Help | Site Map
Connecting Tech Pros Worldwide
Reply
 
LinkBack Thread Tools
  #1  
Old May 20th, 2008, 06:55 PM
ambrnewlearner's Avatar
Expert
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: My country ;)
Age: 18
Posts: 587
Default Access FAT32 partitions in linux

I have installed Red Hat linux a few days ago and then I accessed ext3/ext2 partitions (on which linux is installed) from windows using some third party software.

Now I wanna access FAT32 partitions from Red Hat Linux. Someone told me that I will have to mount those FAT32 drives. But I don't know how to mount the drives in linux.

Please help me in this matter
Reply
  #2  
Old May 21st, 2008, 06:52 AM
ashitpro's Avatar
Expert
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Posts: 297
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by ambrnewlearner
LINUX newbie here.......PLZ HELP!

I have installed Red Hat linux a few days ago and then I accessed ext3/ext2 partitions (on which linux is installed) from windows using some third party software.

Now I wanna access FAT32 partitions from Red Hat Linux. Someone told me that I will have to mount those FAT32 drives. But I don't know how to mount the drives in linux.

Please help me in this matter

THANKS TO EVERYONE IN ADVANCE....


============
AmbrNewlearner
============

mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 /mnt/c

This should work....
just make sure to change the source and destination partition paths..
i.e. /dev/sda1 and /mnt/c respectively...
Reply
  #3  
Old May 27th, 2008, 08:57 AM
ambrnewlearner's Avatar
Expert
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: My country ;)
Age: 18
Posts: 587
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by ashitpro
mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 /mnt/c

This should work....
just make sure to change the source and destination partition paths..
i.e. /dev/sda1 and /mnt/c respectively...
I tried as you told me to. i.e.

I logged in to root account and then I typed folowing at the terminal---->

mount -t vfat /dev/sda1/mnt/c

Note there is no space between /sda1 and /mnt/c.

When I press enter after typing above command, nothing happens.

So I still cannot access my FAT32 partitions.
Now, Please tell me where I'm wrong.................

THANKS IN ADVANCE.............

============
AmbrNewlearner
============
Reply
  #4  
Old May 27th, 2008, 10:14 AM
ashitpro's Avatar
Expert
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Posts: 297
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by ambrnewlearner
I tried as you told me to. i.e.

I logged in to root account and then I typed folowing at the terminal---->

mount -t vfat /dev/sda1/mnt/c

Note there is no space between /sda1 and /mnt/c.

When I press enter after typing above command, nothing happens.

So I still cannot access my FAT32 partitions.
Now, Please tell me where I'm wrong.................

THANKS IN ADVANCE.............

============
AmbrNewlearner
============

There is space between /dev/sda1 and /mnt/c
Are you sure that sda1 is your first FAT32 partition i.e. C drive...?
Post your hard disk partitions structures..
Also post the content of file "/etc/fstab"
I'll give you the exact command
Reply
  #5  
Old May 27th, 2008, 10:43 AM
Nepomuk's Avatar
Moderator
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Germany
Age: 21
Posts: 2,003
Default

OK, you can check, what partitions you have with
Expand|Select|Wrap|Line Numbers
  1. fdisk -l
as root (or with sudo, if that's installed). It should look something like this:
Expand|Select|Wrap|Line Numbers
  1. Disk /dev/hda: 40.0 GB, 40060403712 bytes
  2. 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4870 cylinders
  3. Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
  4.  
  5.    Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
  6. /dev/hda1               1          64      514048+  82  Linux swap / Solaris
  7. /dev/hda2   *          65        1402    10747485   83  Linux
  8. /dev/hda3            1403        3978    20691720   83  Linux
  9. /dev/hda4            3979        4870     7164990   83  Linux
  10.  
or
Expand|Select|Wrap|Line Numbers
  1. Disk /dev/sda: 40.0 GB, 40060403712 bytes
  2. 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4870 cylinders
  3. Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
  4.  
  5.    Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
  6. /dev/sda1               1          64      514048+  82  Linux swap / Solaris
  7. /dev/sda2   *          65        1402    10747485   83  Linux
  8. /dev/sda3            1403        3978    20691720   83  Linux
  9. /dev/sda4            3979        4870     7164990   83  Linux
  10.  
The devices called hdx (or sdx, [i]x[i] being something or the other) are your harddrives, the devices called hdx1, hdx2, etc (or sdx1, sdx2, etc) are your partitions.

