Apologies for not knowing the answer to this easy question.

I have recently installed VMWAre so that I can use both Windows and Fedora2 on my laptop. However, I can't figure out how to move files from Windows to VMWare so that I can use them in Linux. To put the question another way, how can I make VMWare "see" the files on the hard drive?

Thanks!

Hey

You need to mount your windows partition to be able to access the files from within VMWare/Linux. If you have a Fat32 partition you need to run something like

mount -t vfat /dev/hda1 /mnt/windows

The /dev/hda1 will depend on where abouts your Windows partition resides on your harddisk...

eg... hda1 = primary master partition 1
hda2 = primary master partition 2
hdb1 = primary slave partition 1
hdc1 = secondary master partition 1
etc
etc

you will need to make the /mnt/windows dir first.

From within linux you should then be able to browse your windows files in that dir. Then in VMWare you need to map a drive to that folder so that the windows within VMWare is able to see that folder.

Sorry at work so dont have VMWare here and cant remember the steps off the top of my head.

Which version of Windows are you running? And do you know if its NTFS or Fat32?
I havent been up on the play with NTFS development under linux someone else might know what sort of stage thats at now.

Wolfsta

Thanks for the reply; I really appreciate it.

I'm running Windows XP. It looks like it's got NTFS. I'm going to get a friend of mine to see if we can get your advice working tomorrow, as I'm in a little over my head here.

Sorry..but mounting the partitions is not a solution in case of VMWARE...The only way you can moves files between Windows and Linux OS while using VMWARE is by using SAMBA.

So you will have to configure samba.But before proceeding..we must know which is your host OS..(Windows or Linux).Then depending on that you will have to configure windows and liunx so that they recognise each other..then you will have to establish a network between them..(Heck..you won't need a network card for this..Vmware comes with a utility that creates a virtual ethernet card on your system.)

Okay, so if Windows is my host OS, how can I make them recognize each other?

Thanks!

The whole procedure is rather too long to describe here..

But thing you should do is download the Vmware manual( if you don't have one)
And read it..
you can download the manual from here
and read the sections where it is specified how to establish a network connection between host and the guest operating system.
May be you will have to re-install Vmware..but loose heart..
And there try to ping the windows OS and vice-versa.
Once Linux and WIndows Os can see each other..the next step would be to configure Samba.
For that again..i am not going to give you some readymade solution simply read the samba guide posted on this forum.YOu can access the samba guide here

Good point

Yeah i realise that but you can still create folders on the host and map them as drives in the vmware machine which ever way around it is (windows as host or linux as host)... and could use that folder for copying... But yes u are right a network between both is much nicer