Mount

[John Johnson]

I have read a little on mount and from what I understood it is used everywhere (linux and windows) and it is usually used to read drives (USB drives....). In this case I had a question regarding my windows drive and my second windows drive. I have some things install and so on. I am just a little paranoid, don't want to lose all my data... should really back it up IK.

The question:
Will there be any errors/issues with my windows system if I mount 1 or both my windows drive in Linux to access files in them? Will Linux system not try to read/write anything there unless I do it?

Sorry for the silly question. Just want confirmation. Thank you in advanced!

[Kester]

Hi John,

Firstly your question is not silly - it is wise to be cautious particularly if you are new to something.

Although Windows does not normally see or give access to drives formatted in EXT variants, the most common format used for Linux operating systems, Linux can see and give access to the formats commonly used in Windows operating systems. So considering that, a Windows drive mounted in a Linux system could be accessed and potentially therefore, you could unintentionally remove data if you were careless. That said though, in a Windows system you could just as easily lose data if you were careless. If you exert the same kind of care in Linux as you do with your more familiar Windows system you've nothing to worry about. It is most unlikely that you will have any problems. Just viewing the data files, editing them and saving your changes if you require that will cause no problems. You could even copy files from the Windows drive to your Linux system as a backup and if you want to do this regularly there is Linux software you can run to ensure your backups are always up to date.

Certainly your Linux system will not read/write anything to your Windows data files without you determining the process so do not worry about that. You are obviously a little nervous about this so I suggest you could copy some of your Windows data files to a usb memory stick then mount the memory stick in a Linux system and play around with it. It is no different from accessing a Windows drive but with absolutely no risk so you can try out things and get more familiar with what you can do safely.

Cheers, enjoy your Linux.

[legacypowers]

I have read a little on mount and from what I understood it is used everywhere (linux and windows) and it is usually used to read drives (USB drives....). In this case I had a question regarding my windows drive and my second windows drive. I have some things install and so on. I am just a little paranoid, don't want to lose all my data... should really back it up IK.

The question:
Will there be any errors/issues with my windows system if I mount 1 or both my windows drive in Linux to access files in them? Will Linux system not try to read/write anything there unless I do it?

Sorry for the silly question. Just want confirmation. Thank you in advanced!

In a general rule, you should be fine mounting your windows partitions, or as a matter of fact any NTFS partition, as a matter of fact i have a rig specially for cloning, backing up, or extracting data from my customer disks(of course, when they request for it), and since in Linux generally speaking the security attributes of NTFS means nothing, you will have an easier time reading and writing files to NTFS partitions than doing on Windows itself.

[John Johnson]

In a general rule, you should be fine mounting your windows partitions, or as a matter of fact any NTFS partition, as a matter of fact i have a rig specially for cloning, backing up, or extracting data from my customer disks(of course, when they request for it), and since in Linux generally speaking the security attributes of NTFS means nothing, you will have an easier time reading and writing files to NTFS partitions than doing on Windows itself.

Thank you for your confirmation and insight

[John Johnson]

Hi John,

Firstly your question is not silly - it is wise to be cautious particularly if you are new to something.

Although Windows does not normally see or give access to drives formatted in EXT variants, the most common format used for Linux operating systems, Linux can see and give access to the formats commonly used in Windows operating systems. So considering that, a Windows drive mounted in a Linux system could be accessed and potentially therefore, you could unintentionally remove data if you were careless. That said though, in a Windows system you could just as easily lose data if you were careless. If you exert the same kind of care in Linux as you do with your more familiar Windows system you've nothing to worry about. It is most unlikely that you will have any problems. Just viewing the data files, editing them and saving your changes if you require that will cause no problems. You could even copy files from the Windows drive to your Linux system as a backup and if you want to do this regularly there is Linux software you can run to ensure your backups are always up to date.

Certainly your Linux system will not read/write anything to your Windows data files without you determining the process so do not worry about that. You are obviously a little nervous about this so I suggest you could copy some of your Windows data files to a usb memory stick then mount the memory stick in a Linux system and play around with it. It is no different from accessing a Windows drive but with absolutely no risk so you can try out things and get more familiar with what you can do safely.

Cheers, enjoy your Linux.

Thank you so much for the information. After your explanation, I feel a lot more safe/confident to mount and use my windows drive in Linux (which personally will make swapping easier). I will for sure be careful like you had mentioned.