Then, check which partitions are mounted with
Expand|Select|Wrap|Line Numbers
  1. mount
This could look something like this:
Expand|Select|Wrap|Line Numbers
  1. /dev/hda4 on / type ext3 (rw,errors=remount-ro)
  2. proc on /proc type proc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
  3. /sys on /sys type sysfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
  4. varrun on /var/run type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,mode=0755)
  5. varlock on /var/lock type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,mode=1777)
  6. procbususb on /proc/bus/usb type usbfs (rw)
  7. udev on /dev type tmpfs (rw,mode=0755)
  8. devshm on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw)
  9. devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,gid=5,mode=620)
  10. lrm on /lib/modules/2.6.17-12-generic/volatile type tmpfs (rw)
  11. /dev/hda2 on /media/hda2 type reiserfs (rw)
  12. /dev/hda3 on /home type ext2 (rw)
In this case, hda4, hda2 and hda3 are mounted.

Now, choose where the device is going to be mounted to. Normally, it's in a subdirectory of either mnt or media. Check, that the subdirectory exists (e.g. /mnt/c or /media/hdb3). If it doesn't, create it (as a superuser, run
Expand|Select|Wrap|Line Numbers
  1. cd /media
  2. mkdir hdb3
(or appropriate).

With this information, you should be able to choose the right partition and use
Expand|Select|Wrap|Line Numbers
  1. mount /dev/hdb3 -t vfat /media/hdb3
To make things easier, if you want to mount that drive more often, you can put it into /etc/fstab. Just open it in an editor as root (or with sudo) and add the following lines at the bottom:
Expand|Select|Wrap|Line Numbers
  1. # added manually
  2. /dev/hdb3 /media/hdb3 vfat defaults,users,noauto 0 0
(Of course, you'll have to change the device and mount directory to what you need.)
If you want the drive to be mounted on startup, change noauto to auto.

Then save the file and in future you'll just have to do
Expand|Select|Wrap|Line Numbers
  1. mount /dev/hdb3
or
Expand|Select|Wrap|Line Numbers
  1. mount /media/hdb3
Greetings,
Nepomuk
Reply
  #6  
Old June 18th, 2008, 04:34 PM
ambrnewlearner's Avatar
Expert
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: My country ;)
Age: 18
Posts: 587
Default

HELLO,

SUCCESS...........Problem solved.
THANKS ashitpro, nepomuk.

BTW, sorry for the late reply. I had to format my Red hat linux as I had to backup some data on my linux partitions (my HardDisk is only 40 GB) and today I reinstalled linux and tried as you suggested and ended up with success.

Also, don't you think Nepomuk that your REPLY #5 must be contributed in articles section of bytes.com as there is not much information on internet about this kind of problem.

THANKS AGAIN ashitpro, nepomuk........

============
AmbrNewlearner
============
Reply
  #7  
Old June 18th, 2008, 10:30 PM
Nepomuk's Avatar
Moderator
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Germany
Age: 21
Posts: 2,003
Default

Your very welcome for the help.

By the way, I've followed your tip AmbrNewlearner and I've written an article, which is still in the "Editors Corner" right now. I'd be glad, if some of you would check it to make sure, there are no errors in it. The link is: http://bytes.com/forum/showthread.ph...97#post3182497

Greetings,
Nepomuk
Reply
Reply

Bookmarks

Thread Tools

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are Off
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On

What is Bytes?

We are a network of experts and professionals in IT and software development that help one another with answers to tough questions and share insights. Get the best answers to your questions from over network members.
Post your question now . . .
It's fast and it's free

Popular Articles