How can I use other FAT partition?

[rrfish72]

I have a snall FAT partition that I would like to be able to write to. I cannot even see it anywhere in Linux. How do I go about setting it up to read-write?
I can only see it Windows.

[firebyrd10]

What hardrive icons do you have on your desktop, if you have two it should be

hda1 and hda2.
Hda2 is probably the FAT try clicking it.

[rrfish72]

hda1 (XP), hda3(Linux), hda5 is something with system volume information and another file but I dont know what it is.

[Markus]

Could you post your /etc/fstab and the output of sudo fdisk -l

[rrfish72]

Marcus, here are the results of sudo fdisk -l and my fstab.

Disk /dev/hda: 240 heads, 63 sectors, 10587 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 15120 * 512 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 597 10586 75524400 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda2 10587 10587 7560 f Win95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hda3 1 596 4505728+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda5 10587 10587 7528+ 1 FAT12



# /etc/fstab: filesystem table.
#
# filesystem mountpoint type options dump pass
/dev/hda3 / ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1

proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/fd0 /floppy vfat defaults,user,noauto,showexec,umask=022 0 0
usbdevfs /proc/bus/usb usbdevfs defaults 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs defaults 0 0
#default line below - changed /dve/cdrom to /dev/sr0 and user to users
/dev/sr0 /cdrom iso9660 defaults,ro,users,noexec,noauto 0 0
#took out the 'mount' in the beginning of the next line and changed sr0 to hdb
#/dev/hdb /cdrom iso9660 defaults,ro,users,noexec,noauto 0 0
#This is what I added - mount /dev/sr0/cdrom iso9660 ro,user,noauto 0 0
# default line for the line below - /dev/cdrom1 /cdrom1 iso9660 defaults,ro,user,noexec,noauto 0 0
#This is what I added -
/dev/sr1 /cdrom1 iso9660 defaults,ro,users,noexec,noauto 0 0
#Changed in the line below dvd to sr2 and user to users
/dev/sr2 /dvd iso9660 defaults,ro,users,noexec,noauto 0 0
/dev/cdaudio /cdaudio iso9660 defaults,ro,user,noexec,noauto 0 0
/dev/cdrom1 /mnt/auto/cdrom1 auto users,noauto,exec,ro 0 0
# Added by KNOPPIX and I took ouut the ro after exec, .
/dev/hda1 /mnt/hda1 ntfs noauto,users,exec,umask=000 0 0
# Added by KNOPPIX
/dev/hda5 /mnt/hda5 vfat noauto,users,exec,umask=000 0 0

Also my dvd drive acts as a cd rom drive, I think it has something to do with sr1 and sr2.
Can you see any problem?
I don't see hda2 anywhere in linux when I boot. Is that the the partition I'm looking for? If it is, How do I write to it?

[champagnemojo]

It looks like hda5 is the partition you're wanting. The reason it's not showing up on bootup is because it's got "noauto" set in your fstab. If you take that out it will mount it automatically at bootup.

[Markus]

You seem to be using FAT12 on it. Try one of these:
/dev/hda5 /mnt/hda5 msdos noauto,users,exec,umask=000 0 0
/dev/hda5 /mnt/hda5 auto noauto,users,exec,umask=000 0 0
And if you want automounting do also what champagnemojo said.
Something fishy about the start and end sectors, are you sure there's any space on hda5?

[rrfish72]

Don't know, how do I find that out through Linux?

[Markus]

My bad. I got it mixed up due to the strange order on the devices. Well, might not be strange, it's just different from what I have.

This looked easier to me:
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda3 1 596 4505728+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda1 * 597 10586 75524400 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda2 10587 10587 7560 f Win95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hda5 10587 10587 7528+ 1 FAT12

Did the lines work? That is, did you try them in your fstab?
You could also try mounting with: mount -t msdos /dev/hda5 /mnt/hda5

[rrfish72]

This is what i get from that:

mount: /dev/hda5 already mounted or /mnt/hda5 busy
mount: according to mtab, /dev/hda5 is already mounted on /mnt/hda5

So it is already mounted.

This is what in that partition: System Volume Information, configs.tbz, knoppix.img and knoppix.sh. What are these files? They all belong to Linux? So all this while I had the partition available to me but didn't know it. Is it possible to read Linux files from Windows?

[baldyeti]

Is it possible to read Linux files from Windows?
Yes, using explore2fs (http://uranus.it.swin.edu.au/~jn/linux/explore2fs.htm)

[rrfish72]

I downloaded, now how do I install.

[Markus]

This is what i get from that:

mount: /dev/hda5 already mounted or /mnt/hda5 busy
mount: according to mtab, /dev/hda5 is already mounted on /mnt/hda5

So it is already mounted.
If you changed noauto to auto it's supposed to be mounted, check with the command mount. If it's not read-write try with:
mount -t msdos -o remount,rw /dev/hda5 /mnt/hda5


This is what in that partition: System Volume Information, configs.tbz, knoppix.img and knoppix.sh. What are these files? They all belong to Linux? So all this while I had the partition available to me but didn't know it. Is it possible to read Linux files from Windows?
Not sure but looks like something from a persistent home or saved configs.
BTW: hda2 is just the extended partition which includes hda5.