What? Can I access a windows USB drive?

[elsieb...@gmail.com]

What? Can I access a windows USB drive?

I really didn't want to add a windows vm, just wanted to get some of my stuff off from it. I found how to "add block devices", but after that I'm guessing it won't read windows file system...

I'm hoping there's an easy way to do this... ???

[Andrew David Wong]

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On 2017-02-07 12:54, elsieb...@gmail.com wrote:
> What? Can I access a windows USB drive?
>

Yes.

> I really didn't want to add a windows vm, just wanted to get some
> of my stuff off from it. I found how to "add block devices", but
> after that I'm guessing it won't read windows file system...
>

No, it should work. "Windows filesystem" is typically NTFS, which
should be fine.

> I'm hoping there's an easy way to do this... ???
>

Yes, it should work rather easily. Please describe, in detail, (1)
what you expect to happen, (2) the exact steps you're performing in an
attempt to achieve (1), and (3) the actual results you're experiencing
instead of (1).

- --
Andrew David Wong (Axon)
Community Manager, Qubes OS
https://www.qubes-os.org
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[Jean-Philippe Ouellet]

If you install fuse-exfat (from the rpmfusion-free repo) in the
template used by sys-usb, then Nautilus (the default file manager)
should be able to auto-mount them and they should Just Work(TM). At
least... this worked for me.

[Chris Laprise]

After you attached it, did you check in Files/Nautilus?

Chris

[elsieb...@gmail.com]

I right clicked (Q manager) work vm left clicked attached block devices. Opened files (work vm) and this time I couldn't even find the drive. Last time I found the drive, but couldn't access the contents.

[Andrew David Wong]

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Instead of using Qubes Manager to attach it, try just opening Nautilus
in your USB qube. It should appear automatically in the side bar or
under "Other Locations." At least, this is what happens when I plug in
an NTFS-formatted drive. (Actually, it should also work in the same
way using qvm-block, but the let's try to eliminate some variables.)

- --
Andrew David Wong (Axon)
Community Manager, Qubes OS
https://www.qubes-os.org
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[raah...@gmail.com]

Yes go to sys-usb in the start menu and select files.

[elsieb...@gmail.com]

Ok, did that. What I get is

Computer
TI10673200G /dev/sda4

Networks
Windows Network

When I left click TI106(...) I get nothing. When I right click, the menu says open, open in a new tab, open in a new window, and Mount. Nothing happened.

What should I try now?

[elsieb...@gmail.com]

I'm still stuck here... anyone?

[Unman]

On Sun, Feb 12, 2017 at 09:56:43AM -0800, elsieb...@gmail.com wrote:
> I'm still stuck here... anyone?
>

You really haven't given enough information for anyone to help you.
I'm going to assume that you are using a default install of Qubes: your
sys-usb is based on Fedora-23, and the qube you want to use the drive
in is also based on the same template. Please correct me if this isn't
correct.

There's no such thing as a "windows USB drive". I assume you mean a drive
that you used on Windows. You may or may not have formatted the drive:
I don't know because you haven't told us.

Drives for use on Windows can be formatted using various filesystems:
FAT32, NTFS , EXFAT among them.
I don't know what you have. Perhaps you don't know.
We can find out.

You say you know to attach the drive to a qube. Open a terminal in the
target qube,and attach the USB drive.
Then type 'dmesg' (without the quotes)
You should see lots of stuff in the terminal, ending with some lines
that say something like "blkfront: xvdi .....". If you don't see this
then the drive hasn't been attached to the qube.
The "xvdi" bit shows the device name that's been allocated to the USB.

Now type in "sudo cfdisk /dev/xvdi"(Or whatever device name you have)
This will show you the partitions on the USB stick and how they are
formatted. Take note.
Quit from cfdisk.

Open nautilus in the target qube, and look under "Other Locations" You
should see the drives from the USB stick there.
FAT32 partitions should just load in nautilus out of the box.
So should NTFS partitions.
If you have EXFAT format, then as Jean-Philippe has said, you will need
to install extra packages in the template. If you need help with this,
please ask.

If you don't see ANY device or Id Type in cfdisk, then it's possible your
drive is encrypted and you didn't realise(because it "just worked" under
Windows. That's a separate issue but also solvable.

So try this and report back what you find.