HOWTO: NTFS with read/write support using ntfs-3g (easy method)

[dannyboy79]

It's not working for me. I tried it and have it installed. So when i go to Applications...System Tools...NTFS Config Tool and select external device support. And then OK. IT does nothing. Its anoying because im trying to copy a bunch of music so i can put it on my ipod. But my iTunes is on windows so I need this. Hope someone can help
Thanks alot
LilNErd

Scratch that...I found out i was on fat32. So now i reformated to NTFS on WIndows and need to give permissions. Of course i complety removed the NTFS-3g thing i installed. Can someone please help me reintall it.

PS i can put stuff on it i jst cant give permissions.

I don't really understand why you changed to NTFS when you had FAT32? Write support for FAT32 has been around way longer but now that you have I can maybe help.

Here is some info regarding permission support. I have just copied and pasted a conversation from the NTFS-3G development mailing archive. It was dated Feb 15, 2007.

The latest version of ntfs-3g is supposed to make "full file permission
> checking", but I have not found any description of what this is supposed
> to mean. There is not obvious answer as the file permission logic is not
> the same for Windows and Linux. I suggest you give some information about
> it in the ntfs-3g FAQ.

It's described in the manual. You can use uid, gid and the mask options
to set the default permissions which will be __checked__ but can't be
__modified__ since no Win <-> Linux user mapping, and no permission
modification is implemented.

> I have also found that file names are case-sensitive for ntfs-3g though
> not in Windows. This must be intentional,

Of course, Linux is case-sensitive.

> but I suggest it is made optional as this is confusing for Windows
> applications.

It's optional. It can be exported and remounted case-insensitive via e.g.
samba and cifs.

Thank you for the feedbacks,

Szaka

You don't need itunes to be able to put music on your ipod. I am pretty sure AmoroK has the capability as well as Exaile. Look into those.

Your quote, "Can someone please help me reintall it." It sounded to me like you did it the first time so I know you can do it again. Just follow the guide and you'll be fine. If you get an error, then post back. Good luck

[dannyboy79]

Thanks for your reply dannyboy79,



Yes, i can see boot.ini, ntldr, NTDETECT.COM and other files like AUTOEXEC.BAT, bar.erm, CONFIG.SYS, hiberfil.sys, IO.SYS, MSDOS.SYS. The rest are folders such as "Windows, Program Files, Documents and Settings...etc".

Thanks for sharing how to backup ntfs in Linux using dd, ddrescue, partimage and other good stuff. However, I need to get my laptop fix asap, thus i did the most simple way, copy and paste whatever files i want in my C: to my external drive:, i still have all my data in D: (my data drive).

My exact problem is the a347bus.sys file - When i boot to Windows, it hangs at "Press Esc to cancel loading a347bus.sys", and whethe I press Esc or not it hangs.

I have read some forums about how to solve it...
http://phorums.com.au/archive/index.php/t-104641.html
http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/winxp/1116703512
http://aumha.org/a/stop.htm

Thus, i came out with few solutions:
1) copy a347bus.sys(non-corrupted) and replace my corrupted a347bus.sys tru Ubuntu, which is why i need ntfs-3g to change the permission to write in my C: (NTFS). Am trying my luck here...

2) some ppl in the forum suggest to delete the registry key, but im not sure can i delete registry key tru Linux ? (I dont think so...)

3) can i do something to GRUB and change the corrupted files ?

4) you mentioned about Windows Recovery console, but i cant even go in, it hangs there when i go choose "1" to go into Windows. How can i run testdisk, cfdisk, fdisk or FIXBOOT ?
When i perform, testdisk, cfdisk, fdisk or FIXBOOT, will it affect my D: drive? (since all the info in D is critical), i will just heck care C Drive now.

Im trying to see what i can do with ntfs-3g, but apparently...no luck...

i really need your expertise. Thanks.

So you're in a catch 22. NTFS-3G needs you to mount the partition in Windows so that can umount it cleanly yet windows won't start because you have that corrupt file. ******!!!!! Well I have a few suggestions.

