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I installed Ubuntu on my computer pretty recently, and I convinced my roommate to put it on his computer we were using as a media center for movies, etc hooked up to a TV. We had an external hard drive that had all the media on it, but when plugging it into either of the computers with Ubuntu, one of the file folders shows up as empty, and only one. We also have two computers with Windows, and the folder content is visible on those! I am running Ubuntu 14.10, and my roommate has 14.04.

I can't wrap my head around this because all the questions I’ve seen similar to this had all their folders universally disappear, while for us it's selective to this one folder only (which has mp4 files, like the other ones). Viewing "hidden files" doesn't help either.

dobey
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Judah Wolf
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  • Can You still see the files in some way from other system maybe (edit: sorry You said You can)? Is it file folder or a partition? Possible problems I see: corrupted drive, some Windows or drive's settings in a way, higher level of hiding files (rather not, I think Ubuntu hasn't something like that), problem with displaying not actually reading the files. – Esamo Feb 11 '15 at 06:48
  • It is simply one folder among several. It is visible in any windows system (that i've tried), and invisible in any ubuntu system (that i've tried). The folder is always visible, its the files inside it that disappear. On windows you can play the files as well so they are still functional. – Judah Wolf Feb 11 '15 at 06:59
  • Has that empty folder a size in properties? – Esamo Feb 11 '15 at 07:01
  • Can You create any file there from Ubuntu? – Esamo Feb 11 '15 at 07:08
  • We copied a file into the folder in ubuntu seemingly fine. The empty folder used to say the size was zero (in ubuntu), but now it has the thing we put in it. – Judah Wolf Feb 11 '15 at 07:22
  • It may be some sharing restrictions put on all the files like 'allow only the homegroup', so while Ubuntu is not interpreted as allowed user it doesn't see the files. Especially if the drive is accessed as a network machine (like cable LAN, WiFi, not directly USB to Ubuntu). Next thing I'd check is if the copied file is visible from Windows. Then anyway I'd look from Windows at permissions of one 'hidden' file. There are few things more to gather info like from Windows creating a file outside of a folder and then putting it in, checking for visibility. – Esamo Feb 11 '15 at 07:37
  • We first added a file to the folder in ubuntu, as I described originally. This file didn't show up in windows, it turns out. We then added a new file in windows and went back to ubuntu; the file added in windows didn't show up, and also now the one we added in linux doesn't show up either! – Judah Wolf Feb 12 '15 at 06:36
  • Maybe the folder has confused realities? :) Though it looks like accessing completely different folders. – Esamo Feb 12 '15 at 10:16
  • What do you mean by that? What should I do to try and make these downloads accessible? – Judah Wolf Feb 13 '15 at 04:36
  • possible duplicate of How to efficiently partition a single Windows-Ubuntu dual boot disk? – Fabby Feb 13 '15 at 08:24
  • Most likely, you need to run a filesystem check is Windows. It's not uncommon, that an unchecked NTFS filesystem can cause problems for Ubuntu. – mikewhatever Feb 27 '15 at 12:11

1 Answers1

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All this is due to Windows ntfs file permissions. Read this Q&A first (you're unfortunately in the "expert" category with your settings)

To change your settings to "non-expert mode", you need Windows to set the permissions so that Ubuntu can read them or convert the ntfs partition to ext4.

  1. Windows Solution (both Windows and Ubuntu will be able to read everything)

    a. Boot Windows

    b. Right-click the drive that has the problems and click Properties, then go to the tab Security

    The window that pops up should show the current owner. Click "Change." The "Select User or Group" pop up box appears.

    c. In the text box, type in your current user name (you should be an admin), and hit the "Check Names" button. Your name will be replaced with the "official" system name (i.e.,preceded by computer name and back slash) and click OK

    d. The box disappears, sending you back to the Advanced Security Settings window.

    e. A new tick box appears below owner, with the text Replace owner on subcontainers and objects. Select this tick box.

    f. Also select the tick box Replace all child object permission entries with inheritable permission entries from this object

    g. Make sure that Everyone and System appears on the Permission entries window, if not, click Add. The same box that appears in the step above shows up again. Type Everyone, click Check Names, then System and Check Names and then OK

    h. remove all other users and press Apply

  2. Ubuntu Solution. (Windows will not be able to read the files any more)

    Look here how to convert ntfs to ext4

Community
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Fabby
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  • Thank you, that worked! However it couldn't be implemented immediately because of the ownership settings; I had to do this fix first, in case anyone is having similar problems. – Judah Wolf Feb 14 '15 at 02:50
  • You had to change the owner??? I'll update my answer later: that is the most sure way off course! ;-) Apparently you are an expert! ;-) – Fabby Feb 14 '15 at 08:50