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Howto mount windows partition onto ubuntu Linux

Posted by Vivek Gite [Last updated: November 15, 2006]

Q. How do I mount NTFS or FAT paritions under ubuntu Linux?

A. You can mount NTFS or FAT windows partition with mount command.

=> Click on Applications
=> Select Accessories
=> Select Terminal
=> Now terminal window will be on screen.

First you need to create directory where you can attach windows partition using mount command (for example /media/c for C:):# sudo mkdir -p /media/cNow find out list of partition (click on System > Administration > Disks ) or use following command:# sudo fdisk -l

Output:

Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hdb1   *           1        2432    19535008+  86  NTFS
/dev/hdb2            2433        2554      979965   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/hdb3            2555        6202    29302560   83  Linux

As you see /dev/hdb1 is NTFS partition. Now type following command:# sudo mount -t ntfs -o nls=utf8,umask=0222 /dev/hdb1 /media/cTo unmount Windows NTFS partition type command:# sudo umount /media/cTo mount FAT partition type command:# sudo mkdir -p /media/d
# sudo mount -t vfat -o iocharset=utf8,umask=000 /dev/hda1 /media/d

To unmount Windows FAT (mounted at /media/d) partition type command:# sudo umount /media/d

Where,

  • -t : Specify file system type (such as NTFS or FAT)
  • umask=VALUE: Set the umask (the bitmask of the permissions that are not present). The default is the umask of the current process. The value is given in octal.
  • iocharset=VALUE: Character set to use for converting between 8 bit characters and 16 bit Unicode characters. The default is iso8859-1. Long filenames are stored on disk in Unicode format.

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Discussion on This FAQ

  1. Anonymous Says:

    from the get-go, clicking Applications then Accessories does not appear to lead to “Terminal” on Ubuntu 5.04.

  2. Anonymous Says:

    thanks for the tip it worked!

  3. kapoios Says:

    yeah it works great but when i restart the pc i must do it again isnt there anything more permanent??

  4. nixcraft Says:

    kapoios, Please see following url. It explains how to use /etc/fstab file so that share gets automatically mounted at every system start:

    http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/access-windows-shares-from-linux/

  5. some dumb guy Says:

    there is a tool called ntfs-3g this does allow the mounting of windows ntfs 4.x-6.x (4.x includes all NT 4.0 based and hence forth and 6.x indicates all windows 2003 onwards and not vista, vista has got windows filesystem. and i havent felt like downloading the RTM windows vista so i have no clue. and you are on your own)
    scenario 1:
    recompile the kernel in debian/ubuntu/kubuntu/ubuntuk blah blah blah debian and ubuntu based arch and add the flag ntfs r/w support enable module. and then mount the filesystem from CLI using the same command as illutrated above by the guy whose site this is.
    scenario 2: go to ntfs for linux (google up, wont spoon feed, using debian means you should be confident enough to do this) and in that look up for ntfs-3g which is nothing but it enables you to mount the disk partition which is in ntfs 4-6x in read write mode. they have even simplified the command to one word viz
    # mount.ntfs-3g /dev/hda1 /place/to/mount
    # umount /dev/hda1
    command 1 mounts leaving you the hassle of passing all other parameters and options and arguements and command 2? you are on your own if you dont know what it does. ;-)
    i have followed the notes on linux-live and rolled my own custom distro based on debian (linux-live is based on slackware) but it works with other distro as well, and i have windows 2003 installed on a 4 GB compressed NTFS USB pen drive, which i often use to fiddle around.
    hope this helps apart from the one mentioned above. this is just an addon to the old bunch of tuts from this website.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTFS
    hope this helps! good luck!
    and what a co-incidence, i been looking for how to mount openbsd’s ffs in rw mode in linux and i end up here and the captcha shows “freebsd”
    ;-)

  6. vorticon Says:

    Very simple and helpful tutorial… used it to backup a really crappy old vfat win98 drive :D

  7. A fan Says:

    Thanks for the tip!

  8. the constant skeptic Says:

    Great post. It worked great. I am dual booting vista premium and ubuntu hearty heron via the wubi install. I love it so far.

  9. Christopher Says:

    @ the constant skeptic

    you can access the windows partition from /host/

  10. Christopher Says:

    Sorry, I forgot to add that it only works in wubi or live cd.

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