Accessing Windows files and/or Booting Into WinXP

[wazhang]

I have successfully installed Suse 8.2 Personal Edition on my laptop(Compaq Presario 1700XL260), but Suse did not recognize the WinXP Home Edition that had been preinstalled on the machine. So WinXP is not an option in the Grub boot menu, and the machine cannot boot into Windows. Unfortunately, some of the files in the Windows partition(hda1) are very important ones; I have to access them.

I called Suse tech support, but was offered dubious suggestions--they emailed a support article to me, suggesting that simply sticking the WinXP Home Edition CD into the CD Rom drive and choosing Recovery mode, and then inputing the command of FIXMBR would enable me to reboot into WinXP. I have tried to repair the damaged WinXP MBR before with this same method, but did not succeed. In the meantime, I have also tried to access the Windows partition with the tip in this HELP file:
http://www.justlinux.com/nhf/Filesystems/Mounting_NTFS_Filesystems.html
but did not succeed, either. When I input this command:

/dev/hda1 /windows ntfs ro,user,noauto,umask=0007,gid=1000 0 0

I got an error message, saying: "Permission denied."

WinXP is on hda1; Suse is on hda2, and the swap partition is on hda3. Any help on enabling me to read or access my windows files or, better yet, boot into Windows would be greatly appreciated!

Many thanks in advance!

[scinerd]

I'm guessing when you run this "/dev/hda1 /windows ntfs ro,user,noauto,umask=0007,gid=1000 0 0" you are root and the mount command is in front of the above. If that's true I have read in the past that linux support ntfs is limited. I have heard that if it does mount it can damage the data but that was a while back so things could have change.


from what I see in the grub man page I think this will boot your window partition. You would just add this to your grub.conf file

# For booting Windows
title Windows XP
root (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

[mdwatts]

As scinerd suggested and since you are likely using Grub as your bootloader, add

title = Windows XP Professional
root = (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

to /boot/grub/menu.lst (as root).

[retsaw]

Originally posted by wazhang

/dev/hda1 /windows ntfs ro,user,noauto,umask=0007,gid=1000 0 0


This is the line to add to your /etc/fstab file. If you add that line to your fstab file it would allow any user to mount the windows partition by using the command "mount /windows", however if you wish for it to be mounted automatically use this line instead

/dev/hda1 /windows ntfs ro,auto,umask=0007,gid=1000 0 0

The equivalent to the mount command would be:

mount /dev/hda1 /windows -t ntfs -o ro,umask=0007,gid=1000


For any of the examples to work the directory /windows must already exist. You can mount your windows partition wherever you like, just by substituting /windows with your desired location as long as it is an already existing directory.

[dysharmonic]

As suggested, adding the appropriate entry in /boot/grub/grub.conf should solve your problem.

If however you've already fixed your WinXP boot loader, you could just boot off the SuSe CD, and install Grub to your / or /boot partition.

[wazhang]

Thanks to everyone for the help! But the machine refused to boot into WinXP after I have added the suggested lines to /etc/grub/menu.lst; the error message, upon booting, says that the file type is unrecognizable or something to that effect. Having not used Vi for a while, I have completely forgotten the basic commands and have to relearn them from the beginning :)! If I am unable to repair the damaged WinXP MBR, I think I will take the worst route--REinstall WinXP and SuSe. The valuable Win files are foregoable! However, I am kind of surprised that Suse (8.2, Personal Edition) does not allow users to access the Windows(XP) partition!

Thanks once again!!

[retsaw]

What's the problem with accessing your XP partition from Suse?

The mount command or fstab entries should work, although looking back at them they should probably have "umask=000" instead of "umask=0007". I thought that Suse came with NTFS support, but even if it doesn't you should be able to add it easily.

I can't help with booting windows using Grub as I'm unfamiliar with Grub, but at the very least you should be able to mount the windows partition from Suse.

[mdwatts]

Originally posted by wazhang
Thanks to everyone for the help! But the machine refused to boot into WinXP after I have added the suggested lines to /etc/grub/menu.lst; the error message, upon booting, says that the file type is unrecognizable or something to that effect. Having not used Vi for a while, I have completely forgotten the basic commands and have to relearn them from the beginning :)! If I am unable to repair the damaged WinXP MBR, I think I will take the worst route--REinstall WinXP and SuSe. The valuable Win files are foregoable! However, I am kind of surprised that Suse (8.2, Personal Edition) does not allow users to access the Windows(XP) partition!

Thanks once again!!

Could you please post the contents of /boot/grub/menu.lst so we can have a look.

[Panther_7]

Try changin teh umask to equal "0222" I have Suse 8.2 Pro and that enabled me to access the NTFS partition when loged in as a normal user.

Hope that helps.

[wazhang]

I *think* the reason why Suse (8.2 Personal) did not recognize the preinstalled WinXP is that WinXP was not installed properly. Rather than a clean install, it was installed upon Win2K as an upgrade and on a logical in an extended partition. I did not know that I installed WinXP on a logical until I was using a disk-erasing utility to clean my hard disk! After I have performed a CLEAN install of WinXP, Suse automatically recognized the WinXP partition and automatically mounted it for me in both the root and the regular user accounts. Sorry to have bothered everyone, but for now, both WinXP and Suse are up and running!

See you in the future and thanks again!