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 Post subject: Accessing Windows partitions

Joined: 25 Apr 2012, 00:43
Posts: 7
I have saved a lot of movies, eBooks, documents etc on external hard drives larger than stick drives. :D

Does Navigatrix (with Ubuntu) come with the NTFS-3G driver installed and ready?

Can I access music, video and word processor files on my Win HD partition, or do i have to save them with win somehow over on the Linux accessible (Ext2 ?) partition.

Is there any special considerations to mount/unmount external USB 2 hard drives like the Seagate FreeAgent series drives?

Last resort.. would I need to make the ext hard drive have a FAT32 partition to make it accessible? We used to do this with older Slackware.


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 Post subject: Re: Accessing Windows partitions

Joined: 04 Nov 2010, 20:51
Posts: 1062
Navigatrix like Ubuntu and some other Linux distributions can handle NTFS filesystems found on Microsoft Windows operating systems. Navigatrix will also deal with FAT32 and FAT16....so drag out those floppies.

When you fire up the File Manager (Ray>Accessories>File Manager or Folder Icon lower left toolbar, right next to the Ray) you will see the directories and files available on your machine.

In the screenshot below you will see something similar on your machine.

The differences being;

1) I have different partitions than you.
2) My partitions have their own names as identifiers.

In the left column Places there is nx the home directory of the user nx....that would be you too if you've not installed Navigatrix on your harddrive and/or created a new username.

This is followed by a 'shortcut' to the Desktop and Applications...the latter I personally find useless.

This is followed by Manhattan, the name of an external USB attached hard drive that is currently attached to this machine.

Navigatrix auto-mounts USB media when they are plugged in. The reasoning is; you plugged it in; you must want to use it. There is nothing special you need to do in 99.44% of the cases 100% of the time...just plug it in and use it.

You can tell it is mounted by the funny little triangle over the small rectangle icon.

Clicking on that icon will un-mount the device for guilt-free removal if/when you unplug the drive...generally a good idea.

Next going down the list you see Navigatrix. Don't confuse this with anything other than THIS IS MY ROOT PARTITION.

I have installed Navigatrix on my hard drive. It's faster and more versatile.

Since it is on the hard drive it is not auto-magically mounted when I boot from the stick.

106 MB F... is the 106MB files system that is the persistent root media on the stick which all system settings are stored so the system can remember from one boot to the next....when one boots from the stick.

Next you see the BLUE rectangle with the W7 label.

W7 is the name of MY windows partition only. Yours will be something different. It could be 159 GB Filesystem. It could be as unique and informative as 903730ae-ea81-472b-956c-0de1f3c97f24.

When I click on the W7 partition two things happen. 1) The space is highlighted with the lovely blue; and 2) the partition is mounted and the contents are displayed in the large panel on the right....as you see in the screenshot.

External media, like the USB drive Manhattan and this freshly mounted internal hard drive partition are attached to the system at /media.../media/Manhattan.../media/W7...or the ever descriptive /media/903730ae-ea81-472b-956c-0de1f3c97f24....now you know why I give each partition its own name.


There is no need to un-mount partitions on internal hard drives unless you want to stop them from spinning before an auto-magic spin-down command is eventually sent because you are no longer accessing it.

In the screenshot the two remaining partitions Home and Cray are my home partition and a root partition for a third operating system.

If you, or anyone, installs Navigatrix, (or any other distribution) I recommend separate partitions for home and root because you can trash your system (or change it) and your personal data (/home) can stay put....frequently with no hassle.

...but back to the question at hand.

If you just click on your Windows partition it will mount. When you mount your Windows partition you can access essentially anything. You can modify, create, most anything; and you can copy, move, or delete absolutely anything....remember anything even the essential little bits that make MS Windows go.

You could write a file and place it on your Windows Desktop (/media/W7/Documents and Settings/Moe/Desktop). It will be there if you ever went back. You can watch those sample videos that come with Windows...the world is your oyster. Check it out.
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