Hi! I recently changed to Ubuntu and Ubuntu sometimes starts to constantly read an NTFS 8Tb drive. I'm guessing it is reading and doing some kind of error check because the noises sound like Windows used to when I ran chkdsk sometimes. Also I'm guessing this causes undo wear on the drive.

So I wonder if I change the drive to ext4 will this stop?

Thank you one and all!

Short answer! Probably!!
Back up your data, change the file system to ext4, restore. You should be good to go.

Another thought. Linux does not routinely do that kind of disk search / repair except when the file system has been found dirty during boot. You did not specify when this happens, but if during boot then it likely is trying to fix corruption. Linux does not do the same level repairs to an NTFS file system as windows does with chkdisk so if it is seeing repairs needed it is only a matter of time until they get bad enough that the only fix will be to either do the repair within windows or totally wipe the drive and lose the data.

There may be some setting that could do a check on ntfs but I'd think that isn't standard.

Guessing will get us lost. You'll need some facts. Use diags to see what is going on.

Start with smart tools maybe.

ext4 has some overhead too that could cause thrashing if you were to consider it.

Maybe, but a couple of things stand out to me. You're using NTFS?? Is this shared with Windows at all, or with Windows devices? And are you using any media players? Because sometimes they'll index/search files for any changes. Also, there are (can be/have been?) issues with tracker:

https://www.linuxuprising.com/2019/0...e-tracker.html

...which is a file-indexing utility. You don't say what version of Ubuntu, so it's hard to say.

Look in htop or stacer to see whats running when it starts sounding off

You might also look in the log files to see if they give you hint as to what is going on.

I'd be inclined to agree with the post above by Jefro, that certainly wouldn't be standard (filesystem check on a windows partition). ntfsfix is the most common software to do very limited checks for minor problems on windows filesystems and I can't imagine this happening without user intervention. There is no reason for any Linux to access a windows partition because the OS obviously doesn't use/need it.

http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/...ntfsfix.8.html

If you have a windows filesystem on a partition, you need some type of windows 'rescue' disk to check the filesystem. If you don't have this problem resolved, I would recommend you post answers/responses to the question posted above so members can help you attempt to resolve what the problem actually is. Also, use windows software on windows filesystems, use Linux software on Linux filesystems.