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I've recently switched to ubuntu predominantly but I dual boot windows mainly for games which wont run on linux. I have an internal SSD I'd like to be able to use as a shared drive between my linux and windows installations but I've had no luck getting it to work.

According to my disc manager, the SSD is mounted as read/write and with NTFS as the file system, but its still read-only when I try to use it in linux whereas I'm able to properly write to it in Windows.

At this point I dont care about keeping whats on the drive if its easier to simply wipe the drive, I just want to have it set up in a way thats useful for dual-booting. I realize theres similar questions that have been answered but none of the solutions have worked for me yet

NathanSMS26
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  • Depends on the filesystem. Usually Windows will not read any of the common filesystems used by Linux. And Linux has problems reading the common filesystems used by Windows (ntfs, due to Microsoft IP policy). One common filesystem Windows and Linux can read-write would be "FAT". For Windows NTFS there is a package ntfs-3g which claims to be able to read-write NTFS (till Microsoft changes something). – Marco Jun 05 '23 at 11:09
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    By default Windows will hibernate instead of shutting down. Ubuntu will recognize that and will not mount the drive RW. You can set Windows to make a real shutdown in advanced power management. Ubuntu will then allow writing to the drive. – Jean-Marie Jun 05 '23 at 12:27
  • More info on fast start up which uses hibernation flag & hibernation. https://askubuntu.com/questions/843153/unable-to-mount-windows-10-partition-it-is-in-an-unsafe-state & https://askubuntu.com/questions/145902/unable-to-mount-windows-ntfs-filesystem-due-to-hibernation – oldfred Jun 05 '23 at 15:56

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You likely mounted the partition on your internal SSD drive properly.

The issue, however, is that, likely, that ntfs formatted partition is not "clean". You are using it with both MS Windows and Linux. MS Windows by default may not properly close the drive upon shutdown. This is deliberately, and part of a strategy of Windows to be able to resume more rapidly. However, this default behavior of Windows is not compatible with using the drive with multiple operating systems.

So to make it work nicely in the future:

  1. Make sure Windows is configured to always close all file systems fully on shutdown. This is done by disabling "Fast Startup".

  2. Always make sure to fully shut Windows down before switching to Ubuntu.

  3. To check and repair the file system of the drive, use the Windows disk checking tools. Make it a good habit to check your drives this way periodically, and certainly as soon as you would notice the drive again does not mount r/w in Ubuntu.

If you head the advice above, the chance that the partition becomes "unclean" is small.

vanadium
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