NTFS Partition Not Mounting

[cghearn]

Forgive me if this should be obvious, but I'm not super handy with terminal and I'm trying to recover files from a friends computer. I'm using a recent distro live disc if makes any difference. Below is the error I'm getting. Feel free to direct me to an already answered post if appropriate. Thank you in advance for you time.

"Error mounting: mount exited with exit code 13: ntfs_mst_post_read_fixup: magic: 0x05033394 size: 4096 usa_ofs: 16339 usa_count: 43519: Invalid argument
Actual VCN (0xffee02ece66f2f33) of index buffer is different from expected VCN (0x1).
Failed to mount '/dev/sda2': Input/output error
NTFS is either inconsistent, or there is a hardware fault, or it's a
SoftRAID/FakeRAID hardware. In the first case run chkdsk /f on Windows
then reboot into Windows twice. The usage of the /f parameter is very
important! If the device is a SoftRAID/FakeRAID then first activate
it and mount a different device under the /dev/mapper/ directory, (e.g.
/dev/mapper/nvidia_eahaabcc1). Please see the 'dmraid' documentation
for more details."

[cghearn]

--Moved from previous post--

--I tried to run NTFSFIX to give you some context.--

I tried this, but I'm still getting an error that says

"
Mounting volume... FAILED
Attempting to correct errors...
Processing $MFT and $MFTMirr...
Reading $MFT... OK
Reading $MFTMirr... OK
Comparing $MFTMirr to $MFT... OK
Processing of $MFT and $MFTMirr completed successfully.
Setting required flags on partition... OK
Going to empty the journal ($LogFile)... OK
Remount failed: Input/output error.
"

Any ideas?

[Mark Phelps]

This generally means that the NTFS file system is considered as "dirty" -- and that has to be reset before Linux utilities can use it.

This is most generally done by connecting the drive to an MS Windows PC and running CHKDSK on it.

Some folks will probably tell you that you can "force" the mount of a dirty NTFS partition, and while that it true, you're almost certainly THEN going to get filesystem corruption as a result.

So, you will need to connect this to an MS Windows PC.

[Enigmapond]

I agree I would get to the command-line in windows and run:

CHKDSK /r

At least this would be the place to start.

[coffeecat]

@cghearn, I've moved the post you made in another thread into this one and it now appears as #2 in this one. It looks as though you tried to run ntfsfix. Mark Phelps and Enigmapond were not aware of this post when they posted. Perhaps you could clarify what you did.

[cghearn]

Ok, so I connected it to a Windows PC and ran chkdsk to no avail. Windows is saying that there is no issue. Any ideas on what the next step would be?

[cghearn]

In case it may help in any way, here is what I see when I view the drive.

[cghearn]

:BUMP:

Any chance I can get some help with this? The friend I'm trying to fix this for has no backups of her childrens photos, legal papers, etc. I would appreciate any help available.

[Mark Phelps]

:BUMP:

Any chance I can get some help with this? The friend I'm trying to fix this for has no backups of her childrens photos, legal papers, etc. I would appreciate any help available.

Unless I misunderstand what you wrote, you can access this partition Fine using MS Windows, right?

That being the case, then access it via MS Windows and copy the important files off to a USB stick or to an external drive. Then, connect up the USB or external drive and confirm you can open the files you saved.

If you keep messing around with this in Linux BEFORE you save off these files, you're running the risk of losing them for good!

[cghearn]

Unless I misunderstand what you wrote, you can access this partition Fine using MS Windows, right?

That being the case, then access it via MS Windows and copy the important files off to a USB stick or to an external drive. Then, connect up the USB or external drive and confirm you can open the files you saved.

If you keep messing around with this in Linux BEFORE you save off these files, you're running the risk of losing them for good!

I can access the drive, but all there are, are some folders with a string of numbers, no OS files.