NEW to Linux and DSl got it working via CD but...

Forum: Other Help Topics
Topic: NEW to Linux and DSl got it working via CD but...
started by: RAD Dad

Posted by RAD Dad on Feb. 10 2005,23:25

OK I'm new to both DSL and Linux itself. I have set up a CD to boot into DSL (I'm using DSL as I type this) now what? How do you access the hard drive, save files to the hard drive, move files around on the hard drive (or hard drives in my case). Also, it's neat to have DSL on a disk you can take with you, but is it capable of auto detecting a CD-RW and saving files to a CD-RW.

Mostly though I want to be able to access my hard drive. Windows XP doesn't seem to have DOS option anymore and I need to get in an manipulate and move some files around that are still there but can't be seen by Window Explorer anymore because they are stuck inside a folder that Win XP sees as corrupted. Had something like this happened on previous window releases I could have just gone to dos, moved things into new folders and bada bing, things are fixed.

Posted by DonttPanic on Feb. 11 2005,02:29

There is a mounting app on the bottom right corner of the screen. You can scroll through the different drives (ie: floppy, cdrom, hda1). hda1 is usually the primary partition. You would click the key next to the arrows, and when it turns green, you have mounted the drive. Then you go into EmelFM and go into /mnt . There, the partition or device you want to access should be listed.

There are issues with accessing NTFS partitions from Linux. NTFS is usually the partition that WinXP uses, so you may find a problem.

I have my own shortcut around that problem. I use the embedded version of DSL, which can run on top of windows. Then, I install samba.dsl , which allows me to access networked hard drives. I also set the folder I want to access as a shared folder with both read and write access (in windows). Then, I am able to access/change files on the NTFS drive.

Another thing to try is go to the "run" command line and type "cmd" This should bring up a prompt similar to a dos prompt that may allow you to manipulate your files.