1.) You can buy an adapter that will adapt a regular ide hard drive (2.5/3.5") and turn it into a USB device. I have one a friend brought back from China before they were even out here. I user it all the time for fixing family and friends computers when they can't boot the Winbloz disk. Anyway, here is the from newegg.com: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16812156101

OR you could go a step up and get an all in 1 adapter for both sata and ide drives. That's here: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2E16812156102R

What this will allow you to do is "mount" it within some other windows installation (library, friends, family) then once it's mounted, you can either fix that corrupt file right then and there by using cabextract program to search your winbloz disk for an uncorrupt verision of the file or you could just mount it and unmount it properly as that's all NTFS-3G wants. It's because the journal is dirty so it's can't write to a dirty journal.

2) Option 2, did you try ntfsfix? I tried it and it didn't work for me.

3) You could do what I suggested and backup your winbloz install into a tar gzipped file (DON'T USE PARTIMAGE FOR NTFS YET, see here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=405113!!) Then use live cd to erase, recreate your NTFS partition, I would strongly suggest you delete, create, and format the NTFS partition all in different steps, don't combine all into one. Also, after you're done formatting it, do a restart on the machine to make sure your changes took hold onto the disk. Then mount your "clean" ntfs partition into a folder within your livecd, extract your gzipped tar back onto the clean NTFS filesystem then you're also able to fix that corrupt file as well.

Let us know what you try and how it goes! Good luck

[szaka]

2) Option 2, did you try ntfsfix? I tried it and it didn't work for me.

Too old ntfsfix is used. Ntfsprogs 1.13.1 is required unless you have Vista.

ntfs-3g-1.411-RC also supports mounting such partitions if the 'force' option is used. Stable release is probably tomorrow.

[mssever]

1.) You can buy an adapter that will adapt a regular ide hard drive (2.5/3.5") and turn it into a USB device. I have one a friend brought back from China before they were even out here. I user it all the time for fixing family and friends computers when they can't boot the Winbloz disk. Anyway, here is the from newegg.com: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16812156101

OR you could go a step up and get an all in 1 adapter for both sata and ide drives. That's here: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2E16812156102R

Or, you can get a hard drive enclosure that turns an internal hard drive into a USB hard drive. I did that when my laptop had a major hardware failure, so I didn't lose any data. It's just a case with a connector for the HD and a USB cable.

EDIT: The difference between a HDD enclosure and a plain adapter is that the HDD enclosure provides more protection to your drive.

[lilnerd]

I don't really understand why you changed to NTFS when you had FAT32? Write support for FAT32 has been around way longer but now that you have I can maybe help.

Here is some info regarding permission support. I have just copied and pasted a conversation from the NTFS-3G development mailing archive. It was dated Feb 15, 2007.

The latest version of ntfs-3g is supposed to make "full file permission
> checking", but I have not found any description of what this is supposed
> to mean. There is not obvious answer as the file permission logic is not
> the same for Windows and Linux. I suggest you give some information about
> it in the ntfs-3g FAQ.

It's described in the manual. You can use uid, gid and the mask options
to set the default permissions which will be __checked__ but can't be
__modified__ since no Win <-> Linux user mapping, an
d no permission
modification is implemented.

> I have also found that file names are case-sensitive for ntfs-3g though
> not in Windows. This must be intentional,

Of course, Linux is case-sensitive.

> but I suggest it is made optional as this is confusing for Windows
> applications.

It's optional. It can be exported and remounted case-insensitive via e.g.
samba and cifs.

Thank you for the feedbacks,

Szaka

You don't need itunes to be able to put music on your ipod. I am pretty sure AmoroK has the capability as well as Exaile. Look into those.

Your quote, "Can someone please help me reintall it." It sounded to me like you did it the first time so I know you can do it again. Just follow the guide and you'll be fine. If you get an error, then post back. Good luck

Ok..that was quick reply..Thanks..First i haev installed the ntfs config tool. Next when i was using fat32 i Couldn't copy anything to it because it was giving me error that there was Invaild Parameters. If you want, I can switch back to FAT32 but if you know what the problem is. Right now I can put things on the hard drive but i can't access it on windows. I ran the tool and now when i check the permssions tabs in properties i see that the permissions don't change at all....When i go to windows and try to open or copy the files it gives me an error. I think Lastly.. my ipod doesnt show up in "Computer'.

