Cannot Mount NTFS External HDD on Fedora 11
 

Well basically, I have Fedora Core 11 (EXT4) Filesystem. I have 2 external NTFS Hard Drives with my data, and all I want to do it is access them. When I try to open it, the computer says it cannot mount. Here is the Specific message.

-A window pops up and says the following:

UNABLE TO MOUNT LOCATION
.org.freedesktop.devicekit.disks.error.failed:
Error creating mounting point: No such file or directory.


^the above is said with both drives, i know they aren't broken because they work perfectly with windows. Does linux have a problem with NTFS? What is the problem, any help would greatly be appreciated :)

-*Side Note*
-I have installed all Fedora Updates.

The mount point ie the folder to which the driver is to be mounted should be created first.

eg:
you should first make the mount point in your /mnt dir
Then mount the device say /dev/sda0 using the following command

Hm. I'm not familiar with Fedora or Gnome, but..

Open a console. If you don't know the /dev/ path to your hard disk, check out fdisk -l. Make a directory to mount the drive to (mkdir /mnt/my-ntfs-0) and try mounting it: mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sdb1 /mnt/my-ntfs-0. If this doesn't work, try changing the -t option to ntfs. If you get a message like "unknown file system type", you need to install support for ntfs. Make sure you get the device path correct, /dev/sdb1 is likely, but it varies.

If you can mount it manually, then blame whatever gui (I assume gnome) for doing it wrong.

try using the dmesg command and post the output after your plugin the drive and get that failure message. From the looks of that message it looks like it can't find the mount point directory. So we first need to see where it is trying to mount to.

You also might want to look through /var/log/messages and see if anything shows up in there also.

Well, I actually saw on the internet that Linux (specifically Fedora) can see and access NTFS volumes but can't edit, wright, or do anything with them. So I was wondering, the two hard drives I want to use, is it possible for my to format them into EXT4 so linux can access them and edit, wright, and all of that? However I need windows to be able to access the EXT4 also. Is this possible.
-Basically if i make the two hard drives ext4, will Linux and Windows be able to access them completely with no problems?

After a quick read, the above posters' suggestions should help you get the NTFS drives mounted under Linux -- provided your Fedora has a new enough version of NTFS-3g, which as of version ~2.0+ or so, has full read/write ability on NTFS, non-encrypted filesystems.

As for if you were to make all your filesystems Ext4, then as far as I know, Windows will not be able to read them**. As a general rule, Windows cannot read any Linux filesystems, while Linux on the other hand, can read all or just about all, Windows filesystems.

** = There are some windows tools available, which apparently can allow windows to read Ext2 filesystems, but I have never tried them, or researched them, and have no clue whether they work, or where you might get them.

Hope that helps a bit :)
Sasha

-Ah, i tried what you said, I used the terminal and i created the directory "mkdir /mnt/mount-point" then when i tried the next command ("mount /dev/sda0 /mnt/mount-point") it says that I must specify my filesystem type. I know that the file system type is NTFs so how do i specify it in the command?

mount -t ntfs /dev/sda0 /mnt/mount-point

The above assumes that the mount point/directory you created to mount your windows partitions is named "mount-point" and is in the /mnt directory. The "sda0" was just an example and is not going to work. You will have to use the actual drive your ntfs partitions are on. You can get this by loggin in as root and running the command "fdisk -l", without quotes and with Lower case Letter L) Replace sda0 in the above command with whatever shows up as ntfs in the fdisk command. If you don't understand, post the output of fdisk command and someone here will instruct you.

okay so I open terminal, entered into root and typed the command "fdisk-1"

Here is the exact Results:

Disk /dev/sda: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xc8ccc8cc

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 26 204800 83 Linux
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda2 26 14593 117013441 83 Linux

Disk /dev/dm-0: 119.8 GB, 119819695104 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14567 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/dm-0 doesn't contain a valid partition table

Disk /dev/dm-1: 117.1 GB, 117159493632 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14243 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/dm-1 doesn't contain a valid partition table

Disk /dev/dm-2: 2650 MB, 2650800128 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 322 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/dm-2 doesn't contain a valid partition table

Disk /dev/sdb: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xbf5cbf5c

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 9729 78148161 7 HPFS/NTFS



-The drive I wanted to mount has to be the last one, since its 80GB and mine is 80GB so since it matched, I saw it that is said "/dev/sdb" (without quotes) therefore I typed in your command exactly like this:

"mount -t ntfs /dev/sdb /mnt/mount-point"

Here is the results I got from that command:

NTFS signature is missing.
Failed to mount '/dev/sdb': Invalid argument
The device '/dev/sdb' doesn't seem to have a valid NTFS.
Maybe the wrong device is used? Or the whole disk instead of a
partition (e.g. /dev/sda, not /dev/sda1)? Or the other way around?



-I dont even know if any of my commands were correct, thats just what i recieved from what I typed in. Any corrections, help, or directions would really help :)

-BTW I assumed that the last drive was the one i wanted to mount since it said it was 80GB...is it right though? and since it said "sdb" there I assumed thats what i needed to use instead of sda0...is this right though? Thanks for any help.

mount -t ntfs /dev/sdb /mnt/mount-point"

You forgot the 1, /sdb is the drive not the partition. Change it to:

I assume you have created a directory as a mount point named "mount-point" in the /mnt directory?

Hi,
so anyway here is the results so far.
-I took and open terminal and entered the root
-Then just to make sure everything is the same, I typed in "fdisk -l" again and for some reason my hard drive now happens to be sdc instead of sdb...why?

