Accessing Windows files from Ubuntu

[BlackedOut271]

Oh, sorry, edit the fstab file to:

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>

proc    /proc    proc    nodev,noexec,nosuid    0    0
/dev/sda1    /host    ntfs    defaults,nls=utf8,umask=0222,nosuid,nodev    00
/dev/sda2    /media/FACTORY_IMAGE    ntfs    defaults,nls=utf8,umask=0222    00
/host/ubuntu/disks/root.disk    /    ext4    loop,errors=remount-ro    0    1
/host/ubuntu/disks/swap.disk    none    swap    loop,sw    0    0

/dev/sda1       /media/windrive         ntfs    defaults,dmask=002,fmask=113,gid=plugdev    0    0

Wubi must be able to access the the disk image files from /host/ubuntu/disks/.

So here is what my fstab looks like now:

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>

proc    /proc    proc    nodev,noexec,nosuid    0    0
/dev/sda1    /host            ntfs    defaults,nls=utf8,umask=0222,nosuid,nodev    0    0
/dev/sda2    /media/FACTORY_IMAGE    ntfs    defaults,nls=utf8,umask=0222    0    0
/host/ubuntu/disks/root.disk    /    ext4    loop,errors=remount-ro    0    1
/host/ubuntu/disks/swap.disk    none    swap    loop,sw    0    0

/dev/sda1    /media/windrive        ntfs    defaults,dmask=002,fmask=113,gid=plugdev    0    0

Still not showing up in my Places... When I navigate to /media , the files are there though. Just had to restart my machine. So I guess the last thing I need to do is get the /media/windrive to show in the Places area.

[BlackedOut271]

I just used the old 'drag and drop' technique in the file browser and drug the 'windrive' directory onto the left panel. Now it shows up in places. Thank you so so so much for taking the time to assist me! I really appreciate it.

[BlackedOut271]

Thanks Sisco for the permissions breakdown

[sisco311]

You're welcome!

[quimkaos]

you should have listen to the 1st reply you had to your post blackedout, from sisco! He even points you to a tutorial! Install NTFS Configuration Tool (ntfs-config), and you wont have to manually config the fstab file. Thou that comment by darkness des must have been just to confuse you! haha

[BlackedOut271]

you should have listen to the 1st reply you had to your post blackedout, from sisco! He even points you to a tutorial! Install NTFS Configuration Tool (ntfs-config), and you wont have to manually config the fstab file. Thou that comment by darkness des must have been just to confuse you! haha

Ya after all the work, I took a step back and reviewed. I figured out how to use the ntfs config. Much easier lol

[Morbius1]

Although one could argue that since this was a Wubi install the windows partition was already mounted and present in fstab so there was no need to mount it again.

[sisco311]

Although one could argue that since this was a Wubi install the windows partition was already mounted and present in fstab so there was no need to mount it again.

True. It's probably a better solution to mount it once, under /host, with rw permissions for a user or group and symlink the /host dir to /media/windows or something.


I was thinking a little more about this... /dev/sda1 holds the Windows installation. Granting rw permissions for a regular user to all the system files is a security risk.

I would let /dev/sda1 to be mounted with read only permissions and use bindfs to remount the user's home directory (<root>\Documents and Settings\<username> or <root>\Users\<username>) with rw permissions. What do you think?

[Morbius1]

I would let /dev/sda1 to be mounted with read only permissions and use bindfs to remount the user's home directory (<root>\Documents and Settings\<username> or <root>\Users\<username>) with rw permissions. What do you think?

You're the master of bindfs in this ( or any other ) forum. I have noticed a problem with binding things to my home folder though. I've tried it twice and it stops the booting process. The only way to recover was to boot into another OS ( I multiboot ) and remove the line. I don't know if this is another upstart problem like the one mentioned in your howto or simply user error. The same line works if I bind it to something outside my home directory however so a bindfs to /media/windrive should work.

The only other point is that in his original post BlackedOut271 was using the following line to mount the partitions manually:

sudo mount -t ntfs /dev/sda1 /mnt/windrive -o "unmask=022"

As a regular user he only had read access to the mountpoint and only wanted a way to make it mount at boot to a location other than /host.

[sisco311]

You're the master of bindfs in this ( or any other ) forum. I have noticed a problem with binding things to my home folder though. I've tried it twice and it stops the booting process. The only way to recover was to boot into another OS ( I multiboot ) and remove the line.

If it's an Upstart or mountall issue, you could try to write an Upstart job to make sure that bindfs runs after all partitions are mounted,
/etc/init/bindfs.conf:

#
#/etc/init/bindfs.conf
#

description     "run bindfs after all partitions are mounted"

start on mounted

script
bindfs [options] dir mountpoint
end script