Using Wine with Windows data

Alistair · Post by **Alistair** » Sat Sep 06, 2008 2:54 am

Hi I am new to Wine, but I read in the FAQ the following:
'Do not try to configure Wine to point to your actual Windows C:\ drive. We have tried to make this hard to do so you probably cannot do it by accident.'

This does not make sense to me since my primary use would be to run programs under Wine eg Quicken which point to a data file in Windows so that both Windows and Linux access the same data. This is what I thought the settings in Wine were for so that you could define desired directories in your Windows partition to use that data. For example your data does not remain in sync. But of course, thats not so, and its quite an exercise to make it happen. Any comments?

Usurp · Post by **Usurp** » Sat Sep 06, 2008 4:20 am

Alistair wrote:Hi I am new to Wine, but I read in the FAQ the following:
'Do not try to configure Wine to point to your actual Windows C:\ drive. We have tried to make this hard to do so you probably cannot do it by accident.'

This does not make sense to me since my primary use would be to run programs under Wine eg Quicken which point to a data file in Windows so that both Windows and Linux access the same data. This is what I thought the settings in Wine were for so that you could define desired directories in your Windows partition to use that data. For example your data does not remain in sync. But of course, thats not so, and its quite an exercise to make it happen. Any comments?

You have to define another drive.
Lets point a virtual drive (F: or whatever) to "C:\Documents and Settings\Allistair\My Documents" and continue using your data.

John Drescher · Post by **John Drescher** » Sat Sep 06, 2008 8:12 am

On Sat, Sep 6, 2008 at 5:20 AM, Usurp <[email protected]> wrote:

Alistair wrote:
Hi I am new to Wine, but I read in the FAQ the following:
'Do not try to configure Wine to point to your actual Windows C:\ drive. We have tried to make this hard to do so you probably cannot do it by accident.'

This does not make sense to me since my primary use would be to run programs under Wine eg Quicken which point to a data file in Windows so that both Windows and Linux access the same data. This is what I thought the settings in Wine were for so that you could define desired directories in your Windows partition to use that data. For example your data does not remain in sync. But of course, thats not so, and its quite an exercise to make it happen. Any comments?
You have to define another drive.
Lets point a virtual drive (F: or whatever) to "C:\Documents and Settings\Allistair\My Documents" and continue using your data.

I think the biggest point is to never use your real c:\windows as your
c:\windows in wine. But you can definitely share your Documents and
Settings as said above.

vitamin · Post by **vitamin** » Sat Sep 06, 2008 10:49 am

Usurp wrote:
Alistair wrote:Hi I am new to Wine, but I read in the FAQ the following:
'Do not try to configure Wine to point to your actual Windows C:\ drive. We have tried to make this hard to do so you probably cannot do it by accident.'

This does not make sense to me since my primary use would be to run programs under Wine eg Quicken which point to a data file in Windows so that both Windows and Linux access the same data. This is what I thought the settings in Wine were for so that you could define desired directories in your Windows partition to use that data.

There are several reasons why you shouldn't never try pointing Wine's c: drive to real windows' c: drive:
- Wine will destroy windows installation by corrupting some key system files. After that windows won't boot
- Wine is made to work with it's own dlls, data files, directory layout, permissions, etc. You will "kill" Wine if you try to copy all windows dlls from system32 into Wine's system32.
- Wine can't read windows binary registry files.
- Windows uses NTFS partition that still does not provide 100% required functionality for some programs (fixed in kernel 2.6.26+ only).

All this means - you have to treat Wine like a totally separate PC. And you have to install all the programs on Wine before you can use them
You could map the windows drive in winecfg for easy access. But I'd strongly suggest making a copy of all the data files to use with Wine. In case files get corrupted.

Alistair · Post by **Alistair** » Sat Sep 06, 2008 2:31 pm

You could map the windows drive in winecfg for easy access.

Hmm thanks for those comments. Missed the point that what it refers to is using the Windows "C:" drive.
I have done the above, on a non "C:" drive and thats where the problem lies it works for current session then fails to be able to open the mapped drives on the ensuing sessions.
Is there any information that can help me with this issue please?
I'm not worried about data corruption as I use a very regular backup regime.

vitamin · Post by **vitamin** » Sat Sep 06, 2008 3:14 pm

Alistair wrote:
You could map the windows drive in winecfg for easy access.
Hmm thanks for those comments. Missed the point that what it refers to is using the Windows "C:" drive.
I have done the above, on a non "C:" drive and thats where the problem lies it works for current session then fails to be able to open the mapped drives on the ensuing sessions.
Is there any information that can help me with this issue please?
I'm not worried about data corruption as I use a very regular backup regime.

If you mean that your mapping goes away, then it's a long know problem. You should put CD/DVD disc(s) into all drives you have before running winecfg. It doesn't see drives reserved for cdroms and tries to re-map them.

Alistair · Post by **Alistair** » Sat Sep 06, 2008 5:39 pm

vitamin wrote: If you mean that your mapping goes away, then it's a long know problem. You should put CD/DVD disc(s) into all drives you have before running winecfg. It doesn't see drives reserved for cdroms and tries to re-map them.

No cd drives mapped but it cannot access the windows partition (set in wine settings) unless I open Dolphin file mgr 1st and log in. IS there a workaround for this minor inconvenience?

Post by **dimesio** » Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:04 pm

Alistair wrote: No cd drives mapped but it cannot access the windows partition (set in wine settings) unless I open Dolphin file mgr 1st and log in. IS there a workaround for this minor inconvenience?

That's a permissions issue, not a Wine issue. Change the permissions of your Windows partition to give normal users access.