Disk /dev/sdc: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xbf5cbf5c

(I did turn off the hard drive today and I did reboot my system), however anyway, I took the command you gave me and changed it to sdc now. So here is the command I typed it, please tell me if its right:

"mount -t ntfs /dev/sdc1 /mnt/mount-point" <Tell me if this the right command.

Here is the results I got from that command

ntfs-3g-mount: failed to access mountpoint /mnt/mount-point: Input/output error

So then since it failed, I went into my mnt directory and found that "mount-point" was not there. So I went back to terminal and tried to make another mount-point by typing this command

"mkdir /mnt/moint point"

And when i typed in "mkdir /mnt/moint point" it tells me this: "mkdir: cannot create directory `/mnt/mount-point': File exists"

-Something is really weird, any help? you find my explanation confusing just say and I will just copy and paste all the text from terminal. :) Thanks for any help

-Bumblebee=linux noobie who needs help for linux.

it would be better if you highlight your code with the # option in the panel..
can give us the output of the command

Couldn't say for certain. This usually happens if you attach or connect another drive of some type and disconnect it??

As far as the directory "mount-point", not sure what the problem is there. mount point (with a space between the words) is totally different than mount-point (with a dash between the words). If you are creating the directory with a Live CD, every time you re-boot you will need to do it again as you are working in RAM.

Do you have ntfs-3g installed?

I am not sure what ntfs-3g is so probably not :)
-Can you please give me a link to it or a command for it in YUM?
-Thank you so much for help so far to everyone!

ntfs-3g Are the drivers to mount Microsofts NTFS Filing System in Linux.

'yum search ntfs-3g' should confirm if you are able to find them in the repository then 'yum install ntfs-3g'. If this doesn't appear to work you may need another repository or another method of installing ntfs-3g.

These days NTFS support comes out of the box in most of the distros.... I dont think you ll have to install it separately....
The mount command can auto detect the file system... (please correct me if i am wrong), i never even had to give the -t option...

I just went through this ... I had to create a custom HAL policy. I created a policy in
/usr/share/hal/fdi/policy/10osvendor/20-ntfs-3g.fdi

In the file I added the following XML info:
With this policy, and my user with proper group permissions. I am able to mount my ntfs partition from Nautilus.

If you use policykit, you might need to add a policy in your Policy.conf file.

This is with ntfs3g installed, and using hal to handle mounts.

I don't see a specific mention of ext4, but I use ext2fsd to access my linux partitions while in windows. The major downside is lack of case sensitivity. Ie, I have two folders, "music" and "Music". I only get access to one of them in Windows. I also tried Ext2Ifs, but (1) it's ugly (2) community development is prohibited. It did work though.

Okay so i ran yum search ntfs-3g and it said i did have it so i ran yum install ntfs-3g and it said already installed nothing to do meaning i already have it...

Create the file I posted above... Reboot and try to access the NTFS partition. It worked for me...

Do i do this terminal???
If i really do this in terminal then do i enter each new line as an individual command or one big command?

Nah... this is a xml file that tells linux to use ntfs-3g to open your NTFS partition when you click on the icon. Here is what you do:

Terminal:

This will open gedit, now copy and paste the XML code I posted above, then save the document.

Double check to see if the file has been created, with:

It should print out the path to verify that the file has been created.

Wow, I had so many hard times with Fedora, it was buggy, weird, and not user friendly so I just reinstalled and put the latest Ubuntu and it mounts my drives no problem with no commands required. It already has all my needed drivers, works better, starts faster. ITs 10x better for noobs then Fedora i think. Thanks for the help though, since I am new to linux I plan on wasting some DVD's so i can try a bunch of different linuxes including gentoo, pclinux, slackware, mandriva, and bunch of others just for the heck of it, but Ubuntu seems a lot more noob-friendly so I am sticking with that for now.

-THANKS for the help, its just fedora is not for a linux noob.

The directory name you have chosen has a space in it. I personally don't allow spaces in my file names and paths, but you can do this if you want. But to do it, you need to enclose the path in quotes:

# mkdir "/mnt/mount point"

# mount -t ntfs /dev/sdb1 "/mnt/mount point"

Then, every time you want to refer to this mount point, you will have to remember to enclose the path in quotes. Over a period of years you will type so many extra quotes that you might have spent that lost time inventing a cure for cancer instead. But it's a free world and we all choose our own paths ... umm, no pun intended.

The alternative is not to allow spaces in paths and file names:

# mkdir /mnt/mount_point

# mount -t ntfs /dev/sdb1 /mnt/mount_point

Well, I wont be able to do that now, because I took my hammer, smashed Fedora and put on Ubuntu and been using it so far all day, all i can say is that, it might take a bit getting used to but its interface is similar to fedora's but its way more user friendly so once I learn simple things like that then I will move to fedora core 12 which hopefully will be better then core 11 becuase core 11 i think gives a bad representation of linux overall.
-There were so many problems I also had with fedora i never told you about, there was a wierd virtual secured hard drive which did not exist and i couldn't access it which was wierd, plus the add/remove software worked really weird i had no clue how to use while in ubuntu is way better.

Sad you haven't had any luck with Fedora 11 and when I had it installed, it detected ntfs out of box with no probs... I'm using Fedora 10 and I don't think Fedora 11 is completely ready but I heard from another community member that CentOS is good...