# Why cant I see my Windows files in Ubuntu and vice versa?



## Clement Saggers (Apr 5, 2008)

I have Windows XP and Ubuntu installed on the same hard drive on my computer. they both boot up fine, but I can't see my windows files in Ubuntu or see my Ubuntu files in Windows, I was just wondering why that is, and if there's a way to do this, as I need to transfer some files between the two OS's


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## blah789 (Aug 25, 2008)

That's because they use different file systems (usually ext3 for Linux these days; NTFS, FAT32 or FAT for Windows). Also, Linux and Windows mount drives differently: Windows uses drive letters, Linux uses mount points.
You can find an ext3 driver for Windows here:
http://uranus.it.swin.edu.au/~jn/linux/ext2ifs.htm
(not sure if it has write capabilities - should at least be able to read)

I wrote a tidbit about how Linux mounts file systems here:
http://www.techsupportforum.com/f10/symantec-ghost-316186.html#post1827004
There is a file you can modify so that a file system gets mounted at every boot, but I can't recall what it's named. I think it's /etc/fstab or something like that.


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## blah789 (Aug 25, 2008)

I found another page on managing ntfs on Ubuntu
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=930203


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## K-B (Oct 24, 2005)

What version of Ubuntu do you have? In the latest versions you can access your NTFS (most likely that's what XP is on) partitions. If you want to view the Ubuntu (probably ext3 file system) partitions in XP, there's free programs available for that.


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## shuuhen (Sep 4, 2004)

blah789 said:


> Also, Linux and Windows mount drives differently: Windows uses drive letters, Linux uses mount points


 That part doesn't cause any conflict with reading partitions. The main issue is that Windows does not have support for non-Microsoft file systems without third party products.

Linux has read support for NTFS if it's turned on in the kernel configuration (I'd expect it to be on most binary distributions like Ubuntu). There are some projects that claim to have write support, but I've never tested any. Most operating systems (Linux included) have good support for FAT file systems, so I generally recommend using that if you need a partition both operating systems can write to.

As blah789 said, there is a config file that can be modified to control how an when a partition is mounted. It is /etc/fstab, but if I remember right, Ubuntu distributions have some quirks related to this file.

If you need help getting your Windows partition to mount, post the contents of that file and this command:

*fdisk -l*


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