How to Mount a Windows Share Folder on Linux

Linux and Windows systems have major differences, with different file systems and protocols in use. Sharing files between them can be difficult, especially because they use two different sharing protocols.

That doesn’t mean it’s impossible to mount a Windows share folder on Linux, however. Follow along below to find out how.

Share Your Windows Folder

Before you do anything, you need to ensure that Windows has been correctly set up to allow for networking file sharing.

To enable this on Windows 10, right-click on the network icon in the notifications area of your Windows taskbar. From here, click “Open Network & Internet Settings.”

Under the “Status” category, click “Sharing options.”

In your Windows sharing options menu, make sure that “Turn on network discovery” and “Turn on file and printer sharing” are enabled.

Click the radio buttons next to both options to make sure this is the case.

Click “Save changes” to save your settings. Once this is done, open Windows File Explorer and locate the folder you’re looking to share with your Linux PC.

Right-click the folder and click “Properties.”

In your folder properties, click the “Sharing” tab, then click “Advanced Sharing.” Click to enable the “Share this folder” checkbox, then click “Permissions.”

Under the “Permissions” section, set the control rights for your folder. By default, Windows will grant read-only access to your files.

If you want to allow everyone to read or write to the folder, click “Allow” for the “Full Control” permissions set. Set these permissions to suit your own requirements.

Once you’re done, click “OK” three times to close each of the dialog boxes.

Your folder should now be shared on your network, ready for you to access from your Linux PC.

Install CIFS-utils

Depending on your Linux distribution, you may be able to mount your Windows-shared folder automatically in your distribution’s file explorer.

However, this may not work correctly. The safest way to mount Windows-shared folders on Linux is to use the CIFS-utils package and mount the folder using the Linux terminal.

This allows Linux machines to access SMB file shares used by Windows PCs.

To install CIFS-utils, open a new terminal window. For Ubuntu and Debian-based distributions, type:

For Arch users, type:

Once installed, you can then mount your Windows share folder from the Linux terminal.

Mount Windows SMB Share on Linux

You’ll need to create a mount directory before you can mount your Windows SMB-shared folder on Linux. This is where Linux will mirror the contents of your shared folder.

To do that, open a terminal window and type:

Once created, type the following:

Replace “Windows” with the IP address or hostname for your Windows PC and “SharedFolder” with your shared folder name. For the username, replace “account” with your Windows username or full Microsoft account email.

You’ll be asked to provide your Windows password before the mounting process is complete. Type this in, then click Enter. If you used the correct information, your Windows folder should now be mounted and accessible in the folder you created.

Sharing Files Between Linux and Windows

Mounting Windows and Linux shared folders gives you the freedom to access your most important files, no matter the operating system. The SMB protocol is well supported on Linux, so you shouldn’t find it difficult to continue accessing your Windows files and folders once you’ve installed the CIFS-utils package.

If you’d rather use a single system, here are five of the best Linux distros for Windows users you could use.

Ben is a UK based tech writer with a passion for gadgets, gaming, and general geekiness.

Mount a Linux folder in Windows

To mount a Windows folder in Linux, I can just mount // / cifs -o user=

How can I do the reverse — Get a Linux folder on my Windows dekstop, accessable and editable in realtime?

I would prefer the mounted entity be a folder, say, on my Win desktop; however, it’s no biggie if it has to be a drive.

Additionally, I would prefer this is done with no extra programs. If it has to use software, OK.

Finally, speed is very important here. The reason I’m doing this is because OneDrive was too slow and I had to switch.

Using Windows 10 and Ubuntu on LAN.

