Searched the Internet and attempted many solutions for this, nothing is working. I am relatively inexperience with Linux but I need this HD hooked up ASAP before I head to Afghanistan. Thanks for any assistance you can give.

Using Dell Inspiron Mini with Ubuntu 8.04. Connecting WD My Passport External HD. Error message: "Cannot mount the Volume. Unable to mount the volume 'My Passport'" with Details:

"$LogFile indicates unclean shutdown (0,0) Failed to mount '/dev/sdc1': Operation not supported Mount is denied because NTFS is marked to be in use. Choose one action: Choice 1: If you have Windows then disconnect the external devices by clicking on the 'Safely Remove Hardware' icon in the Windows taskbar then shutdown Windows cleanly. Choice 2: If you don't have Windows then you can use the 'force' option for your own responsibility. For example type on the comman line: mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sdc1 /media/My Passport -o force Or add the option to the relevent row in the /etc/fstab file: /dev/sdc1 /media/My Passport ntfs-3g force 0 0"

Assuming I am illiterate with Linux can someone guide me to fix this problem

Where's Ubuntu? You refer to the Dell laptop and external hard drive, which one is Ubuntu on? If it is on the external, what's on the internal? Your error message refers specifically to an ntfs (windows) on sdc1 which would be the first partition of the third drive, maybe a USB stick. You need to let us know what operating systems you have and where they are.

The error message gives you three specific solutions to try, have you tried each?

U get this kinda error if you simply unplug the USB disk without unmounting in Linux or removing safely from Windows.

So now it can't be mounted before it is checked for consistency. If you don't have a Windows box, you will need to install ntfsprogs and run the ntfsfix command to check the partition.

Problem solved. Used ntfsfix. Thanks