Usual Scenario is to have a dual boot machine with Linux (some distro) and Windows (any version).
mount is used when one needs to have the Windows drive available, which looks like:
mount <what kind> <which one to mount> <where to mount>
e.g. to mount “ntfs” filesystem
mount –t ntfs /dev/sda1 /media/windows
/dev/sda1 is the partition having the ntfs type of filesystem on it and after the successful execution of this command, the contents of this partition will be available as the directory /media/windows in your linux OS.
In case the Linux and Windows OS are on two different physical hosts, one can still make the use of mount as:
mount -t cifs -o username=<windows username> //<ipaddress or hostname of Windows host>/<directory> <mount point>
e.g.
mount -t cifs -o username=vikas //192.168.1.1/myfolder /mnt/mywindowsfolder
and when prompted for password, one must provide the windows password.
For more on cifs : http://www.ubiqx.org/cifs/
In case one wants to peek into an ISO file (any linux distro you download, will be available as .iso file):
mount theISOfile /mnt/myfolder –o loop
and you will have your theISOfile available at /mnt/myfolder, although as a read only folder
-o loop associates theISOfile with one of the loop back devices /dev/loopX
For more on loop devices in Linux http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loop_device
For mounting, one needs to know
a) One has to be superuser on Linux for running mount command
b) Your kernel must know (which any recent version of kernel would know) the ntfs to mount the Windows (ntfs filesystem) drive
c) The folder on which the drive (or remote folder) is to be mounted, should already exist
d) In case of mounting a remote windows folder, the remote folder must be a shared one
e) –t <type> is optional but if it’s not provided while mounting a remote windows folder, it takes more time to mount (don’t know the exact reason, why)
