How to access your Windows drives from Ubuntu

[ago]

If you want to access your NTFS Windows drives follow these instructions:

1. Make sure you have internet access (see the network icon on the top right)
2. Open the "Applications" menu and select "Add/Remove..."
3. In the listbox on the right select: "Show All Available Applications"
4. Search for "NTFS" and select "NTFS Configuration Tool". Click OK to install it
5. Run the configuration tool under Applications > System Tools > NTFS Configuration Tool
6. Select "Enable write support for internal device". Click OK to set it up.
7. Once you reboot you will find your windows disks under /media (you can access that from Places > Computer > File System > media).

[tuxcantfly]

or, another way (from the terminal) would be to install the ntfs-3g package:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ntfs-3g

then create a mountpoint:

sudo mkdir /media/windows

then figure out which drive is your windows drive:

sudo fdisk -l

which should return something like this:

geza@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -l
Password:

Disk /dev/sda: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1       12158    97659103+   7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2           12159       15197    24410767+  83  Linux
/dev/sda3           30274       30401     1028160   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda4           15198       30273   121097970   83  Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order
geza@ubuntu:~$

Then find the line saying HPFS/NTFS (shown in bold), and take the value under "device" (in this case /dev/sda1 which is shown in bold) and substitute it into the bold portion in this command:

sudo ntfs-3g /dev/sda1 /media/windows

then you should be able to access it at /media/windows, when done, simply unmount using:

sudo umount /media/windows

[cowlip]

Great-- thank you!

[dbgeezer]

[*] Search for "NTFS" and select "NTFS Configuration Tool".

This was not in my app, but Tuxcantfly's solution worked well. Thanks!

Which repository is ntfs-3g in?

[cowlip]

ntfs-3g is in Universe

[Aquashark]

i have a suggestion for these guide

can you mention how to automatically umount Windows drives at reboot/shutdown? so people won't have to umount them manually everytime to not get errors

[ago]

i have a suggestion for these guide

can you mention how to automatically umount Windows drives at reboot/shutdown? so people won't have to umount them manually everytime to not get errors

If you have errors, write a detailed report and we will handle it properly.

[ago]

This was not in my app,

You have to select: "Show All Available Applications"

[theslicknick6]

nick@nick-desktop:~$ sudo umount /media/hda1
umount: /media/hda1: device is busy
umount: /media/hda1: device is busy
thats th error i get when trying to unmount the windows partition. I am assuming its in use somehow

I also get this in Gparted
The partition could not be unmounted from the following mountpoints:

/media/hda1

Most likely other partitions are also mounted on these mountpoints. You are advised to unmount them manually.


thanks for all your help with this

[ago]

I also get this in Gparted
The partition could not be unmounted from the following mountpoints:

/media/hda1

Most likely other partitions are also mounted on these mountpoints. You are advised to unmount them manually.

I have no problems umounting.