*URGENT! Unable to boot into linux due to NTFS drive
Linux - GeneralThis Linux forum is for general Linux questions and discussion.
If it is Linux Related and doesn't seem to fit in any other forum then this is the place.
Notices
Welcome to LinuxQuestions.org, a friendly and active Linux Community.
You are currently viewing LQ as a guest. By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics, receive our newsletter, use the advanced search, subscribe to threads and access many other special features. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today!
Note that registered members see fewer ads, and ContentLink is completely disabled once you log in.
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you need to reset your password, click here.
Having a problem logging in? Please visit this page to clear all LQ-related cookies.
Get a virtual cloud desktop with the Linux distro that you want in less than five minutes with Shells! With over 10 pre-installed distros to choose from, the worry-free installation life is here! Whether you are a digital nomad or just looking for flexibility, Shells can put your Linux machine on the device that you want to use.
Exclusive for LQ members, get up to 45% off per month. Click here for more info.
*URGENT! Unable to boot into linux due to NTFS drive
Hello! I am attempting to help my brother. I have been speaking with him accross the phone for a long while... and since it is accross the phone I can't copy or paste error messages or give you system specs. However, I do know he is running either SuSe 10.0 or Fedora Core 3. It is a 32bit system. He has two hard drives, his primary (hda) has only one partition, his main partition where Linux is installed. His second drive (hdb) has one partition, this is where Winblows (XP) is installed on an NTFS file system.
He is dual booting with grub.
The problem is when he tries to boot, in any runlevel. When it gets to checking the drives, it marks hda1 as "clean", and then foolishly attempts to check hdb1. This is an NTFS file system, but for some reason it thinks it is an ext3, so it freaks, says the "super-io" is corrupt, and bails to a root "fix it" prompt (with hda as read only).
Now I don't belive the kernel loads it's modules until after the disk check, right? Because he has NTFS installed as a LKM, but that wont help (right?) because it get's loaded AFTER it checks the drives, right?
I had him do a "tune2fs -i 0 -c 0 /dev/hdb1", but it wont do it because it claims it is a corrupted ext3 file system.
How do I force it not to check hdb1? Or is there another problem?
Has he booted up Windows twice since to have it do a file system check to clear any messages in the journal preventing it from being mounted by Linux. Also, it sounds like the entry for it in /etc/fstab may not be correct, if the entry has it as an ntfs file system, there's no reason for Linux to see it as ext3.
Quote:
foolishly attempts to check hdb1
Nothing foolish here. If the partition has an entry in /etc/fstab, means it should be mounted at boot-up. It has to be checked before being mounted, if it was mounted when it was corrupt you could possibly loose all data in this partition, what would you think of Linux if that were to happen?. Sounds to me like there may be a small issue broadcasted in the ntfs journal that may only be corrected by Windows, one can also highlight the drive and right click on it to run scandisk on the entire volume via "tools" as Windows will only do an integrity check the parts of the volume that has changed according to the journal since last time it was checked. And make sure the entry in /etc/fstab for the volume is properly configured, you should be able to view/edit the file when presented with a maintenance prompt.
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing
Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute
content, let us know.