If you do the dual boot on your computer, e.g., Windows and the Linux, then, on Linux you won’t be able to access the Hard Disk Partitions that you created in windows OS. But here’s a solution for it. To use the Windows Hard Disk Partitions when you’re using your Linux Operating System, you can mount the Windows Hard Disk Partitions over the Linux.
Windows OS Hard Disk Partitions can be grouped in NTFS (New Technology File System) and FAT (File Allocation Table) file systems. You can have access to both the NTFS and FAT Partitions in Ubuntu or Linux operating system, without any complications.
Just, visit Applications then go to Accessories and click on the Terminal screen option there, and launch it.
Now if you want Windows Partition(s) to be mounted, then make a blank directory at some place, e.g. if you wish Windows C: drive to be mounted in the Linux OS, then just create a separate directory with the name c in the folder named mnt.
You will get the out put as following,
Boot Device Start End Block Id System /dev/hd1 * 5 3515 956465476+ 212 Linux swap /dev/hd2 3546 4576 346458 321 Linux /dev/hd3 3565 7854 56465687 534 NTFS
by entering the Command,
# sudo mkdir -p /mnt/d
Then apply the below command to get the partitions names to be mounted.
# sudo fdisk -l
So the output clearly states – /dev/hd3 is the NTFS (New Technology File System) Hard Disk Partition of Windows.
If you want to mount the FAT partitions made on the Windows Operating System, then do a little change in the system type as following,
# sudo mount -t vfat -o iocharset=utf8,umask=000 /dev/hda1 /mnt/d
But, to mount NTFS drive partition into a directory, use the following,
# sudo mount -t ntfs -o nls=utf8,umask=0222 /dev/hdb1 /mnt/d
And, to un-mount anyone or all those Windows Hard Disk partitions, use the following,
# sudo umount /mnt/d
Enjoy!