When I'm in linux, how can I see/access my Windows partitions? I can't cd .. from the root directory!

If they are NTFS you have to do some mucking around with the kernel. If they are FAT or FAT32 then its simplier, although I am not learned enough in linux to help you out on here, several other members are.

There's a good chance your kernel already has FAT/FAT32 write and right access compiled in.

NTFS read access is usally off by default. There is NTFS write access as well but its not recommended and has caused data corruption.

try this:

create a mount point for your windows partition

mkdir /mnt/windows

then try to mount it:

mount -t vfat /dev/hda1 /mnt/windows

where hda1 is your windows partition.

Well how would you enable read and write for NTFS.

Either by loading a module, or by recompiling the kernel.