Mount NTFS drive with unknown/SFS file system

[XirWeb]

Hi :)

I've tried to install Ububntu 12.10 as my FIRST LINUX EXPRIENCE and it failed three times in 'copyng log files' stage of installation progress. anyway, after restart I've found that Ubuntu is installed ad everything is working. that time I've checked drives and all of them mounted properly. because of a problem in VGA I have 're-installed' Ubuntu and this time problem starts...

I have 2 hard disks installed, first one with windows on it and 6 logical drives (which is mounted successfully) and another hard disk with 2 drives. in windows these 2 drive doesn't have a type (logical/primary) and I think they're dynamic. but both of them have NTFS and are working greatly in windows 7.

I have one of these 2 drives(in second hard disk) mounted automatically and it's working. but problem is about second one, in windows disk manager I can see actually 3 drives in second disk, 2 of them have same name and label, but different sizes. if I jump to my computer then just one drive is shown, which size of that is equal to that two same-name drives.

when I click on that drive in Ubuntu I get this error:


Error mounting /dev/sdb3 at /media/developer/Store: Command-line `mount -t "ntfs" -o "uhelper=udisks2,nodev,nosuid,uid=1000,gid=1000,dma sk=0077,fmask=0177" "/dev/sdb3" "/media/developer/Store"' exited with non-zero exit status 12: Failed to read last sector (802684927): Invalid argument
HINTS: Either the volume is a RAID/LDM but it wasn't setup yet,
or it was not setup correctly (e.g. by not using mdadm --build ...),
or a wrong device is tried to be mounted,
or the partition table is corrupt (partition is smaller than NTFS),
or the NTFS boot sector is corrupt (NTFS size is not valid).
Failed to mount '/dev/sdb3': Invalid argument
The device '/dev/sdb3' doesn't seem to have a valid NTFS.
Maybe the wrong device is used? Or the whole disk instead of a
partition (e.g. /dev/sda, not /dev/sda1)? Or the other way around?



and this is output of fdisk -l :


Disk /dev/sda: 319.9 GB, 319936615424 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38896 cylinders, total 624876202 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x488a4889

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 63 76838894 38419416 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2 76838956 602007551 262584298 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5 76838958 138271454 30716248+ 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda6 138271518 199704014 30716248+ b W95 FAT32
/dev/sda7 199704078 322565605 61430764 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda8 384001758 445434254 30716248+ 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda9 445434318 486400004 20482843+ 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda10 486400068 527365754 20482843+ 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda11 527365818 588846509 30740346 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda12 601335808 602007551 335872 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda13 322566144 383999999 30716928 83 Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order

Disk /dev/sdb: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xe2752b79

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 63 976771119 488385528+ 42 SFS



here is parted -l :


Model: ATA MAXTOR STM332082 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 320GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 32.3kB 39.3GB 39.3GB primary ntfs boot
2 39.3GB 308GB 269GB extended lba
5 39.3GB 70.8GB 31.5GB logical ntfs
6 70.8GB 102GB 31.5GB logical fat32
7 102GB 165GB 62.9GB logical ntfs
13 165GB 197GB 31.5GB logical ext4
8 197GB 228GB 31.5GB logical ntfs
9 228GB 249GB 21.0GB logical ntfs
10 249GB 270GB 21.0GB logical ntfs
11 270GB 301GB 31.5GB logical ntfs
12 308GB 308GB 344MB logical linux-swap(v1)


Model: ATA ST3500418AS (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 500GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 32.3kB 500GB 500GB primary


Warning: Unable to open /dev/sr0 read-write (Read-only file system). /dev/sr0
has been opened read-only.
Error: /dev/sr0: unrecognised disk label


also, I've tried this:


sudo mount -t ntfs /dev/sdb2 /media/sdb2 -o defaults,umask=0


result:


NTFS signature is missing.
Failed to mount '/dev/sdb2': Invalid argument
The device '/dev/sdb2' doesn't seem to have a valid NTFS.
Maybe the wrong device is used? Or the whole disk instead of a
partition (e.g. /dev/sda, not /dev/sda1)? Or the other way around?



I'm really tired of searching and reading...
Really great job, Ubuntu, but Linux is yet scary cuz of such problems for me.
although there is a good sense after solving problems in geeky way, such what I've did with problem of setting FullHD res for my monitor :D


please help me!
thank you people

[oldfred]

SFS is dynamic partitioning by Windows. Normally it does that instead of the usual extended & logical partitions when you want to create more than the 4 allowed primary partitions.

Dynamic volume is a Microsoft proprietary format developed together with Veritas (now acquired by Symantec) for logical volumes.
You may be use a third-party tool, such as Partition Wizard MiniTool or EASEUS to convert a convert a dynamic disk to a basic disk without having to delete or format them.
I've never used any of these and so I can't be sure they will work.Be sure to have good backups as any major partition change has risks.

