CD-ROM icon on your desktop. When the file manager opens up, open the Redhat/RPMs directory. Here you will find 400 odd files. Find the file linuxconf *. (This is actually easy. Click once on the right pane of the file manager window and type Linux. The file you are looking for will be highlighted). Click on this and the RedHat Package Manager will open up with Linuxconf showing up for installation. Click on install. When the installation ends, you will get an error message that can be ignored.

Now, close the Package Manager and go back to the Terminal. Maximize the Terminal window and type linuxconf and press enter. linuxconf will now start up.

In the menu, scroll down and select File systems/Access local file systems.

A dialogue will open up, showing you the mounted drives. Tab over to the Add button and press enter. A new Dialogue will now open up. Here in Partition, type ‘/dev/hda1’ (assuming that you have Windows installed in the primary partition). Type in vfat for type and for mount point type in /mnt/Win (instead of Win, you can type in any name you want to call your Windows directory in Linux). Now tab over to Accept, and press enter. You will be prompted whether you want to create the directory /mnt/Win. Say Yes. Now the previous menu will show up again, but with your Windows partition added as hda1, and its size and partition type showing up.

To mount the partition for immediate use, select the Windows partition and press enter. In the menu dialogue that shows up, tab over to Mount and press enter. You can now quit from

linuxconf. 

You can now access files in your Windows partition by pointing the file manager to the /mnt/Win directory. 

Krishna Kumar