Hello all
I am new ubuntu 8.10 user so i'm totally newb on these area (ubuntu OS)
Until today i was using Vista and i wanted a lil change.
So to my problem.

I have 2 discs in my computer + 1 external
1 is 80HB 2 is 500GB and external is 350GB

so i formated the 80GB and installed Ubuntu 8.10 on it (use to have Vista on 80GB)

instaled it alright everithing is working only thing is i cant read/write 500 and 350GB becaose i didnt format them (have alot of importand things on both of them so they re both 80% full and i canot aford to format them becaose i need them for other windows pcs for work and at home.

i already tried what i saw on other sites with ntfs-3g and i didn't have much luck.

so can now some1 guide me step-by-step so i will be able to read/write on these discs. Like i sad i am total new user of ubuntu have it only for few hours.



opotional: and if someone can tell me how to make my ubuntu look like those on youtube i saw but the NTFS problem is more important

(you can also write to me on zanbergmann@gmail.com or on msn once i figure out how to use it)

welcome to LQ!!

As far as I know, NTFS support should be part of Ubuntu. You might have to manually mount the drives---I'm not sure exactly how Ubuntu does this.

Open a terminal and try this:

sudo mount ##this tells you everything that is already mounted.

sudo fdisk -l ##This tells you the drives that the BIOS could see at startup (may not show the USB external).

Assuming that your 500GB is seen, it will probably be sdb (maybe hdb). See if you can mount it as follows:

sudo mkdir /mnt/drive2
sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/drive2 ##Depending on how the drive is partitioned, you can mount any of the partitions by simply using sdb2, sdb3, etc.

Please use descriptive thread titles in future (ones that say something about the problem(s)) you're having. You are told to do this when you post a thread..

If you are in ubuntu, go to the Places menu on top left, and look down the list. If your 500GB HDD is installed in your machine, it should be visible! Just click on it, and ubuntu will mount the disk for you.

Ok now i gived ubuntu in english language (i understand some thing better than in my language and it will be easier to post here)
and now when i go places--and click the 500GB HDD i get these Cannot mount volume. and lower You are not privileged to mount this volume.


and lil later i get error : DBus error org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NoReply: Did not receive a reply. Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a reply, the message bus security policy blocked the reply, the reply timeout expired, or the network connection was broken.

what do i have to do now ? if anyone know please

Well can least someone give me a cllue how to ogin as root (mabie than i will be able to mount it)

Did you try my suggestions?

To login as root (thus avoiding sudo), you have to first enable the root account:
in a terminal, enter:
sudo passwd root

So what have you done so far to try to mount the devices?

fdisk -l -- this will list all the storage devices currently recognized and print out some information on their partitions.

When you want to use ntfs-3g you have to explicitly specify it; otherwise the kernel will use its old kernel-space ntfs driver:

mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/whatever /mount/point


For normal users to be able to mount partitions, it is most convenient if there is an entry in /etc/fstab with options 'noauto' and 'user'. The partitions should be identified by a unique ID rather than just something like '/dev/sdb1' because 'sdb1' is not a unique name. For example:

/dev/disk/by-uuid/002e450c-fd52-43fb-a390-a69892025ae3 /mnt/MyPhotos ntfs-3g noauto,user,noatime 0 2

Eye-candy that you can find on youtube videos are powered by compiz-fusion.

Read more about ntfs-3g driver, and configure /etc/fstab file, that will solve your problems.

Make sure you have the ntfs-3g and the fuse packages installed. The ntfs-3g driver is a userland driver. It needs the "fuse" kernel driver loaded before you can mount with the "ntfs-3g" file system type. Look at the output of "lsmod | grep fuse". If you don't see the fuse module, the try to load it with "sudo /sbin/modprobe fuse".

Next, look at the information on your partitions and filesystems.
# to list the partitions
sudo /sbin/fdisk -l

# to check the filesystem on a partition (sdb1 in this example)
sudo file -s /dev/sdb1

# this will give you more information on a filesystem (sdc1 in this example)
udevinfo -q env -n /dev/sdc1


Another quick thing to check is that your don't have "noacpi" as a boot option in grub. You can look at your grub entries from the menu.lst file:
sudo less /boot/grub/menu.lst

Look at the "kernel (hd0,0)..." line. At the end of this line are boot options. The udevd and hald and dbusd daemons all depend on acpi.

For the external drive, consider using an /etc/fstab entry that uses the UUID number or the LABEL instead of the device node. This is where the "udevinfo -q env -n /dev/sdc1" command can come in handy. The filesystem UUID number is one of the items reported.

I tried everithing u guys sad
i even found a way to log .on as root and i tried all these things as root(administrator)
and in root when i trie to mount it sas to me :

log file indicates unclean shutdown
failed to mount '/dev/sdb': operation not supported
mount is denied becaose NTFS is marked to be in use.
chose one action:

choise1: if u have wondows then disconect the external devices by clicking on 'safely remove hardvare' icon in the windows
taskbar then shutdonw windows cleanly
(tried to do these and it didnt work)

choise2: if u don't have windows then u can use the 'force'option for yoour own responsibility. for example type on command line:

mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sdb /media/disk - force

or add the option to the relevant row in the /etc/fstab file:

/dev/sdb /media/disk ntfs-3g force 0 0
(tried these too and didnt work either)


and in the end i get error

DBus error org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NoReply: Did not receive a reply. Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a reply, the message bus security policy blocked the reply, the reply timeout expired, or the network connection was broken.

danm im to stupid to get this working

/btw if i write /etc/fstab in terminal (while im in root) it say back

bash: /etc/fstab: Permission denied

choise1: if u have wondows then disconect the external devices by clicking on 'safely remove hardvare' icon in the windows
taskbar then shutdonw windows cleanly
(tried to do these and it didnt work)


ups i tired this again on USB 130MB and it works
sry for missleding u guys

now the real problem is how to do these in internal drive ? well the thing is that i can't do with internal or external disk like i did with USB flash drive
(it don't give me the option in vista)

mabie it will help if i reinstall ubuntu (will tell u than if it work

I forgot about that "NTFS in use" thing - in situations where you are sure the filesystem is not in use, just add 'force' to the option list in fstab. I've encountered so many situations (manufacturer bug, etc) that would mark the filesystem "in use" that I have sometimes wondered if a random number generator is somehow involved in deciding whether the filesystem is in use or not.

Ok so what do i need to write in terminal now? i rly dont know im using linux for 2 days now
on vista it was all easier (well i say this now becaose i newer used linux and used windows for all my life)