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NTFS hibernated partition: what is it?

Hi: Can somebody tell me what an NTFS hibernated partition is? Google is full of references but nobody explains what it is. I found it in this context:

Code:

  14        The NTFS partition is  hibernated.  Use  the  'remove_hiberfile'

              ntfs-3g  mount  option  to be able to read-write mount such vol-

              umes.

It seems pretty clear. It's a windows NTFS partition which has been hibernated - thus you won't be able to mount it as read/write. If you have windows on another partition, rebooting into that and shutting down properly should clear it, or you can force mount it with the remove_hiberfile option.

I see. I remember windows offers several options when one wants to shutdown. One of them is "Hibernate", or something like that. But what exactly is hibernation? And in what way is it useful to the user? I mean, what is the idea.

Hibernation in basic terms means dumping memory to disk and shutting down. When you boot up again the image is reloaded into memory and in theory you get a faster boot plus everything is exactly as you left it, same windows open, same files open, etc, etc.

Different operating systems do it differently. Windows uses a "hiberfile.sys" (presumably in the same vein as "pagefile.sys"), *nix systems just use swap as far as I know. For me it's not that useful - hence I never use it, to others (e.g. laptop users on the move) it might be.

Thank you very much for the explanation.

I don't know about how Windows hibernates, but I wouldn't touch a hibernated partition, let alone mount it read-write, if I were you. And especially, messing around with an NTFS partition is not a good idea on any day; Windows' file systems aren't exactly known for their resilient data protection and recovery.

This is very bad news. For I have just install FUSE and NTFS-3G and was very happy with it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by caravel (Post 4492533)

and in theory you get a faster boot plus everything is exactly as you left it, same windows open, same files open, etc, etc.

Correction: you get faster boot in practice. 5..10 seconds is normal.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DJ Shaji (Post 4493010)

And especially, messing around with an NTFS partition is not a good idea on any day; Windows' file systems aren't exactly known for their resilient data protection and recovery.

Incorrect, NTFS is virtually indestructible, unlike ext3fs that triggers massive disk check after a power failure.

Quote:

Originally Posted by stf92 (Post 4493037)

This is very bad news. For I have just install FUSE and NTFS-3G and was very happy with it.

As far as I know, ntfs-3g had a habit of making a mess on ntfs sometimes - i.e. using ntfs-3g for prolonged period accumulates small errors on ntfs volume (nothing critical - lost space free, small "security" errors, plus you could make file with special characters in filename that will be inaccessible on windows machine), so you have to boot windows sometimes and run chkdsk on shared partition, if you use ntfs-3g. For hibernated partition, boot into windows and shutdown it properly. Or try sharing non-system partition.

Thank you very much for your advice. As to the shared partition, it is one that does not contain any OS. I use as kind of a storage place.

It is a pity that windows OSs do not understand ext2 or ext3. It would be a courtesy on the part of MS to devise such a thing, given that Linux understands FAT and NTFS FSs. Specially considering that so many people runs both OSs in there machines.

Quote:

Originally Posted by stf92 (Post 4493359)

It is a pity that windows OSs do not understand ext2 or ext3.

There's ext2ifs. Install it in read-only mode and live happily ever after.

Quote:

Originally Posted by stf92 (Post 4493359)

It would be a courtesy on the part of MS to devise such a thing,

They aren't obliged to do that which means they won't do it unless there's huge demand.
Also cross-platform volume sharing normally violates security on both system. ntfs-3g allows you to view every file on windows from linux. ext2ifs allows you to view every file on linux system from windows.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SigTerm (Post 4493209)

Correction: you get faster boot in practice. 5..10 seconds is normal.

I said "in theory" because I've never used it personally.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SigTerm (Post 4493209)

I have just began to use ntfs-3g. Following your advice, I booted Windows and ran CHKDSK. It produced the following output, besides the log file:

Code:



Running CHKDSK in read-only mode.



CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 3)...

File verification completed.

CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 3)...

Index verification completed.

CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 3)...

Security descriptor verification completed.

Correcting errors in the Volume Bitmap.

Windows found problems with the file system.

Run CHKDSK with the /F (fix) option to correct these.



  19535039 KB total disk space.

  3557588 KB in 19986 files.

      5000 KB in 1775 indexes.

        0 KB in bad sectors.

    90211 KB in use by the system.

    65536 KB occupied by the log file.

  15882240 KB available on disk.



      4096 bytes in each allocation unit.

  4883759 total allocation units on disk.

  3970560 allocation units available on disk.

What is the danger if I run CHKDSK /F, could you tell me?

Quote:

Originally Posted by stf92 (Post 4493984)

What is the danger if I run CHKDSK /F, could you tell me?

/F fixes all disk errors automatically. As far as I know, I haven't lost data on my machine because of chkdsk /F (I usually use "chkdsk /F /V", though), but I cannot guarantee anything. I'd advise to "just do it".

If it was my system I would "just do it".