In Red Hat LInux, how can i access the windows partitions i.e. vfat?

Answer 1

All the windows/Linux partitions are listed as files in the /dev/ directory.

The naming scheme as as follows:
/dev/hd
so if you have two harddisks you will have
/dev/hda files in the /dev directory for first directory and /dev/hdb files in the /dev directory for second directory.

To refine it further it you have two hard-dsks with first hard-disk having 3 partions and second one having two partitions you will have the followibg files:
/dev/hda1
/dev/hda2
/dev/hda3
/dev/hdb1
/dev/hdb2


You cannot access these directories directly. You will have to mount them on to a directory.
It is not necessary that /dev/hda1 is the c:\ of Windows. /dev/hda1 can either be c:\ in your Windows or may be d:\ (depending how the hard-disk was formatted and where linux was installed).
There can be only one way to find that out. By mounting them. I am listing the steps for doing so (which is an old way but will work).

1. Create a temporary directory
mkdir temp_dir
2. mount one partition onto this directory
mount /dev/hda1 ./temp_dir
3. now go into this directory to see the contents
cd ./temp_dir
ls
4. If you see that the contents (by ls) are the same as in the C:\ then it is your drive.
5. you can change the contents of the folder. Add new files, delete files. Play around.
6. IMPORTANT STEP: Remember, after you are through you have to unmount the drive. Come out of the directory before unmounting it.
cd ../temp_dir
umount ./temp_dir (-->this is umount and not unmount <--)
7. Now you can mount another drive /dev/hda2 to temp_dir by going to step 2.
8. After you are through delete the temp_dir directory.

Take care of the fact that you won't be unable to unmount the directory temp_dir (in step 6) if you are in that directory or any of its sub-directories. You will have to come out of temp_dir before unmounting.

Also if there is a problem while mounting the partition (e.g. linux is unable to determine the partition type) then the partition would not be mounted at all. So if you try to unmount it, you will get an error (which i beleive is OK).

I'm repeating myself that rememeber the command to unmount is umount and not "unmount". Sometimes one (including myself) tends to forget this and spends lots of time to unmount the drive (which is very important).

P.S. : If you want to see the Linux partions from Windows then you can use linuxfs utility which is a freeware.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/linuxfsforwin

Answer 2

simply type mount in su mode and see if vfat partition is listedis listed
if not check fstab file if it has any entry for the partition
if it has just do mount on what ever /dev/hd?? it is
other wise look into fdisk fdisk /dev/hd? type p it will print the partitions of the hd
enter that value with mount point and filetype on mode etc on fstab
mount the dev as above

Answer 3

i'd truly installation Fedoracore 5 it truly is loose I and the present "pink hat" distribution. in case you position in living house windows xp first then placed the first linux disk on your stress and reboot (make confident the device boots from the cd stress) it really is going to position in itself, repartition your difficult stress and installation a boot loader (grub) onto your MBR so that you do not prefer to purchase a programme like boot magic. also in answer to trengenX, you do not choose any programming skills to apply linux although once you've them you could modify it to do as you opt for truly than what invoice Gates needs you to do, you do not pay a "living house windows tax", maximum linux application is loose and extremely some it each bit very nearly as good because the living house windows equivilent and it truly is the perfect bit you do not prefer to run anti virus application because the straightforward structure of linux makes it very difficult for virus to electrify it. Sorry for the preaching.

Answer 4

In modern setups, mount will recognize all kinds of FAT including FAT32. So just mount as usual.