Hi all, I got my external HDD through today and it's reminded me of a few problems I've been having with permissions in Linux. I have my laptop HDD set up like this: Windows Partition Data Partition (had apps, music videos etc on it) Vista Partition Linux Partition Linux Swap Partition. In Linux I only have read permission to the Data, Windows and Vista partitions. My external HDD only allows me read permissions too. I've been trying to change the permissions but it doesn't work. I've tried: Code: chmod -R -rw-rw-r sdb1 When I'm in root and in the /media/ directory in terminal but it doesn't work, I have the partitions on my laptop HDD mounted as: /media/sda2 - Windows /media/sda3 - Data /media/sda4 - Vista /media/sda5 - Linux I think. And the external HDD is: /dev/sdb1 - Partition 1 /dev/sdb2 - Partition 2 I think. But it still shows up in the /media/ directory. When I unmount the drive it still appears but gives me the -rw-rw-r permissions, as soon as I access it it goes back to just -r-------- again. Am I missing something obvious here?! I say 'I think' as I'm at Uni in my database lab session at the minute and have finished this weeks work and am sitting here bored so I thought I'd ask the gods of HWF for assistance.
What file system is the drive formatted as? Linux NTFS write support isn't complete, and may not be even included in your kernel.
Ahh that may be why then. I may reformat it with a file system both Windows and Linux can handle. Any suggestions?
Only FAT32, but its a terrible file system and fragments badly with lots of transactions. Also, it can't handle more than 4GB~ files, which may or may not be a problem to you.
You could have a "proxy partition" or external drive, either of which would run a filesystem that both OSes can access. Unfortunately, due to MS's vendor lock-in tactics, none of the good filesystems work on Windows natively. That said, you could format a volume with Ext2 or Ext3 and use the following tool: Ext2 IFS For Windows ...I don't recommend giving Windows R/W access to your Linux system partitions though, as the results could potentially be disastrous.
Yeah I hadn't planned on giving Windows R/W permissions for my Linux partition(s). I'll take a look at that Windows Ext2 stuff.
Yes, I have had this sort of trouble in Mandriva. From the research I have done, apparently you cannot change permissions on NTFS formatted drives, and I think Addis has echoed that here.
Well I've just backed up my data from the Data partition onto my External HDD - I've reformatted the partition in Linux as Ext3 and in Windows it's recognised and I'm currently putting my files back onto it. I'll then go into Linux and check things there, should be okay though. Many thanks for the help guys.
Well it's working in Windows and Linux - had to do some editing of my /etc/fstab file to get it to work (thanks to AT for helping me there) Now I have a partition that both Windows and Linux can access, awesome
