j have just installed suse linux 11.2 on my pc , the problem i am having is i cant use my windows hard drive . i have downloaded and inatalled NTFS-3G and still it wont work . i can access the windows hard drive and look at what is on it ,ie pics , music ,films … but everytime i try to play or look at some thing it wont let me …
i have limited tech skills , so answers have to be idiot proof …
thanks in advance …
sykeen@hotmail.co.uk
can you please post output of the following:
su -c "fdisk -l"
[type your root password then press enter]
And also
cat /etc/fstab
That’s because you (= the user you are under Linux) is not the owner of these files. You should edit /etc/fstab and use the options uid=1000,gid=100 (assuming 1000 is your user id and 100 your group id) in the line mounting your ntfs partition, or add such a line if it’s missing.
sykeen j have just installed suse linux 11.2 on my pc , the problem i am having is i cant use my windows hard drive . i have downloaded and installed NTFS-3G and still it wont work . i can access the windows hard drive and look at what is on it ,ie pics , music ,films … but every time i try to play or look at some thing it wont let me …
i have limited tech skills , so answers have to be idiot proof …
thanks in advance …
sykeen@hotmail.co.uk
sykeen, you did not specify the desktop that you use as it makes a difference in what applications that get installed on your PC. For instance I use the default of KDE and if I wanted to edit a file I might use kwrite to do so.
In order to look at how your Windows drives are being mounted, I might suggest you open up a terminal session and type the following command:
cat /etc/fstab
Then use your mouse to highlight the output from this command and post here in the forum for us to see. Here is the output from that command on my PC:
james@LinuxUser:~> cat /etc/fstab
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD6000HLHX-01JJPV0_WD-WXA1C20K0415-part1 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD6000HLHX-01JJPV0_WD-WXA1C20K0415-part2 / ext4 acl,user_xattr 1 1
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST32000641AS_9WM0BWE8-part1 /Windows ntfs-3g defaults 0 0
/dev/sdb3 /home ext4 defaults 1 2
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
/dev/disk/by-id/usb-ST315005_41AS_0123456789ABCDEF-0:0-part1 /Software ntfs-3g defaults 0 0
After I copied the text into my message, I used the # advanced message editor code function to place all of it in a code block for better viewing. In my file I have two Windows partitions. You know they are Windows because they have the command **ntfs-3g. **Now please_try_again is suggesting that you modify the options after this command to read **uid=1000,gid=100 **which may work, but I normally just change the whole string to read defaults.
Now this is a copy of my fstab file and your will be different and you are not trying to make yours look identical to mine as that would not work. You are looking at it to see how certain options are being made. For us to suggest what to change your fstab file to, you must post its contents here for us to read just like I did. If you were a KDE user, you could edit your fstab file by pressing menu / Run Command and type the following:
kdesu kwrite /etc/fstab
Thank You,
Yes it works with vfat, ntfs … and probably ntfs-3g. But, as you know, James, I’m not a Windows user. 
So the defaults should be better in this case. I guess it makes the partition user mountable and owned by the user who mounts it.
my desktop is kde
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-Maxtor_2F040J0_F12Z5C3E-part1 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-Maxtor_2F040J0_F12Z5C3E-part2 / ext4 acl,user_xattr 1 1
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-Maxtor_2F040J0_F12Z5C3E-part3 /home ext4 acl,user_xattr 1 2
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD800BB-00JHC0_WD-WCAM9D050861-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
save your fstab first (just in case)
sudo cp /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.orig
Then, replace this line:
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD800BB-00JHC0_WD-WCAM9D050861-part1 /windows/C ntfs-3g users,gid=users,fmask=133,dmask=022,locale=en_GB.UTF-8 0 0
with that one:
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD800BB-00JHC0_WD-WCAM9D050861-part1 /windows/C ntfs-3g defaults,locale=en_GB.UTF-8 0 0
sorry i 4got to add openSUSE 11.2 (i586) KDE: 4.3.5
should be ok.
ok i did that saved changes . do i need to restart for changes to come in to affect ?
you just need to unmount/remount your Windows partition.
i hate making myself look stupid …
but , how do i do that …
and thank you for your help …
In Dolphin, right click on the drive in the left panel and select ‘Unmount’.
Otherwise in a terminal, you would type
umount /windows/C
mount/windows/C
i went
menu
terminal typed wat you said , and the responce was
umount /windows/C
umount: only root can unmount /dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD800BB-00JHC0_WD-WCAM9D050861-part1 from /windows/C
sy@linux-j1mq:~> mount/windows/C
bash: mount/windows/C: No such file or directory
sy@linux-j1mq:~> umount /windows/C
umount: only root can unmount /dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD800BB-00JHC0_WD-WCAM9D050861-part1 from /windows/C
sy@linux-j1mq:~> mount/windows/C
also in dolphin i do not see a drive listed on the left panel . all i see are the contence of a hard drive …
Don’t forget the space between mount or umount and /windows/C
Yes you have to be root to umount it. Check if it is mounted and where by typing :
mount
If it is in /windows/C, try
**sudo umount /windows/C
**Or just reboot. That will do it too.