Accessing NTFS partitions under ArcaOS

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It is possible to access Windows NTFS volumes from ArcaOS using NetDrive. Here’s how:

Prerequisites:

Note: If the local NTFS partition(s) you want to access reside in GPT-style partitioned drive(s) (as opposed to the traditional MBR-style drive partition scheme) your system must be booted from ArcaOS 5.1 or newer.

To mount one or more NTFS partitions:

  1. Install the full version of NetDrive for OS/2 (on ArcaOS, this will upgrade and replace the ‘mini’ version of NetDrive bundled with the system which is licensed for Samba support only).
  2. Install the NTFS plugin. Note the installation procedure and limitations described in the readme. Be aware that Arca Noae does not provide support for this plugin.
  3. From the NetDrive control panel, or with the appropriate commands, create as many virtual volumes and/or mount points as NTFS partitions you desire to access:
  4. Attach each NTFS partition to one of the new mount points as an ‘NTFS resource’ using the NTFS plugin from within NetDrive. Each NTFS partition must be specified using a Unix-style “/dev/hd<drive index><partition no.>” ID string. <drive index> is a letter from a to z, and <partition no.> is a whole number, counting from 1, but both parameters are determined differently depending on the partition scheme (MBR or GPT) used for the drive on which NTFS partition resides.For MBR drives: use LVM and switch to ‘Physical view’ to determine where your NTFS partition resides. If it is, for example, the third partition of the second disk, this will be identified as /dev/hdb3. This should be enough to get you going.For GPT drives (ArcaOS 5.1 or newer only), the procedure is currently more involved. Because GPT partitions under ArcaOS must be accessed using the GPT filter driver, which presents each of these partitions as a single virtual MBR drive, it is necessary to determine the correct volume and mount it using the following procedure:
    1. Using MiniLVM, attach each target NTFS partition as a new volume using any free drive letter(s). Note that MiniLVM displays the first and last few characters of the GPT partition GUID string when selected — you may need to remember this information when mounting more than one partition.
    2. Edit X:\OS2\BOOT\GPT.CFG (where X: is the ArcaOS system volume), and locate each of your target partitions using its GUID if necessary. Delete the drive letter beyond the equal sign.
    3. Reboot the system so these NTFS partitions are attached as volumes with no drive letters assigned. (NTFS access is not implemented as a native IFS, so there is no need to use up drive letters which can’t be used. Instead, you will be using drive letters assigned to NetDrive volumes for these partitions.)
    4. To mount each attached GPT partition as an NTFS resource from NetDrive, it should be identified as /dev/hd<letter>1, where <letter> is “a” for the first drive and so on. The drive number should be generally determined as the number of local MBR drives (0 on a pure GPT system) plus the attached GPT partition number. In turn, this is calculated counting all of the partitions of each GPT drive that are attached as volumes in GPT.CFG until the current partition is counted. These partitions are considered in layout order, starting with 1 (first attached GPT partition of the first GPT drive).

This entry last updated: by Lewis Rosenthal