***EDIT!! I jst formated the drive back to fat32. So when i try to put something on the drive it gives me this message. Screenshot attached. Also the music im trying to put is music that was ripped from cds. I can put regular files like word docs and stuff... ALso I cant cange the permissions for the folder that the music in to write. The option is there, but doesnt save. Please help. Is the music copyrighted or somthing. If so is there a way. PLEASE HELP...Thanks for the quick reply btw again.

[blumagic]

Getting an error message that doesnt allow me to completely install ntfs-3g.
The problem seems to center around installing or configuring fuse. Any help
with this error would be appreciated.

thanks,
blumagic......

# > apt-get install ntfs-3g
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
libntfs-3g0
The following NEW packages will be installed:
libntfs-3g0 ntfs-3g
0 upgraded, 2 newly installed, 0 to remove and 21 not upgraded.
1 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 0B/120kB of archives.
After unpacking 360kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? Y
WARNING: The following packages cannot be authenticated!
libntfs-3g0 ntfs-3g
Install these packages without verification [y/N]? y
Selecting previously deselected package libntfs-3g0.
(Reading database ... 133286 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking libntfs-3g0 (from .../libntfs-3g0_1%3a1.0-1_i386.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package ntfs-3g.
Unpacking ntfs-3g (from .../ntfs-3g_1%3a1.0-1_i386.deb) ...
Setting up fuse-utils (2.6.3-0givre2) ...
creating fuse device node...
/sbin/MAKEDEV: don't know how to make device "fuse"
dpkg: error processing fuse-utils (--configure):
subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Setting up libntfs-3g0 (1.0-1) ...

dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of ntfs-3g:
ntfs-3g depends on fuse-utils (>= 2.6); however:
Package fuse-utils is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing ntfs-3g (--configure):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Errors were encountered while processing:
fuse-utils
ntfs-3g
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

[dannyboy79]

Getting an error message that doesnt allow me to completely install ntfs-3g.
The problem seems to center around installing or configuring fuse. Any help
with this error would be appreciated.

thanks,
blumagic......

# > apt-get install ntfs-3g
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
libntfs-3g0
The following NEW packages will be installed:
libntfs-3g0 ntfs-3g
0 upgraded, 2 newly installed, 0 to remove and 21 not upgraded.
1 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 0B/120kB of archives.
After unpacking 360kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? Y
WARNING: The following packages cannot be authenticated!
libntfs-3g0 ntfs-3g
Install these packages without verification [y/N]? y
Selecting previously deselected package libntfs-3g0.
(Reading database ... 133286 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking libntfs-3g0 (from .../libntfs-3g0_1%3a1.0-1_i386.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package ntfs-3g.
Unpacking ntfs-3g (from .../ntfs-3g_1%3a1.0-1_i386.deb) ...
Setting up fuse-utils (2.6.3-0givre2) ...
creating fuse device node...
/sbin/MAKEDEV: don't know how to make device "fuse"
dpkg: error processing fuse-utils (--configure):
subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Setting up libntfs-3g0 (1.0-1) ...

dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of ntfs-3g:
ntfs-3g depends on fuse-utils (>= 2.6); however:
Package fuse-utils is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing ntfs-3g (--configure):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Errors were encountered while processing:
fuse-utils
ntfs-3g
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

do you have fuse installed?

sudo aptitude show fuse

then also, this looks like the classic forgetting to run

sudo aptitude update && sudo aptitude upgrade

it says you have 21 upgrades. or do you not want to upgrade? it won't upgrade the ubuntu version, only packages that the developers have deemed ok for this release of ubuntu so you can always be comfortable running upgrade. unless you've added untrusted repos and what not. now I would consider givre's repo untrusted BUT he has been around in the forums long enough (and been supporting ntfs writing for a long time) that I am ok with using his repos. just follow the guide to the tee and you should get it working.

