Linux – What’s the most “correct” mount point for a permanent NTFS partition

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I have an NTFS partition (containing a Windows installation from which I dual boot) that I would like to permanently mount from my Linux installation. Problem is, I can't figure out what the best/right/correct mount point for the NTFS partition is. Obviously, it shouldn't be mounted as /home, /usr, etc. (any of the standard mount points for filesystems) because it's not part of the Linux system. I do want it to be permanently mounted, though; and this raises the question, where do I mount it? Here are the mount point possibilities I've come up with:

/media/windows

This one makes a lot of sense because it would be right alongside auto-mounted devices, but according to the filesystem standard, /media/ is really for removable media, so it doesn't seem quite right to put my permanently mounted, internal partition next to auto-mounted, removable ones. I'm leaning toward this option the most, but only because it is less incongruent than the others.

/mnt/windows

This one also seems pretty logical, but again, the standard (and other things I've read) indicate that subdirectory mountpoints are generally discouraged here. Plus, I do actually mount filesystems temporarily in /mnt/ on occasion (as the standard intended it), so this one looks like it would get in the way of regular system use.

/windows

I really don't like the idea of adding another top-level directory to my filesystem, if I can avoid it. It doesn't feel right. An upside to this one, though, is that it is very easily accessible and doesn't get in the way of anything else (i.e. automounting partitions in /media/ or temporary mounts in /mnt/).

/home/[my username]/filesystems/windows

I don't like this idea because the partition is decidedly system-specific, not user-specific, so shoving it in a home directory seems not right.

Which of these options is the "right" one—or is there an alternative I didn't list here?

For clarity, note that I am running Linux (Arch Linux in particular), so any recommendations should probably be based on Linux's idea of filesystem organization rather than BSD's, for example.

Best Answer

First and foremost, this is going to depend solely on your architecture, and customs.

I for instance mount things like this under /mnt. I know people that create top level directories, and people who put this stuff in /home. It all depends on what you're comfortable with. There is no distinct standard on this anymore, the architecture of the system has changed, and you have varying views now, on things that used to be 'gospel'. Things like /usr/local or /opt/share, rpm or source...you get the drift.

Secondly, if you re-read through your link at pathname.com, you'll notice the paragraph under /media that states

Rationale

Historically there have been a number of other different places used to mount removeable media such as /cdrom, /mnt or /mnt/cdrom. Placing the mount points for all removeable media directly in the root directory would potentially result in a large number of extra directories in /. Although the use of subdirectories in /mnt as a mount point has recently been common, it conflicts with a much older tradition of using /mnt directly as a temporary mount point.

So personally, I advocate /mnt/windows or some iteration of that. It keeps the top level dir free, and is simple and intuitive. When I'm looking through or auditing a system, that's where I look for mounts right off the bat.

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – Mount NTFS Partition on Startup in Ubuntu

The line in /etc/fstab in your case would be something like:

/dev/sda4  /media/A476FC2E76FC033A  ntfs-3g  uid=1000,gid=1000,umask=077,fmask=177

You may want to change some of these:

You can replace /dev/sda4 by the UUID of the filesystem. Using a UUID has the advantage that if you ever plug in another disk which causes your current disk to appear as /dev/sdb, the fstab entry would still work.
You can replace the mount point (second column) by a more meaningful name. Pick any empty directory. Note that the directory must exist.
Replace uid=1000,gid=1000 by your user ID and group ID (you can see them with the commands id -u and id -g). These options cause all files to be owned by you, ignoring Windows file ownership (I don't think you can retain Windows file ownership with ntfs-3g).
umask=077 causes files to be accessible only to you, not other users. umask=007 would cause files to be accessible only to you and other users in the group specified by gid. umask=0 (the default) allows anyone to read and write all files. umask=022 allows anyone to read but only you to write.
fmask=177 makes files non-executable even to you.
You may want to add other options.
You can add two more columns 0 0 at the end, but they're optional. I only mention them because you might find them in some examples.

See the fstab man page for more information on the /etc/fstab file.

Once you've written the line in /etc/fstab, test it by running

sudo mount /media/A476FC2E76FC033A

The next time you reboot, the filesystem will be mounted automatically.