Accessing the Windows Partition from Fedora Linux

When running Fedora Linux it is possible to access files located on the Windows partition. To achieve this it is necessary to mount the Windows partition. The first step is to create a directory to use as the mount point. In this example we will create a directory called /windows from the terminal window:

su - mkdir /windows

Next, we need to run the mount command (still as super user and assuming the Windows partition is /dev/sda1 and NTFS format - this may be different on your system):

mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sda1 /windows

Under some circumstances you may get a message that the Windows partition needs to be checked. If so, either reboot into Windows again, or force the mount:

mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sda1 /windows -o force

To automate the mount each time the system is booted, simply add the mount line to the /etc/fstab file:

/dev/sda1 /windows ntfs-3g defaults,force 0 0

To unmount the Windows filesystem at any time:

umount /windows