12-23-2009, 03:52 AM

I recently installed windows 7 via bootcamp on my mac and everything seemed to go ok.

However when browsing my mac's hd partition in windows I cannot view the contents of the user directory. It shows a folder for each user but when I open them it claims there are no files there.

Is there anyway to make the user directory viewable under windows?

12-23-2009, 02:29 PM

I just tested this from Windows 7 running from Boot Camp, (I'm replying right now from Win 7) and I can see all the files listed in my user folder.

Make sure you have the "hidden files" option turned on in Windows 7. And at the same time, turn on "view system files". Windows 7 will give you a warning when you select those options, but just go ahead and turn them on anyway. (if you have not already done so)

Control Panel -> Folder Options -> View.

See if that helps.

Regards.

12-24-2009, 06:33 AM

Thanks for the advice but although it now shows some stuff in my user directory it does not show the contents of the likes of my music, movie or documents folder.

Anything else I can do about it?

12-24-2009, 08:30 AM

??? - Am in my Win7 BootCamp right now. Even after enabling view hidden files and folders and system files - I can sure enough view all the hidden and system files in OS X including my user account.

Everything shows up like normal in my wife's account (not admin) but not a single item other than the hidden files/folders shows up in my user account either.

At least you're not alone. I get the same thing 'this folder is empty' remark.

01-14-2010, 01:37 AM

Originally Posted by chscag

I just tested this from Windows 7 running from Boot Camp, (I'm replying right now from Win 7) and I can see all the files listed in my user folder.

Make sure you have the "hidden files" option turned on in Windows 7. And at the same time, turn on "view system files". Windows 7 will give you a warning when you select those options, but just go ahead and turn them on anyway. (if you have not already done so)

Control Panel -> Folder Options -> View.

See if that helps.

Regards.

Can you detail which Bootcamp version you are using? I'm assuming 3.0.. Do you have any other HFS+ drivers installed on your system. and what version of windows are you using?

I ask because, like the other two, I am just using a standard bootcamp 3.0 install of Windows 7 Ultimate and I have the same problem. I believe apple hides that directory on purpose (basically to force you to boot into OSX to have access to your files). The driver apple provides lets you view all system owned files but not user owned files (apple will probably tell you it's for security issues).

The first solution I can think of would be to recursively ADD permissions for whatever group/user the bootcamp drivers allow windows to see.
The second would be to hex edit the driver to make your user owned files visible. By default your user id in OSX should be 1000 (for the first user admin account) You can check in terminal to be sure thouhg.

I haven't tried either of these but might do so later.

If I'm completely wrong let me know but I figure it's worth a stab--

01-14-2010, 06:30 PM

To bobtomay and dcow:

I just tried again to view my user folder when in Windows 7. And again, I was able to view the entire folder, subfolders, files, etc. I even opened and viewed some JPG photo files that I had there.

I can view those files from Windows Explorer and from a third party file manager that I use. (Nico's Commander)

dcow: I'm using Boot Camp 3.0 along with Windows 7 Home Premium.

The only thing I have done that may possibly have something to do with being able to view my user folder from Windows 7 is that I have installed the "ntfsMounter.app" in Snow Leopard.

This is a small free application that turns on the ability that Snow Leopard has to read and write to ntfs partitions. (It's not on by default)

Why don't you try downloading it and give it a try to see if makes a difference for you? LINK

Let us know.

Regards.

01-14-2010, 06:54 PM

there's a program called MacDrive designed for this. it's not free, but it does what you want. i use it on my win7 partition to manage files on the osx partition.

01-14-2010, 09:18 PM

I have Paragon's NTFS for Mac and their Mac Browser installed on mine.

Have tried removing both and installing the ntfsMounter.app - no joy.

Running Win7 Ultimate on mine - I can browse everything except my own home folder.

01-14-2010, 09:33 PM

Ok, the answer:

The problem is X11. Everytime you open it, it creates a hidden file in your home folder called .Xauthority. Delete that file and you'll be able to see your home folder contents from your BootCamped Windows.

01-14-2010, 09:34 PM

Originally Posted by bobtomay

I have Paragon's NTFS for Mac and their Mac Browser installed on mine.

Have tried removing both and installing the ntfsMounter.app - no joy.

Running Win7 Ultimate on mine - I can browse everything except my own home folder.

Don't know. This has me stumped. By all reason, you should be able to view your own OS X user folder while running Windows 7.

I'm trying to think if I somehow changed permissions while in Windows 7 by "taking ownership" of certain files and folders. But the only files and folders that I have taken ownership of are older Windows program files that wouldn't pass the UAC muster.

I finally got so disgusted with UAC that I wound up turning it off completely anyway.

I'll dig around some more and see what I can come up with.

Regards.

01-14-2010, 09:37 PM

Originally Posted by bobtomay

Ok, the answer:

The problem is X11. Everytime you open it, it creates a hidden file in your home folder called .Xauthority. Delete that file and you'll be able to see your home folder contents from your BootCamped Windows.

OK. Good detective work! I never use X11 and therefore did not have that file present.

Regards.

01-14-2010, 09:49 PM

I'm with ya on UAC. Turning it off is the very first thing I do when I install Win7 now.

01-16-2010, 03:34 AM

Originally Posted by bobtomay

Ok, the answer:

The problem is X11. Everytime you open it, it creates a hidden file in your home folder called .Xauthority. Delete that file and you'll be able to see your home folder contents from your BootCamped Windows.

That's really weird.. hmm we need someone who can take a good look at the hfs+ driver for windows and see why the driver hides those files when the .Xauthority file is present.

I use X11 quite a bit and it would be unfortunate if I had to delete that file every time I wanted to boot into windows =/

01-16-2010, 06:53 AM

Here's a link to a script which will automate the process of deleting this file.