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

[szaka]

$ sudo ntfsfix /dev/sdc1
Mounting volume... $MFT has invalid magic.
ntfs_mft_load(): Failed.
Failed to load $MFT: Input/output error

This means that the signature of the NTFS superbock doesn't match the expected value. There can be several reasons for this:

1) Media/hardware error, for instance bad sectors.

2) Something modified it. At the present there isn't any NTFS software on Linux which would modify this value. Only commercial partitioners/imagers/backup softwares do.

3) If the disk is external then it must be unmounted first, only afterwards can be safely detached from the hardware. Otherwise when the disk loses power anything can happen. This is not NTFS specific, it's basically true for all file systems on all OSes (usually no problem happens if the rule is not followed but in such cases there isn't guarantee and it's basically a lottery with the data to lose).

4) The partition was accidentally formatted.

5) The NTFS superblock is somewhere else. This information is stored in the NTFS bootsector. Ntfs-3g never modifies the bootsector but there are quite many softwares on Linux and Windows which do. For example, partitioners, boot managers, boot loaders, backup softwares, imagers, recovery and rescue softwares.