NTFS module for Ubuntu kernel

[r ve]

Hello Ubuntu World,

First off, I would like to say that Ubuntu is the first Linux distribution I 
really like. It's also the first one that actually works right out of the 
box. You people did some great work :)

Anyway, on to the real reason for this message; I've noticed that the Ubuntu 
kernel doesn't contain support for reading (not writing) data from NTFS 
partitions. I can understand that people don't want a module that's not well 
known to keep things safe to go into the distribution so I don't have any 
complaints about that.

However, in the last few days I came to find out that my hard disk got bad 
and started crashing. On this hard disk are a few partitions, one for 
Windows XP (NTFS + winprogram specific data), three for Linux 
(Ext3/Ext3/swap) and one FAT32 partion (mostly for (legal) programs, video's 
and music only).

The state of this hard disk is so bad now, that I can't boot into Windows XP 
anymore (giving all kinds of weird crashes, blue screens, etcetera. well, 
you probably already know what happens when MS software is puking on you). 
Luckely, Ubuntu Linux shows to be much more stable and even seems to run on 
my broken hardware (though I'm not sure what will happen in a few days, it's 
getting worse).

Now, you've probably already guessed: all of my important files are on the 
NTFS partition, which I don't have access to. I can't use another system to 
transfer the files to and it's also impossible to boot from CD and use the 
same CD player/recorder to create backups with. Uploading the files to a 
place on the web isn't possible either because that would be far too 
expensive (and taking too much time to upload).

So finally, here's my question: can someone on this list tell me about some 
way to get Ubuntu Linux to mount my NTFS partition (cat /proc/filesystems 
tells me that it's not supported) so I can quickly create backups (on CD)?
I know I could probably rebuild the kernel with NTFS support, but the 
problem is that I cannot do large software builds because my hard disk 
freaks out when doing that (and Linux will show all I/O errors that mankind 
has ever known).

A possible solution would be to get this NTFS module for my x86 Ubuntu 
kernel, but I can't find it in any repository here (I know there's a module 
for Red Hat systems at the NTFS project page @ sf.net, but that probably 
won't work on Ubuntu, won't it?).

If someone could do a quick build of this module for me, I would really 
appreciate that :)
(though I'm affraid I'm asking too much..)

Is there any friendly Ubuntu user or developer out there that could help me 
out?


Thanks,
Richard (still sitting on top of a flaming hard disk)


btw. When my new system (including a new and much better hard disk (no 
Maxtor for me anymore)) gets delivered in about a week, Ubuntu will 
definitely be the first OS I'll be installing onto it ;)

_________________________________________________________________
Talk with your online friends with MSN Messenger http://messenger.msn.nl/