Is it possible access to my windows files from knoppix

[Paul Weinstock]

Hi, I am new user wondering if would it be possible access to all my stuff I have in windows after Knoppix installation on my pc?

[Harry Kuhman]

Hi, I am new user wondering if would it be possible access to all my stuff I have in windows after Knoppix installation on my pc?

First of all, I would strongly advise against "installing" Knoppix on a PC. While some seasoned experts have done this and can sort-of make it work, anyone who would ask the question that you just did is likely to have a lot of problems with "installing" Knoppix. And I know of no good reason for the average user to do it. See answer #2 for more details.

Next, you should be able to read your Windows files if you boot Knoppix from CD or DVD. If the partitions are formatted as FAT you can also safely write to them (but you'll have to deliberately give yourself read-write access, Knoppix deliberately defaults Windows partiton mounting to read-only for safety). If the partitions are NTFS you can still safely read them but should not write to them. If you don't know what type they are, assume that they are NTFS if you are running XP or that newer version that starts with V, they will be FAT (of some type, likely FAT32) if running Win98 or older).

If you do decide to install some Linux system, be it Debian, some other suitable for hard disk distro, or even Knoppix, then the ability to access the Windows files depends on how you install it. If you have available disk space that is not already in a partition (which is frankly unlikely) or if you add another disk for Linux, then sure, you will be able to read your Windows partitions (assuming that they are in a valid condition to be accesses. Some people switch to Linux after Windows has destroyed their data many times, and Windows is quite capable of destroying disk data so badly that neither it nor Linux can read it. Still, there are times when Linux can access file that Windows can't.) If you overwrite the existing Windows partitions on a hard disk with Linux partitions to do the install, then no, you will not still have the Windows data to access.

[hal8000]

Just to agree with Harry, Knoppix is designed as a live distro, it can be installed permanently, but definitely NOT recommended for a beginner.

You need to start with a distro thats easy to use and plenty of community support. I'd recommended:-
Ubuntu

PCLinuxOS

Mandriva

Suse


You can search on google for these distros and their forums and download pages.