Mounting a Windows XP NTFS partition in Linux

How to access a Windows XP or Vista NTFS partition from Linux. The following tutorial explains how to gain access to a Windows NTFS partition using Linux. Reading or accessing NTFS partitions in Linux is important for many reasons. Some users repair Windows Operating environments using Linux, while others use a dual boot operating environment and would like to have access to their Windows File system.

The good news is that this is not a complicated task to accomplish. As a matter of fact, for those using a Linux version derived from Debian, (I.E. Ubuntu, Knoppix, etc…) the process can be accomplished in a matter of seconds.

How to Mount a Windows NTFS file system partition in Linux:

NOTE: In step four of the following tutorial, replace hdx1 with your actual partition found in step two. For example hda1, hdb2, sda1, etc.

1. Open a terminal and type sudo su
2. Type fdisk -l (note which partition contains the NTFS file system)
3. Type mkdir /media/windows (This directory is where we will access the partition)
4. Type mount /dev/hdx1 /media/windows/ -t ntfs -o nls=utf8,umask=0222
5. Type cd /media/windows (Moves us to the windows directory)
6. Type ls to list the files on the NTFS partition

Notes: Alternately, you can navigate to the media/windows directory outside of terminal to view the files.

To unmount the Windows NTFS partiton, from the terminal simply type umount /media/windows/