Disc access in Xp and Mandrake

[TheTerminator]

How do I prepare a partitioned hard disk so that files can be read by both linux and xp?

I have a partition full of mp3's and would like to make them accessible so that both win xp and mandrake 9.0 can read them.

Is this possible and if so how?

Many Thanks, :D

[paco]

of course it is possible.

leave the mp3's on a windows partition.

are you running winxp on fat32 or ntfs ?

i don't know if ntfs works but fat32 works for sure.

harddrives under linux are accessed through block-devices:

Primary master : /dev/hda
primary slave : /dev/hdb
secondary master : /dev/hdc
secondary slave : /dev/hdd

partitions are numbered. You can get a list of it:

cat /proc/partitions

or use

fdisk -l </dev/hd?>

mostly the first partition of the disk is hd?1, second hd?5
after that it increases with 1.

you can try which partition it is:

1. cd /mnt
2. mkdir mp3

3. mount -t vfat /dev/hd?? ./mp3
4. cd mp3
5. ls

6. if not found? -> cd .. -> umount ./mp3 -> start at 3 again.

if partition is found you can modify you're file system tab:

cd /etc

edit 'fstab' with an editor of your choice

add the line:

/dev/hd?? /mnt/mp3 vfat auto 0 0


after that you schould always be able to directly use mount /mnt/mp3 and it schould mount automatically

hope it helps.

[TheTerminator]

I am using KDE i think and mandrake 9.0 How can i tell the computer that i always want it to open files and folders in a tree view?
I am unsure how to do this: in windows explorer, TOOLS, FOLDER OPTIONS, VIEW, APPLY TO ALL FOLDERS etc...
Please help!
BTW I have almost everything running well in linux now; i just need to get on t'internet which appears to be a mighty big struggle at the moment!

Enough. one step at a time though.
Then again, how can i back up linux so i can reinstall it to say where it is today without having to install all other patches/updates etc?

Thanks

[TheTerminator]

one more thing..
in the root of my computer there are loads of memory crash programs, about 21 k long. do i need to worry about them? they have all been created in the current session of linux running.
how can i stop this and does it affect my linux experience?

Thanks!

[mdwatts]

Originally posted by TheTerminator

Enough. one step at a time though.
Then again, how can i back up linux so i can reinstall it to say where it is today without having to install all other patches/updates etc?



You could use a commercial package such as Ghost/Drive Image or the opensource PartImage.

www.partimage.org

[mdwatts]

Originally posted by TheTerminator
one more thing..
in the root of my computer there are loads of memory crash programs, about 21 k long. do i need to worry about them? they have all been created in the current session of linux running.
how can i stop this and does it affect my linux experience?

Thanks!

Are these program dumps and what do they contain?