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I installed Ubuntu yesterday beside Windows 7. I chose not to erase the USB because I would lose all my info. Is this safe as of Jan. 14? (viruses etc.) If not, how do I transfer my files from Windows 7 to Ubuntu?

K7AAY
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Louii
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  • The question is unclear. What do you mean by "is it safe"? You don't need to transfer files from Windows to Ubuntu. You can use them at their currant place. – Pilot6 Jan 13 '20 at 14:54
  • Please excuse my age. (Granny) As you know Windows 7 is losing all support as of Jan. 14 and is vulnerable to attacks. If I access files on Windows 7 is there a chance they could be infected?I would prefer not to use Windows at all. Could I transfer the files to Ubuntu? Or is my concern unfounded? Does having both OS on my old laptop(10 years old) slow down it's performance? – Louii Jan 13 '20 at 15:01
  • You have a valid concern about using Windows 7. You can use the Files application to mount the Windows 7 partition to copy off your files to Ubuntu. Be careful not to change anything on the Windows 7 partition, or Windows may no longer boot. Be sure to unmount it when you're done. Later, you can remove Windows 7 all together, or just upgrade it to Windows 8.1 or maybe even Windows 10... but that's a different lesson. – heynnema Jan 13 '20 at 16:46
  • What exactly is on your USB drive?? – Paul Benson Jan 13 '20 at 17:01
  • how do i use the files application to mount the windows 7 partition? – Louii Jan 13 '20 at 17:47
  • I only have Ubuntu on it. – Louii Jan 13 '20 at 18:30
  • @Louii MacTavish You need to worry about viruses infecting W7, not Ubuntu as the 2 systems work totally differently. So you should keep your Ubuntu Live USB as Windows viruses will not affect it. – Paul Benson Jan 14 '20 at 01:03
  • Yes. I agree. I want to keep Ubuntu. It's good to know that no viruses can affect it, but I was wanting the Windows files to be transferred for convenience only. – Louii Jan 14 '20 at 01:11
  • @Louii MacTavish What type of files are we talking about here - data files? Are they on your Windows C:\ drive, or anywhere else? – Paul Benson Jan 14 '20 at 07:14
  • These are all the files on my Windows; pic's, doc's, ..everything. – Louii Jan 14 '20 at 15:38
  • @Louii You didn't quite answer the question. Are all these data files on your C: drive, or are they on another partition? Do you have any other partitions? Click on 'Computer' In W7 and tell me what drives are shown. – Paul Benson Jan 14 '20 at 17:49
  • My Windows 7 drives are: OS (C:) and DVD RW Drive (D:) My laptop is 10 years old. – Louii Jan 14 '20 at 18:54
  • @Louii OK. If you intend to stay with W7, make a new NTFS partition (E:) and move all your data files onto it. If you haven't already got anti-ransomware installed while using W7, now is the time to do this. There are free ones. In Ubuntu you need to find which sda partition is the same as the E:\ partition. You can then either manually load the data each time after booting Ubuntu, or you can configure Ubuntu to boot your data partition automatically. – Paul Benson Jan 14 '20 at 23:25
  • I went into disks in Ubuntu and mounted Windows 7 partition. Then I clicked on the link where it is stored. There is one file there that says Documents and Settings that has an arrow to open the file. I'm not clicking on any of the files because I don't know what will happen when I do. – Louii Jan 14 '20 at 23:54
  • @Louii Nothing in Windows will damage your Ubuntu system, but I advise that you move all your data folders/files to a new NTFS partition. If anything goes wrong with the W7 system your data files are then isolated. – Paul Benson Jan 15 '20 at 01:29
  • I wasn't worried about damaging my Ubuntu system but I was worried about messing it up to the point of no return and not being able to get back to where I started the whole Windows file transfer thing. – Louii Jan 15 '20 at 01:37

2 Answers2

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https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MountingWindowsPartitions explains the facts in detail. In your case, almost certainly, Windows 7 partitioned and formatted the hard drive using NTFS, and Ubuntu knows how to read and write files in an NTFS partition, automatically using ntfs-3g, as confirmed here.

Take a look at this tutorial which shows what happens when you open Files and look for the NTFS partition of Windows 7; it will appear in the yellow box of the picture below (although the colors will be different). Files app showing other partitions

K7AAY
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It is unlikely that security issues in Windows would affect your files so that they cause security issues in Ubuntu, because executable formats are different.

You could transfer files for example with a USB stick. It depends on the file types how you could open them in Ubuntu.

Having both OS'es doesn't slow down your performance.

SurvivalMachine
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  • Thanks. It's handier to have the files on Ubuntu. Is transferring them something a beginner Ubundu can do? – Louii Jan 13 '20 at 15:35
  • For most pictures, documents and/or videos files, should just be able to open up 'Files' in ubuntu. Your Windows should show near near bottom as a volume. Open and you should be able to just copy your files to one of the Ubuntu choices(pictures, documents) – crip659 Jan 13 '20 at 15:50
  • When I open files in Ubuntu all I get is "other locations" at the bottom. When I click on that the system says "Unable to access location' Failed to retrieve share list from server. Enter server address. What would y next step be? – Louii Jan 13 '20 at 16:12
  • @LouiiMacTavish after clicking on "Other Locations", don't select the "Windows Network" choice, select the "Windows 7" choice. – heynnema Jan 13 '20 at 16:50
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    In files windows should be between 'trash' and 'other locations'. Might look like example '359GB volume' or be listed as 'windows' or name of your computer make(acer). If not listed, open up 'disks' and see if windows is mounted. – crip659 Jan 13 '20 at 16:56
  • How do I mount Windows? – Louii Jan 13 '20 at 17:18
  • @LouiiMacTavish Open Files, click "Other Locations" on the left, select a volume in "On This Computer". – SurvivalMachine Jan 13 '20 at 17:21