[SOLVED] failed to mount NTFS drives

[Louis de Broglie]

Hi,

I am a ubuntu user and I do not use windows. But for some reason, i needed to install xp yesterday. So i formatted ubuntu drive and installed xp there but my xp system crashed so I reinstalled ubuntu. Now i see that i can't mount any drive. I suspect it might be a virus problem for which xp crashed( again it's only my guess, i have no idea why it crashed :-p ).

Here is the error message i receive from ubuntu :

http://i38.tinypic.com/8z38l0.png

[iaculallad]

Probably you have an unclean shutdown on your ******* OS (If you're dual booted) thus it produce this kind of error:

On your terminal, as the message displayed:


sudo mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sda8 /media/Others -o force

[Louis de Broglie]

I did not dual boot . I did a clean install of windows . Then after the crash i formatted windows and install ubuntu there.

Here is the output of that command :



$LogFile indicates unclean shutdown (0, 0)
WARNING: Forced mount, reset $LogFile.
fuse: failed to access mountpoint /media/Others: No such file or directory

[iaculallad]

Huh, I'd copied the mount point on your error message and it's not present in your system. Try posting the result of the command below:


cat /etc/fstab

and


sudo fdisk -l

[Louis de Broglie]

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
# /dev/sda1
UUID=2c79bd70-e27d-4065-9a91-8b2a90ef48a0 / ext3 relatime,errors=remount-ro 0 1
# /dev/sda3
UUID=182f0cd7-26ec-4acd-92f5-01c7b931e27b none swap sw 0 0
/dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0
/dev/scd1 /media/cdrom1 udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0


here they r :


Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0cd70cd6

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 3562 28611733+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 3793 19457 125829112+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda3 3563 3792 1847475 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda5 3793 7757 31848831 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda6 7758 11722 31848831 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda7 11723 15687 31848831 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda8 15688 19457 30281728 7 HPFS/NTFS

Partition table entries are not in disk order

[iaculallad]

Ow. I forgot, do include what displays with this command:


ls -l /media

[Louis de Broglie]

Output :



total 8
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 6 2008-09-10 20:39 cdrom -> cdrom0
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2008-09-10 20:39 cdrom0
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2008-09-10 20:39 cdrom1

[iaculallad]

On your terminal:

-Create a mount point:


sudo mkdir /media/Others

and do the mounting:


sudo mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sda8 /media/Others -o force

[Louis de Broglie]

Wha ! Man it worked :):):):):):):)

Can you explain what those codes do ?

The first one creates a directory in /media/Others i think. But what is the necessity ?

I don't understand the second command . Never used so many options when mounting :-p

[iaculallad]

Wha ! Man it worked :):):):):):):)

Can you explain what those codes do ?

The first one creates a directory in /media/Others i think. But what is the necessity ?

I don't understand the second command . Never used so many options when mounting :-p

The first command will create a mount point for your device ( sda8 ).


sudo mkdir /media/Others

The seconds command forces the mount command even if errors are incurred.


sudo mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sda8 /media/Others -o force

For more info on mount, you could:


man mount

------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you like you could auto mount your sda8 partition everytime you boot your computer. You have to include it in your fstab file.

Unmount the partition:


sudo umount /media/Others

Then open fstab for editing:


gksudo gedit /etc/fstab

and insert the lines of text below on the bottom-most part of the file (Copy and Paste it).


/dev/sda8 /media/Others ntfs defaults,umask=007,gid=46 0 1

Save and Close the file. And, on your terminal again:


sudo mount -a

[Louis de Broglie]

So if I want to mount all of my ntfs drives when I boot ubuntu , I just add lines for all of them in the fstab ?

For example if I want to mount drive Backup ( which is sda7 i think ) the required line will be :



/dev/sda7 /media/Backup ntfs defaults,umask=007,gid=46 0 1



Btw, do I need to create a mount point for device sda7 too ? :)

And do I need to force mount when mounting first time ? :)

Sorry for the confusion -> There are no drive named Nash( don't ask me why I said there was :) )

[iaculallad]

So if I want to mount all of my ntfs drives when I boot ubuntu , I just add lines for all of them in the fstab ?

For example if I want to mount drive Nash ( which is sda7 i think ) the required line will be :



Btw, do I need to create a mount point for device sda7 too ? :)

And do I need to force mount when mounting first time ? :)

Each partition requires a unique mount point. So yes, you do need to create 'Nash'. No, you don't need to force mount partitions. Force mount can only be applied on partitions that did not have a 'clean shutdown' status.

[Louis de Broglie]

All of my NTFS partitions got that status.:(

[iaculallad]

All of my NTFS partitions got that status.:(

You could force mount it with the given commands above (The one you successfully used). That would solve the problem. Just follow the steps we did on your first posts.

[Louis de Broglie]

OK. It works. But now none of the mounted drives unmounts from gui.

So i will have to use terminal from now on to mount or, unmount ?

[iaculallad]

OK. It works. But now none of the mounted drives unmounts from gui.

So i will have to use terminal from now on to mount or, unmount ?

No, the drives will automatically mount on Ubuntu startup. That only happens if you add the partition on the fstab file.

[Louis de Broglie]

Ok. Everything seems ok. thanks for your support and time.:)

[iaculallad]

Ok. Everything seems ok. thanks for your support and time.:)

Ok. Glad to have helped. If problem arises in your Ubuntu usage, you can always come back, the forum's got plenty of helping hand to help you sort your problem. Goodluck and Go Ubuntu.

[vanadium]

No, you don't need to force mount partitions. Force mount can only be applied on partitions that did not have a 'clean shutdown' status.
A small additional remark: you should never "permanently" use force mount. You should use force mount only temporarily, in an emergency, for example to retrieve the data before reformatting the drive. There is a reason why Ubuntu won't automount "unclean" volumes: it is because you risk corrupting the file system further. You risk major data loss.

For this reason, you'd better not maintain ntfs volumes if you do not have MS Windows. Linux cannot fully check and repair them. Therefore, use ntfs only if you also have ready access to MS Windows. Otherwise, reformat them in ext3 or another Linux file system.

(That said, I *have* an ntfs volume. However, it is a Lacie Multimedia disk and the data are stored elsewhere (in duplicate). If anything goes wrong, I will just reformat the drive in ntfs to "repair" the file system and copy the data back).