Trying to mount an external UBS drive with ntfs as read/write

Sanford Stein · 08-26-2008, 02:47 PM

I am trying to use an external USB drive for image backup. The drive was apparently configured with an ntfs file systems. I installed ntfsprogs and fuse. The drive will mount, but only for reading.

My line in /etc/fstab is:
/dev/sdd1 /media/usb ntfs rw,user,noauto 0 0

If I run dmesg | tail, I see:
NTFS-fs error (device sdd1): load_system_files(): $LogFile is not clean. Mounting read-only. Mount in Windows.

Any ideas how I can get this device to be read/write?

Thanks,
SS

MS3FGX · 08-26-2008, 03:05 PM

First, I would suggest you use NTFS-3G over NtfsProgs.

As for the actual problem, it sounds like the volume wasn't cleanly unmounted. The easiest way to fix this is to mount it under Windows (which will likely want to run a check on it) and then unmount it. Then it can be mounted under Linux.

If you are unable to get it mounted under Windows, you will have to force mounting it. This could lead to data loss however, so I would try to get it to a Windows machine if at all possible.

Sanford Stein · 08-26-2008, 04:06 PM

Thank you for your reply, MSGF3X.

I cannot immediately gain access to a Windows system, so I'd like to try to force a
read/write mount. This is a test system so I am not worried about data loss.

I saw the 'force' option in other forums but when I added it to the options list in /etc/fstab I was told 'bad option'. Same thing when I tried '-o rw,force' on the command line.

What is the proper syntax? I have RHEL 5.1.

I did download and install ntfs-3g but, as you predicted, it did not solve my problem.

Thanks,
SS

sydney-troz · 08-26-2008, 04:47 PM

Another thing is it may have been used to hibernate a \/\/indoes system, I think I had the same problem once. If data loss is not a problem, why not just reformat?

arizonagroovejet · 08-26-2008, 05:10 PM

What distro are you using and what version (it's useful to add this to your profile). On any reasonable up to date distro you should not need to put anything in to /etc/fstab in order to mount the drive so remove the fstab entry. Install ntfs-3g (check your disto's package manager) then plug the USB drive in again. If it still doesn't mount read-write then unmount it, get http://flomertens.free.fr/ntfs-config/ run it and enable read/write then plug the USB drive back in again. The drive should now be read/write.

uncle_philip · 08-27-2008, 12:31 AM

[QUOTE=Sanford Stein;3260666]Thank you for your reply, MSGF3X.

I saw the 'force' option in other forums but when I added it to the options list in /etc/fstab I was told 'bad option'. Same thing when I tried '-o rw,force' on the command line.

If my memory is correct,

under ntfs-3g, to force to use the drive,
ntfs-3g 'drive' -o force

pinniped · 08-27-2008, 12:37 AM

I never had problems with ntfs-3g:

mount /dev/some_ntfs_partition /mnt -t ntfs-3g -o force (in most cases I don't need 'force')

The default is to mount the volume rw, so there is no need for -o rw

Sanford Stein · 08-27-2008, 09:04 AM

I used 'ntfs-3g {device} {mount point} -o force' as recommended by Uncle Philip and it worked beautifully -- the $LogFile problem was cleared and I can now backup/restore.

Thanks to all of you for your responses. I appreciate everybody's suggestions and time.

SS