[lotacus]

hello. I get two errors. The first error is when I try to mount using the pmount or the mount -a command.

lotacus@lotacus-desktop:~$ sudo mount -a
$LogFile indicates unclean shutdown (0, 0)
Failed to mount '/dev/sda5': Operation not supported
Mount is denied because NTFS logfile is unclean. Choose one action:
Boot Windows and shutdown it cleanly, or if you have a removable
device then click the 'Safely Remove Hardware' icon in the Windows
taskbar notification area before disconnecting it.
Or
Run 'ntfsfix' on Linux unless you have Vista, then mount NTFS with
the 'force' option read-write, or with the 'ro' option read-only.
Or
Mount the NTFS volume with the 'ro' option in read-only mode.
lotacus@lotacus-desktop:~$

Since I don't have Windows anymore, but left with files on an NTFS drive, I cannot boot windows to make the filesystem clean. So naturally I try to mount with the -ro option only to get this error:

WARNING: Deficient FUSE kernel module detected. Some driver features are
not available (swap file on NTFS, boot from NTFS by LILO), and
unmount is not safe unless it's made sure the ntfs-3g process
naturally terminates after calling 'umount'. The safe FUSE kernel
driver is included in the official Linux kernels since version
2.6.20-rc1, or in the FUSE 2.6.0 or later software packages,
except the faulty FUSE version 2.6.2. For more help, please
have a look at /usr/share/doc/ntfs-3g/README.Debian. Thanks


update: It seems that adding a few of your listed repositories, and installing the ntfs-config utility, along with upgrading pmount, solved the problem, however, no matter what I do, I cannot seem to get write access to the filesystem, even after running the ntfs-config program to allow write access. Now, when I had edgy amd64 installed, this was no problem at all. When running the 32bit version of ubuntu, I get the "you don't have permissions to write to this filesystem".

On another note, I once logged in as root. (oh dear security issue i know) my NTFS filesystem was mounted with write privileges and it was listed on the desktop, in "places" and in "computer" where all the other drives are listed. Is there a way to make this happen in a normal user session?

[szaka]

@lotacus: Use ntfsfix from nfsprogs 1.13.1:

ntfsfix /dev/sda5

Then you can mount it read-write. The version 1.13.1 is important because Ubuntu has an old, broken one.

Alternatively you can also use ntfs-3g-1.411-RC which supports mounting unlcean partitions if the 'force' option is used.

Your second error is not error but a warning that your kernel is old and unsafe.

[jiminycricket]

I installed NTFS-3G on Feisty: It runs great with internals HD. However, it screwed up my USB external HD. I recovered it using chkdsk, then the external USB HD was correctly mounted and I could even write on it. But when I logged out something went wrong and the USB HD was unreadable again. I tried again to run chkdsk, but did not work. I tried to run ntfsfix and I get the error "...Failed to load $MFT".

Any hint?

My question is is ntfs-3g reliable on USB Hard Disks? Many people is using these devices as backup under Windows, it would be nice to have the same possibility under Ubuntu.

I also got this problem in Feisty Fawn.

$ sudo ntfsfix /dev/sdc1
Mounting volume... $MFT has invalid magic.
ntfs_mft_load(): Failed.
Failed to load $MFT: Input/output error
Failed to startup volume: Input/output error
FAILED
Attempting to correct errors... $MFT has invalid magic.
ntfs_mft_load(): Failed.
Failed to load $MFT: Input/output error
FAILED
Failed to startup volume: Input/output error
Volume is corrupt. You should run chkdsk.

I can't run chkdsk under WIndows though, because when I can get WIndows to detect the USB drive [[if I keep it connected while Windows boots, I have to turn it off before I login or Windows just pauses for some reason]], it says---

chkdsk /f f:

"The type of the file system is NTFS.
Unable to determine volume version and state."

I'm at a loss here, I'm not really sure how to recover this data with these strange error messages from chkdsk and ntfsfix.... (google didn't help much )