NT file system mounting

[Craig White]

Thomas Mondoshawan Tate wrote:
> 
> On Sat, Jan 05, 2002 at 03:20:00PM -0700, lynn tilby wrote:
> >
> > I have a dual boot system.  I am trying to mount an NT file system.
> > My NT file systems are NTFS.
> >
> > [root@polaris /root]# mount -t vfat /dev/hda4 /mnt/msd/c
> > [root@polaris /root]# mount -t vfat -v /dev/hda3 /mnt/msd/c
> >
> > Any thoughts???
> 
> Since the filesystem type you're trying to mount is NTFS, the VFAT
> filesystem will be completely useless. What you'll want to issue on the
> commandline is this:
> 
> [root@crystaldragon /]# mount -t ntfs /dev/hd?? /mnt/where/you/want/it
> 
> Note that you'll have to make sure you have the NTFS driver compiled either
> as a module (and properly inserted into the kernel) or staticially for this
> to work. Note that the -t flag tells mount what kind of filesystem to use
> for the mount procedure. Normally, without this flag, mount will attempt to
> probe which filesystem the disk has on it via the /etc/filesystems file. Eg:
> if I were to type in 'mount /dev/discs/disc0/disc /mnt/wherever' and my
> /etc/filesystems file contained the lines
> 
----
I believe that the standard disclaimer here is that the NTFS module for
mounting NTFS partitions is experimental and risky and just mounting the
drive - even in read only mode has been the subject of reports of
problems, many of them irretrievable. There was a fairly long period of
time that the open source project that developed this module went silent
and apparently, only recently has any further development occurred. Most
major distro's do not normally include the module in their standard
distributions, which suggests their estimation of the reliability. You
should experiment with this first on NTFS partitions that you don't care
if they become corrupted and unusable. By all means, let us know of your
success and/or failures.

Craig