• NTFS Filesystem Support in MostlyLinux or Fedora

In this document we demonstrate how you can use your ntfs partitions from Linux

1. Install required software for ntfs filesystem support

The software required for NTFS support are fuse, fuse-lib and ntfs-3g. RPM for these are available in MostlyLinux DVD. You can easily install them by inserting MostlyLinux DVD and then navigate to Mostlylinux folder in the DVD and double clicking those package would install them.

If you prefer command line then insert and mount MostlyLinux DVD and run this command

# yum install -y fuse ntfs-3g

If you are using Fedora 7 or 8 or 9 either download or use your Fedora 9 DVD to install the following RPM's: fuse, fuse-lib and ntfs-3g using this command

# yum install -y fuse ntfs-3g

2. Check Your Partitions

Use fdisk to list partitions. Most ATA hard drives will be /dev/sda. Drives may also show up as /dev/sdb depending on your configuration.

$ sudo /sbin/fdisk -lu /dev/sda | grep NTFS

/dev/sda1 * 63 33559784 16779861 7 HPFS/NTFS

/dev/sda2 33559785 67119569 16779892+ 7 HPFS/NTFS

/dev/sda3 67119570 100679354 16779892+ 7 HPFS/NTFS

Usually the first will be a drive "letter": C drive, next D, etc. Hence /dev/sda1 is my C:\ drive used by Windows.

3. Create Mount Points

For every partition in step 2 that you wish to access, you will need a "mount point". A mount point is just a directory. Common directories are: /media/ and /mnt/. Use whichever you like, but be consistent.

$ cd /media/

$ sudo mkdir c_drive d_drive e_drive

You do not have to use these names, if you prefer to create folders such as 'movies', 'documents', or 'winxp', any name will work (recommended without spaces).

4. Mount Partitions

Using the NTFS-3G we can either mount the NTFS partitions read-only or read-write. For new users, read-only is recommended.

$ sudo mount /dev/sda1 /media/c_drive -t ntfs-3g -r -o umask=0222

$ sudo mount /dev/sda2 /media/d_drive -t ntfs-3g -r -o umask=0222

$ sudo mount /dev/sda3 /media/e_drive -t ntfs-3g -r -o umask=0222

Read/Write Access: The above is for read-only access. In order to mount read/write, you must use the -rw -o umask=0000. Example:

$ sudo mount /dev/sda1 /media/c_drive -t ntfs-3g -rw -o umask=0000

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: Please run man mount to understand what umask= does.

5. Update /etc/fstab

Every time system boots, the partitions must be mounted. To automatically mount, edit /etc/fstab.

$ sudo gedit /etc/fstab

Add these lines to the END of the file:

/dev/sda1 /media/c_drive ntfs-3g ro,defaults,umask=0222 0 0

/dev/sda2 /media/d_drive ntfs-3g ro,defaults,umask=0222 0 0

/dev/sda3 /media/e_drive ntfs-3g ro,defaults,umask=0222 0 0

Read/Write Access: The above is for read-only access. In order to mount read/write, you must use the rw,defaults,umask=0000.

Example:

/dev/sda1 /media/c_drive ntfs-3g rw,defaults,umask=0000 0 0