can't mount windows

Hi

I’ve just installed opensuse but I can’t mount my windows hard disk. I’ve had a look at the documentation and other posts but can’t quite get there. My etc/fstab reads:

/dev/disk/by-id/ata-Hitachi_HDT725032VLA380_VFL200R22M6ZPN-part5 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-Hitachi_HDT725032VLA380_VFL200R22M6ZPN-part1 / ext3 acl,user_xattr 1 1
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-Hitachi_HDT725032VLA380_VFG200R233A26S-part1 /windows/C ntfs-3g users,gid=users,fmask=133,dmask=022,locale=en_GB.UTF-8 0 0
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs noauto 0 0
debugfs /sys/kernel/debug debugfs noauto 0 0
usbfs /proc/bus/usb usbfs noauto 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts mode=0620,gid=5 0 0

As far as I can work out, it ought to mount but doesn’t. Any advice much appreciated.

Thanks

Dave S

well dual boot can destroy windows sometimes try typing mount /windows/C
on my 10.3 that is the windows name
or just mount for seeing if its mounted

according to fstab you have it mounted in /windows/C

Is there a /windows folder in your tree

open a terminal and type

cd /

then

dir

post result here

This may or may not be the problem:

This often is the result of the filesystem being dismounted improperly. In windows that would cause the filesystem to need checking and it would auto check on the next windows boot. But you are in Linux, so it plays up.

If that has happened you have two options:

  1. sometimes you can “force” the mount: see the section “The force option” in the reference below
  2. but the best way is to fix the problem: See the section “Failed Mounts – Resetting the dirty bit” in the reference below

Reference: HowTo Mount NTFS Filesystem Partition Read Write Access in openSUSE 10, 11

Hi

thanks for the replies. Ran chkdsk /f but it didn’t resolve the problem. Here are the results of mount, mount/windows/C and dir:

dave@house:~> mount
/dev/sda1 on / type ext3 (rw,acl,user_xattr)
/proc on /proc type proc (rw)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw)
debugfs on /sys/kernel/debug type debugfs (rw)
udev on /dev type tmpfs (rw)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,mode=0620,gid=5)
/dev/sdb1 on /windows/C type fuseblk (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,allow_other,default_permissions,blksize=4096)
fusectl on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw)
securityfs on /sys/kernel/security type securityfs (rw)
none on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw)
gvfs-fuse-daemon on /home/dave/.gvfs type fuse.gvfs-fuse-daemon (rw,nosuid,nodev,user=dave)
dave@house:~> mount/windows/C
bash: mount/windows/C: No such file or directory
dave@house:~> cd /
dave@house:/> dir
total 96
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2009-02-01 12:46 bin
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 2009-02-01 12:46 boot
drwxr-xr-x 13 root root 5400 2009-02-01 22:49 dev
drwxr-xr-x 112 root root 12288 2009-02-01 23:01 etc
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 2009-02-01 11:58 home
drwxr-xr-x 11 root root 4096 2009-02-01 12:45 lib
drwxr-xr-x 7 root root 4096 2009-02-01 13:58 lib64
drwx------ 2 root root 16384 2009-02-01 11:39 lost+found
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2009-02-01 23:01 media
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2008-12-03 10:23 mnt
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 2009-02-01 16:00 opt
dr-xr-xr-x 131 root root 0 2009-02-01 22:49 proc
drwx------ 25 root root 4096 2009-02-01 18:14 root
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 12288 2009-02-01 12:47 sbin
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 2008-12-09 21:45 srv
drwxr-xr-x 12 root root 0 2009-02-01 22:49 sys
drwxrwxrwt 30 root root 4096 2009-02-01 23:00 tmp
drwxr-xr-x 13 root root 4096 2008-12-09 21:45 usr
drwxr-xr-x 15 root root 4096 2008-12-09 21:50 var
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 2009-02-01 11:40 windows
dave@house:/>

What is also somewhat weird is that Windows XP now auto logs in, but only since I installed opensuse - I didn’t think that was possible without editing the registry.

Regards

Dave

You should try this line in fstab:
/dev/sdb1 /windows/C ntfs-3g defaults,force 0 0
Once you edit fstab, open a console and enter this command to get rootly powers:

su

, then enter the command:

mount -a

Then check in the directory /windows/C to see it the mount worked.

Yes, that seems to have done the trick.

Thank you very much for all the helpful replies!

Best wishes

Dave S

Excellent. That is the “force” option I was advocating.