1 Answer 1

if you want to stay on a network connection, you have to use the smb protocol for the connection. in this case you have to set up a samba server on your Ubuntu computer. then you can use it on Windows without installing something there.

if speed is that necessary that you want to insert the drive and use a sata connection, then try ext2fsd, a tool which mounts any ext Filesystem on Windows

if you are using btrfs, you don’t have a chance to read it directly on your Windows machine, in that case you must have got a running Linux with a file server. if you are using zfs then it’s the same thing like with btrfs

EDIT what you’ve heard, that samba is bad is in some cases very right. if you want to protect your data and want to keep them secret, samba is as bad as posting the data somewhere in the Internet. but because of the low encryption and security overhead it’s also kind of the fastest protocol

Mount in linux a shared folder from windows

I created a shared folder on winwdows (on C:\sharedfolder ) and i need to mount (in linux) the shared folder on the /mnt/folder .

The windows folder has enabled unmapped user access and read only option.

Here are the steps i made:

command: sudo mount.cifs C:/sharedfolder /mnt/folder , but i receive the error: bad UNC (C:/sharedfolder)

1 Answer 1

From man mount.cifs :

There are many more -o options too.

Basically, the C:/ in your command does not mean anything to the Linux machine. You need to change server to the network name of the server which has the share on it. You can also use the IP of the Windows PC instead of server .

You could also install and use Samba which is designed for accessing Windows Shares from many different operating systems.

Not the answer you’re looking for? Browse other questions tagged mount nfs or ask your own question.

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Mount a Windows shared folder in Linux

You made the switch to Linux and at least one Windows computer is still on your network. The old days when Windows and Linux didn’t play together are long gone. You can easily set up your Linux computer to have read and write access to the files housed on a nearby Windows computer. If you’ve used Macs in the past, the process is practically identical .

How to mount a Windows shared folder on your Mac

So you’ve made the switch to Mac, but kept your old PC, and now you’ve got both connected to your…

Set up sharing on your PC

In Windows, choose the folder you want to share, right click on it and choose properties. In the Sharing tab, turn on sharing. Feel free to name your folder anything you want and ignore any warnings Windows gives about the name being longer than 12 characters.

Determine your PC’s IP Address

You will need to give your Linux computer a location when trying to access shared folders. This location is your PC’s IP address. In the Command Prompt type ipconfig and you will see your IP address (it probably starts with 192). My IP address is shown below as 192.168.1.117

Accessing the shared folder from Linux

There are two very easy ways to access shared folders in Linux. The easiest way (in Gnome) is to press (ALT+F2) to bring up the run dialog and type smb:// followed by the IP address and the folder name. As shown below, I need to type smb://192.168.1.117/Shared. If you have your Windows account passworded, you will need to enter the password to access the shared folder.

Accessing all shared folders from Linux

Linux automatically detects and connects to Windows networks. In Gnome, by going to Places and then Network you will automatically see all the Windows networks. You can then navigate through the Windows networks and connect to the shared folder. This is an easy way to manage your shared folders if you have many Windows networks with shared folders.

Making it easier

By bookmarking your shared folder you can access it from the Gnome menu.

That’s all there is to it! How do you get Windows and Linux to talk to each other? Share in the comments.

How to Mount a Linux directory from a different PC to your local Linux PC?

Is there a way to mount a Linux directory from a different PC to your local Linux PC? How?

5 Answers 5

Yes, it’s called NFS. You might also want to check out sshfs which is pretty nice.

sshfs is very nice, and easy to use

You need to be a bit more specific. You can use NFS.

Depending on what distro you’re using, you simply edit the /etc/exports file on the remote machine to export the directories you want, then start your NFS daemon.

Then on the local PC, you mount it using the following command:

Use the man utility for more information:

man exports (Examples of configuring directories for export are on the bottom of this manual page.)

NFS is handy since it’s built-in and easy to configure, but the 2 common implementations (NFSv2 and NFSv3) don’t translate usernames between the systems; user IDs are used instead. This requires you to use a central auth system such as LDAP so tha tcommon user IDs can be maintained.

sshfs requires you to connect as a single user and so accesses are always done (and consequently, can only be done) as that user.

cifs in a *nix-to-*nix connection (via Samba) both translates usernames and follows standard *nix permissions. As well, it is more flexible in that it allows you to perform ownership/permission transformation on creation of a new file or directory. It is, however, much more complex to configure.