How to Mount Windows Partitions in Ubuntu

If you are running a dual-boot of Ubuntu and Windows, sometimes you might fail to access a Windows partition (formatted with NTFS or FAT32 filesystem type), while using Ubuntu, after hibernating Windows (or when it’s not fully shutdown).

This is because, Linux cannot mount and open hibernated Windows partitions (the full discussion of this is beyond the ambit of this article).

In this article, we will simply show how to mount Windows partition in Ubuntu. We will explain a few useful methods of solving the above issue.

Mount Windows Using the File Manager

The first and safest way is to boot into Windows and fully shutdown the system. Once you have done that, power on the machine and select Ubuntu kernel from the grub menu to boot into Ubuntu.

After a successful logon, open your file manager, and from the left pane, find the partition you wish to mount (under Devices) and click on it. It should be automatically mounted and its contents will show up in the main pane.

Mounted Windows Partition

Mount Windows Partition in Read Only Mode From Terminal

The second method is to manually mount the filesystem in read only mode. Usually, all mounted filesystems are located under the directory /media/$USERNAME/.

Ensure that you have a mount point in that directory for the Windows partition (in this example, $USERNAME=aaronkilik and the Windows partition is mounted to a directory called WIN_PART, a name which corresponds to the device label):

List Mounted Partitions

In case the mount point is missing, create it using the mkdir command as shown (if you get “permission denied” errors, use sudo command to gain root privileges):

To find the device name, list all block devices attached to the system using the lsblk utility.

List Block Devices

Then mount the partition ( /dev/sdb1 in this case) in read-only mode to the above directory as shown.

Now to get mount details (mount point, options etc..) of the device, run the mount command without any options and pipe its output to grep command.

List Windows Partition

After successfully mounting the device, you can access files on your Windows partition using any applications in Ubuntu. But, remember that, because the device is mounted as read-only, you will not be able to write to the partition or modify any files.

Also note that if Windows is in a hibernated state, if you write to or modify files in the Windows partition from Ubuntu, all your changes will be lost after a reboot.

For more information, refer to the Ubuntu community help wiki: Mounting Windows Partitions.

That’s all! In this article, we have shown how to mount Windows partition in Ubuntu. Use the feedback form below to reach us for any questions if you face any unique challenges or for any comments.

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How to create a shared partition between Ubuntu and Windows

I had read this how-to manual, however, I’m not sure how to proceed with my partitions. Here is a list of my partitions:

I am using Ubuntu 14.04 and Windows 7.

5 Answers 5

That huge unallocated space you have is perfect for enlarging your existing extended partition. Since Ubuntu can interact with NTFS (Windows) partitions, but Windows cannot interact with EXT4 (Linux) partitions, your best option is to create an NTFS partition in that free space.

First click /dev/sda4 and drag it to the right, then create another partition inside the free space.

Windows allows you to change the location of certain user folders, such as Downloads, Documents, Music, etc. You can do that from each folder’s Properties. It would help with integration to change their locations to somewhere on the data partition.

You can then follow this answer to setup up shortcuts from Ubuntu to the corresponding directories on the data partition.

You should be able to access the windows drive from ubuntu (unless windows is only hibernated, then it’s locked) therefore the easiest way is simply to store your personal data on the windows partition.. Downloads folder is configured in Web browser, documents in any office app you use. so it shouldn’t require setting anything in the system

The easiest way it to just use a file system that both OSes can read natively. NTFS and fat32 are the two primary choices. The partition then should be available for mounting in both OSes.

As has been said, Ubuntu is able to read your windows (NTFS format) partition just fine, except if it has been locked by windows (windows does that when it hibernates).

As of now, your best alternative is to have another NTFS partition for storing files you intend to use on both OSes. That «unallocated» space in your hard drive is perfect size for that. Click that, then «Add» and GPARTED will guide you through the process. IF you run into a problem (most likely you won’t) regarding number of partitions: click on your /dev/sda4 partition, and resize it to the the maximum amount of space. The «unallocated» space will now be inside of that «extended» partition, and you’ll be able to create a NTFS partition in there (following the previous steps).

I must point out that your Ubuntu installation is very small, and will run out of space quite easily. Considering you have plenty of free space, you should extend you ubuntu partitions a bit (or a lot). This should be done before you use up your unallocated space.

Your sda5 is where software will be installed, and sda6 is where your personal files are stored (eg. your Download folder — mine tends to get huge in little time). Resizing these partitions is easy and well documented here in askubuntu.

Partitioning Windows and Ubuntu

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Disclaimer: I’ve decided to take this tutorial off the main navigation menu of my website. Its general guidelines and principles are still valid, but at this point in computing history, I think the idea of a traditional dual-boot with separate partitions for each OS and then a possible shared partition is a bit antiquated.

For Windows users still tied to Windows, I would recommend using Ubuntu in VirtualBox or setting up a dual-boot with Wubi (no partitioning necessary).

For sharing files, DropBox is a pretty good option, and it’s cross-platform. If you have concerns about privacy, you can use TrueCrypt to make a shared encrypted container for your shared files.

There are definitely situations in which a shared partition would make sense, but I don’t think now that should be the norm, and I wouldn’t recommend it for most regular setups (migrating from Windows, having a working internet connection).

One of the most frequently asked questions about installing Ubuntu is «How should I partition my drive?»

There are dual-boot guides out there. I have one that features the Desktop CD installer, and then there’s Herman’s Dual Boot Guide, which features the Alternate CD installer.

The focus of this tutorial is not on how to create the partitions (resizing, etc.) but on planning—what the desirable outcome is.

