How can I access Windows files from Ubuntu

Solution 1:

yes of course you can acccess windows NTFS/FAT32 partitions from Ubuntu

From help.ubuntu.com:

Using the File Manager For those using a desktop version of Ubuntu, or one of its offical derivatives, the easiest and quickest way of mounting NTFS or FAT32 partitions is from the file manager: Nautilus in Ubuntu, Thunar in Xubuntu, Dolphin in Kubuntu and PCManFM in Lubuntu. Simply look in the left pane of the file manager for the partition you wish to mount and click on it - it will be mounted and its contents will show up in the main pane. Partitions show with their labels if labelled, or their size if not.

Unless you require your Windows partition - or a NTFS/FAT32 partition for data shared with Windows - mounted every time you boot up for one of the reasons given below, mounting from the file manager in this way should suffice.

If you are using a Wubi version of Ubuntu and you wish to browse the host partition, you do not need to mount it - it is mounted already in the "host" folder. Click on "File System" in the left pane of the Nautilus file browser and then open the host folder which you will see in the main pane.

Just Open Home folder from your Dash menu and you can see all partitions mounted under Devices:

Click on the needed drive and copy files/folders thw way you want to your Ubuntu drive

Solution 2:

Yes, just mount the windows partition from which you want to copy files. Drag and drop the files on to your Ubuntu desktop. That's all.

Mounting a partition can be done manually or automatically,

sudo mkdir /media/windows
sudo mount /dev/sdaX /media/windows
    # X = partition number

Now your windows partition should be mounted inside /media/windows directory.

After you clicked on the corresponding partition icon(which was on the unity), it get automatically mounted inside /media/$USER directory. To copy files from windows partition to Ubuntu desktop, you have to run these command,

cp /media/$USER/xxxxxxx/folder ~/Desktop
    # To copy a folder to your Ubuntu desktop

cp /media/$USER/xxxxxxx/folder/* ~/Desktop
    # To copy all the files inside that folder to Ubuntu desktop

cp /media/$USER/xxxxxxx/folder/filename ~/Desktop
    # To copy specific file to your Ubuntu desktop

xxxxxxx - label name of the Windows partition.