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

[givré]

I've tried installing and mounting this myself in the Kubuntu console, and I get this error:

I used fdisk -l to see if my computer could see this device, but all it gives me is:

However, when I go to Disks & Filesystems in the Kubuntu System Settings, it detects my second hard drive.

Is this a hardware or a software problem?

If you have nothing with fdisk -l, it's could be an hardware problem.
Past here the result of 'sudo fdsik -l', your /etc/fstab and your /etc/mtab. We will try to debug that.
Also this partition is one the same drive you are using right now, or this is a partition of an other drive?

[wordplusnumber]

Here's what happens when I do 'sudo fdisk -l' - it seems to be showing up now.

Disk /dev/hda: 30.6 GB, 30606151680 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 3720 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hda1   *           1        3566    28643863+  83  Linux
/dev/hda2            3567        3720     1237005    5  Extended
/dev/hda5            3567        3720     1236973+  82  Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/hdb: 123.5 GB, 123522416640 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 15017 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hdb1   *           1       15017   120624021    7  HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sda: 320.0 GB, 320072933376 bytes
240 heads, 63 sectors/track, 41345 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 15120 * 512 = 7741440 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1       41345   312568168+   c  W95 FAT32 (LBA)

Here's my /etc/fstab:

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/hda1 / ext3 nouser,defaults,errors=remount-ro,atime,auto,rw,dev,exec,suid 0 1
/dev/hda5 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/hdc /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,atime,noauto,rw,dev,exec,suid 0 0
/dev/hdb1 /media/warehouse ntfs-3g silent,umask=0,locale=en_US.utf8 0 0

Here's /etc/mtab:

/dev/hda1 / ext3 rw,errors=remount-ro 0 0
proc /proc proc rw 0 0
/sys /sys sysfs rw 0 0
varrun /var/run tmpfs rw 0 0
varlock /var/lock tmpfs rw 0 0
procbususb /proc/bus/usb usbfs rw 0 0
udev /dev tmpfs rw 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts rw,gid=5,mode=620 0 0
devshm /dev/shm tmpfs rw 0 0
lrm /lib/modules/2.6.15-26-k7/volatile tmpfs rw 0 0

I have two hard drives in my machine, a 30 GB which I have Kubuntu on, and a 120 GB which I'm trying to format with nfts-3g. So the partition is on another drive.

[visvak]

looks like the NTFS - Linux problem has been solved fully and compltetly. i've been using it the whole day, and its perfect. the devs should be given a medal or somehting.

BTW, i have a blog and would like to post these instructions there, with credit to the author of course. what say givre ????

[givré]

Ok, i don't see any mistake.
Waht's happens if you do

sudo mount /dev/hdb1

If you have the same problem, did this drive unmount properly the last time you boot it from windows?
It seams that drives can't be mount with ntfs-3g if it hadn't be unmount properly.

[givré]

looks like the NTFS - Linux problem has been solved fully and compltetly. i've been using it the whole day, and its perfect. the devs should be given a medal or somehting.
BTW, i have a blog and would like to post these instructions there, with credit to the author of course. what say givre ????

givré is fine, but i don't really care, there is already a blog using it without credit. 8)
Anyway, don't forget to put a di, this is still a beta product.

[visvak]

thanks.

u dont want me to link to something with ur name ? ur website or somethin like that ?

[wordplusnumber]

When I try to mount it:

jayson@SERVO:~$ sudo mount /dev/hdb1
Password:
Couldn't mount device '/dev/hdb1': Input/output error
Mount failed.

This was a second hard drive from when I ran Windows XP on my machine. I then installed Kubuntu and was unable to access the drive. I didn't unmount anything - would I need to reformat the drive if that's the case?

Thanks a bunch for the help, btw.

[givré]

You should try first with the kernel driver. Change your line in /etc/fstab to that

/dev/hdb1 /media/warehouse ntfs nls=utf8,umask=0222 0 0

and try to mount it again

sudo mount /dev/hdb1

If this doesn't work, you could also try from a windows machine.

[visvak]

blog article posted. here it is - http://everythingelse.wordpress.com/2006/07/19/89/

[givré]

thanks.

u dont want me to link to something with ur name ? ur website or somethin like that ?

A link to this HowTo for help should be enough. Didn't do it for popularity, but only for linux, because i think it's important to show that we can write on NTFS, with a quite stable solution, made just by guessing, incredible isn't it?
Anyway, i didn't do lot's of think in all that, packaging is quite easy