access windows hard drive force del of dir

**cedtech23** · 02-14-2007, 04:34 PM

I am trying to delete a directory located on a windows hard drive. I booted into Knoppix via a CD and tried using the GUI but I receive the error unable to delete directory. I know that I can properly do this via the root account in a console window. Here is my problem, how do I access the Hard Disk (hda1) via the console window, which would enable me to see the files on the hard drive and how do I force a removal of that directory??

**cedtech23** · 02-14-2007, 05:11 PM

the FileSystem is NTFS; I am using Knoppix 5.0 and It appears on the Desktop as Hard Disk (hda1). Then when I double click on it Konqueror appears with the files on that hard disk.

Ok I know realized that it was mounted and under /media/hda1. But when I go to use rmdir to delete the directory I get Read-only file system. How Can I force a removal on that directory?

Second for future reference how can I mount a ntfs or fat hard drive?

**cedtech23** · 02-14-2007, 08:15 PM

I discovered that if I right-click on the disk and select change to read/write mode I am able to delete files and folders on the NTFS Disk. But I am still unable to delete the Entire directory completely I get

Could not remove folder /media/hda1/Documents and Settings/userprofile/
Start Menu/Programs/Accessories/Accessibility.

I am trying rm -rf <folder_name>

I know that Linux has a was to force the deletion of a directory if even if it contains files. Any ideas?

**Harry Kuhman** · 02-14-2007, 08:40 PM

Originally Posted by cedtech23

.... Any ideas?

Have a very good backup of that entire partition and put absolutely no trust in anything you choose to store there in the future. I would delete the entire partition and reinstall everything from the backup. Now that you have writen to an NTFS partition with Linux I would not trust it.

I couldn't tell from your posts, what made you decide to delete the directory on the ntfs partition with Linux in the first place?

**cedtech23** · 02-19-2007, 04:17 PM

The reason that I started to use knoppix to delete a directory in windows was that I had a user profile
that I could not delete using all the tools in windows. Thus I tried using knoppix. why is writing to a windows
partition with Linux, no good?