I’m not going to give you a crash course of what a partition is or what the difference is between a logical or primary partition (I don’t even know that myself), but I am going to give you a rundown on the advantages that certain partitioning schemes have over others. The one thing that you do have to understand is that creating a new partition is almost like creating a new hard drive. Sure, it lives on the same hard drive, but it is self-contained. If you erase the data on one partition, it does not affect the other partition’s data.

It’s almost like having a huge loft apartment. You then decide to build a huge wall in the middle of it. Suddenly, it’s not a huge loft apartment—it’s now an apartment with two rooms.

So, as the picture above shows, you probably will start out with one large Windows partition that takes up the whole drive. Keep in mind that the partition is just the space. Just because you have a large Windows partition doesn’t mean you also have a large Windows installation. You could have a 160 GB hard drive, but your installation, for example, could be only 16 GB (one tenth of the total space available). That installation’s partition is still taking up 160 GB of space even though most of the space it’s taking up (about 144 GB) is empty space.

This is a pretty typical dual-boot scenario. And I believe it’s also the one that will be created if you choose to have Ubuntu’s installer automatically resize your Windows partition and create a Ubuntu partition out of the free space. I’m not sure if the proportions are right. Ubuntu’s installer probably makes it a little more 50/50, but I’d need someone to confirm that, as I’ve always done my partitioning manually instead of automatically.

This one’s pretty straightforward—one Windows partition, one Ubuntu partition. Just so I can get it out of the way, «swap» is a little partition (usually 1.5 or 2 times the size of your computer’s RAM) that helps with memory management and multi-tasking. You’ll see a swap partition at the end of each of these little diagrams. You can read more about swap partitions here.

Pictured above is a more common scenario—a Ubuntu partition, a Windows partition, and a FAT32 partition in the middle to share data between the two operating systems. This is frequently recommended on the Ubuntu Forums as a good way to partition a drive, since both Windows and Ubuntu can natively read from and write to FAT32.

Ubuntu now has a pretty reliable mechanism for reading from and writing to NTFS, but some people like to play it extra safe and have a separate FAT32 partition for both Windows and Ubuntu to work from.

This is a slight modification of the above scheme that puts in a tiny /home partition.

/home partitions are wonderful things. It would be the equivalent of Windows of having a partition that was the C:\Documents and Settings folder. That would include My Documents, My Pictures, My Music, and all your hidden settings, too. Likewise, a /home partition in Ubuntu has all your settings. Ordinarily, it would have your files, too, but in the scenario pictured above, your files would live in the FAT32 partition.

The benefit of having a separate /home partition? Well, it means you can reinstall Ubuntu as many times as you’d like and do a clean install (instead of an upgrade) when a new version of Ubuntu comes along. When you first start using Ubuntu, you usually have no idea what you’re doing, and you end up breaking something. Now, if you’re a veteran, you know how to fix whatever you’ve broken. If you have a lot of time, you could probably ask around and find out how to fix it. Sometimes, though, it just seems easier to reinstall (the installation takes anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour), and not having to re-do all your settings is a good thing.

And new Ubuntu releases come out every six months. Often part of the appeal of the new release is the improvement to the installation process, so even though people can upgrade, they often don’t—they want to see what a «default» installation is like. There can also be breakage in an upgrade, so reinstalling is the safest way to do an upgrade. To have your settings intact is a nice cushion to fall back on.

This last dual-boot scenario is my favorite now that I know about FS-Drive, which is a small program that allows Windows to read from and write to Ext3 partitions. So FAT32 can go out the window—one less partition to worry about and none of the limitations of FAT32 (no file permissions, lots of fragmentation, and a file size limit of 4 GB).

Note that in this scheme, unlike the one above it, it’s not just the settings that live in the /home partition but the shared data as well.

If you’re over dual-booting and just want a straight Ubuntu installation, this is what it’ll look like if you choose to erase the entire hard drive.

This would be a better way to partition your drive for all Ubuntu, for the reasons explained above.

A few other things:

• If you choose to create a separate /home partition, allocate between 5 and 10 GB for the / partition—that’s about all you’ll need for the Ubuntu system and programs. The rest should be for your personal files (in /home).
• Sometimes people have two physically separate hard drives. You should treat that the same as having two pre-defined partitions. The same principles apply. You can have one hard drive be Windows, the other be Ubuntu. You can partition the first drive to be Windows and Ubuntu and then make the second drive a place to store shared data.
• You may hear people recommending a separate /boot partition or /usr partition. You can make a separate partition for just about any folder in the Ubuntu filesystem. The only down side is running out of space. If you have a 200 GB hard drive, make as many partitions as you can.
• If you want to resize a partition or add more space to an existing partition, keep in mind that you can add only to the end of a partition, not to the beginning of it.
• The same ideas here apply to Windows 2000 or to other Linux distributions (besides Ubuntu). If you have Windows ME, 98, or 95, your filesystem will probably already be FAT32, so you wouldn’t need to create a separate FAT32 partition to share information on.
• Someone can correct me on this if I’m wrong, but I haven’t seen any difference between putting the swap partition in the middle or at the end of the drive. I put it on the end in these examples because that’s what Ubuntu’s default installation does.
• Some Windows users have a program called Partition Magic, but many Ubuntu users have reported problems with setting up a dual boot after using Partition Magic. It’s better to use one of these partitioning tools instead (and they’re all cost-free). Here are some: QTParted — available on Knoppix live CDs. GParted — available as the default partitioning program for Ubuntu’s Desktop CD. DiskDrake — available on PCLinuxOS’s live/installer CD.

If you have suggestions or corrections for these tutorials, please post in this Ubuntu Forums thread or leave a comment on my blog.