Used EASEUS Partition Master - free version used to include conversion
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1692248
EASEUS Partition Master - The free home edition converted both dynamic partitions into basic partitions in less than 5 minutes!!
http://www.partition-tool.com/personal.htm

Several users have used this, it has a liveCD download to use but you have to use the non-free version:
MiniTool Partition Wizard Professional Edition 5.2 to convert without loss of data the disk from dynamic disk to a basic disk.
also used Partition Wizard to set an existing partition logical instead of primary
Converted from dynamic with MiniTool, & repaired windows
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1779529
http://www.partitionwizard.com/convertpartition/convert-to-basic-disk.html

Posts by oldfred & srs5694
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1705481
SFS converting:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/26829-convert-dynamic-disk-basic-disk.html
Post 96 using sfdisk - must have only 4 partitions
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/26829-convert-dynamic-disk-basic-disk-10.html
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/309044
Also used testdisk
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1675420
Used testdisk but see caveats in Post#7:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1669418

EASEUS Partition Master
http://www.partition-tool.com/personal.htm
Partition Wizard
http://www.partitionwizard.com/free-partition-manager.html
GRUB2 2.00 recognizes defunct LDM headers from old dynamic partitions
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/grub2/+bug/1061255

can I mount my WinXP software RAID 0 array in Ubuntu/Kubuntu? dynamic use mdadm
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=833653&highlight=dynamic+disk

If not rebooted recover partition:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=10364557&postcount=34
Used testdisk but see caveats in Post#7:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1669418
Also used testdisk
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1675420
Not sure if in "free" version, but older version had it & was free see 4.2:
http://www.partitionwizard.com/help/convert-dynamic-disk-to-basic-disk.html
http://www.hdd-tool.com/partition-manager/change-partition-type-logical-to-primary-without-data-losing.htm
http://mypkb.wordpress.com/2007/03/28/how-to-non-destructively-convert-dynamic-disks-to-basic-disks/

[XirWeb]

Oh-uh!
thank you so much,
I didn't know about SFS before this...
let me try one of this options (Minitool partition wizard Home).

thanks again :)

[oldfred]

The home or free versions all used to include conversion. But they are converting to only including that in the upgrade or paid versions. Not sure if both have converted or if any others have the same capability. Other software download sites may have the older versions still available.

[XirWeb]

yes you are right... I've spent whole night searching with red eyes staring at monitor!
finally founded 2 of those programs and NO CHANCE, they can just convert simple or mirrored disks, it seems my case is not defined for them. I've also tried a cool tool named "testDisk" but it's whole command line based and without any backup its really scary to do anything.

what can I do now?! I heard somewhere that its provided in new linux cores to support windows dynamic drives but mainstreams like Ubuntu just ignored that in compile. I'm going to delete Ubuntu and try to free up some space, then repeat: "shrink one of drives in disk, expand other one" untill remains just one drive in dynamic disk, so I can use those softwares you have recommended.

Stupid,
but I don't know even why it's "dynamic"
and when I converted it? I simply hate it :D ah.

[oldfred]

There now is just some support for SFS starting in Linux and it causes the bug in grub2 2.00 with 12.10. But I do not think Linux works with SFS, just that grub was trying to allow chain loading into it. LDM seems to be another name for SFS or dynamic?

GRUB2 2.00 recognizes defunct LDM headers from old dynamic partitions
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...2/+bug/1061255 (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/grub2/+bug/1061255)

[XirWeb]

When I've 2 partitions in my dynamic disk, it actually recognized and mounted the first one! I think it's yet just BUGGY to be included. with a real pain, I've merged 2 partitions in 1 simple partition in my dynamic disk but... again that programs have no thing to do. they just support disks with 1 contiguous single partition, mine is 5 parts!

Changing partition type id to ntfs(7) doesn't works... windows just lost partition, Ubuntu now finds it as "ntfs" but with corrupted ntfs table. and... I don't know what to do! I hope people here can find the solution for me... I've changed it back to sfs(42).

finally I've re-installed Ubuntu, but before that I've tried to install Mint 14 but that bug you've mentioned makes it hang during installation. I'm in love with Ubuntu and Linux, but this problem...!

an image attached that shows current setup of partition in Disks.
thank you .

[oldfred]

You really have to remove the dynamic partitions, but it is not straight forward or else Microsoft would not say backup & totally repartition and reinstall.

Dynamic means it is a logical partition that does not have to be the same as the physical partitions. Linux will see the physical partitions. But Windows using the dynamic may have part of a partition in one physical partition and part in another.

[XirWeb]

ayy... wasted time for nothing!
thank you olfred, really good support.

yeas it's a BIG problem and I'm going back to windows for now. I've installed VirtualBox thanks to free size remained after deleting Ubuntu, it was slow but after installing guest features now is working almost good.

this problem-solving challenges showed me other side of "linux man" and I should admit windows is yet far better for ME, personally. with Virtual machine I can learn Linux and come back when matured.

thank you again,
bye :)

[oldfred]

Whatever works. :)

It only took me a while to mostly convert to Linux, but I had one app in Windows that had me dual booting for about 5 years. Only last year did I finally shut down XP as it did not easily add new drivers for AHCI and I had to have AHCI for my SSD.

I prefer having different operating systems on different drives, but laptops usually have only one drive. Ubuntu will work from a USB drive, but of course is not as fast as a SATA port drive. With newer systems now having USB3 ports (and some of the newest actually working for boot drives) and external drive may be a reasonable choice.

A lot of users like virtual installs for the ease of changing back & forth, but you lose some performance, so gaming and some application do not run as fast.

[rodrigokay]

maybe this helps.... http://packages.ubuntu.com/km/saucy/otherosfs/ldmtool