What is the best and easiest way to access data on an NTFS file-system drive in Ubuntu 16.04LTS?

Install ntfs-3g, plug in drive, mount it (you can use the command line or you should be able to use the file manager)
If ntfs-3g isn't already installed, you can do so with:

No success, it tells me ntfs-3g is already installed, then try to mount it and it shows an error splash screen.

Just to inform you that this drive is a 1TB internal hard disk on my desktop.

Easier way is probably to go to system-tools -> system-preferences -> Disks (if you have classic gnome desktop)
or just type Disks in dash search bar if you use unity.

and then try mounting your ntfs partitions via gui.

hope that helps.

I still get the splash screen saying "error mounting file system"

Windows 10's default shutdown actually hibernates the system. If you want to mount the drive in Ubuntu disable fast start up mode.

it clearly states : "The NTFS partition is in an unsafe state. Please resume and shutdown"

probably an unclean shutdown/reboot , or maybe a hard reboot was done after hibernation, due to which the filesystem is in unclean state.

boot up into windows , let the filesystem get checked automatically if necessary , and then do a clean reboot into ubuntu.

hope that helps.

The 'unsafe state' mentioned in that message means hibernated and no Linux system I am aware of will mount a hibernated partition so you need to do a full shutdown without hibernation and turn off anything related to fast boot.

Check out the top answer here:

http://askubuntu.com/questions/14590...to-hibernation

The trick is to mount the NTFS partition using ntfs-3g's remove_hiberfile option.

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As a warning to the OP (That is you MacP) just in case please do not use the answer in the previous thread. You could lose unsaved data.

There is also a command:

mount.ntfs-3g

You are warned to avoid trying to access a hibernated ntfs drive.

It may be possible to use the old ntfs read only access. There is no real need to use ntfs-3g if you simply want to read from ntfs. ntfs-3g is for writing to them.

It's good to be able to approach these things from the vantage point of knowledge.

Rather than just providing a vague "warning", what are the potential disadvantages of accessing a hibernated NTFS drive (in two situations, read-only and read-write)?

OK good point. The other posted replies and links did offer warnings and the links described solutions in the pages. I just repeated the warning that the most secure way would be to shut down the windows machine properly instead of hibernate. It is also possible that the OP was never intending to hibernate and some other condition exists leaving the drive in this condition. Not to mention that the wrong partition is trying to be accessed.

My point was that they may be able to simply read access the data. I have never tried this situation and not sure I can unless I install a VM. What I suggested is that linux has had ntfs read built in for a very long time. It may be possible to use the old ntfs mount to read the hibernated drive. Since the OP wanted to get data off, I can't determine if they just want to read the data or change the data on ntfs. Ntfs-3g will let you change data for good or bad.

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