Copy files between Windows and Linux computers

There are many tools to copy files between Windows and Linux computers, I have found this method the simplest.

It does not require any software installation on the Windows machine, and only one package installation on the Linux machine.

Share a folder on the Windows machine

Share a folder on the Windows machine and allow access to it for a user. If the Windows computer is in the Windows domain, the domain user does not have to be a member of any security group on the Windows machine.

If you copy files from Windows to Linux, make the folder read-only for the user. If you copy files to the Windows machine, allow write access to the folder for the user.

Set up the Linux machine

1. Install the cifs-utils on the Linux machine
   1. On Red Hat, CentOS, and Amazon Linux

      sudo yum install cifs-utils

   1. On Ubuntu

      sudo apt-get install cifs-utils

Mount the shared Windows folder on the Linux machine

1. On the Linux machine create a directory to mount the Windows folder to

   mkdir /tmp/windows

2. Mount the Windows share

   sudo mount.cifs '\\WINDOWS_SERVER_IP\attachments' /tmp/windows -o domain=MY_DOMAIN,username=MY_USERNAME,password=MY_PASSWORD,vers=1.0

   First, you will be asked for the root password on the Linux machine.
   If you do not specify your password in the line above, you will be also asked to enter your password on the Windows machine.

Access the Windows share

1. On the Linux machine navigate to the mount directory

   cd /tmp/windows

2. List the files of the Windows share

   ls -al

Troubleshooting

If you get the error message when you issue the mount command

mount error(16): Device or resource busy

try to unmount (umount !) the share first and try the mount again

umount /tmp/windows