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Yesterday, I installed Ubuntu 16.04 on an old HP Pavilion G4 notebook. The HDD had 3 NTFS partitions:

  • Windows Loader
  • Windows System
  • Data

The user of the laptop is not sure how to use Ubuntu. She lives in Uruguay and alot of people use Linux with Ubuntu there. Because of this, I want to give her her old NTFS data partition to use it with Linux.

The creation was easy, but if I try to open the partition with the file manager, possibly Nautilus, I get this:

Error mounting /dev/sda3 at /media/pilar/data:
Command-line 

mount -t "ntfs" -o "uhelper=udisks2,nodev,nosuid,uid=1000,gid=1000" "/dev/sda3" "/media/pilar/data"

exited with non-zero exit status 14: The disk contains an unclean file system (0, 0).
Metadata kept in Windows cache, refused to mount.
Failed to mount '/dev/sda3': Operation not permitted
The NTFS partition is in an unsafe state. Please resume and shutdown
Windows fully (no hibernation or fast restarting), or mount the volume read-only
with the 'ro' mount option.

I checked the NTFS partition with gparted. No error.

Why is Ubuntu unable to mount this partition? I prefer to solve this problem only with the GUI system.

Byte Commander
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willi uebelherr
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  • "put on hold as too broad"? Means that, i have to write for every point a single question? – willi uebelherr Sep 11 '16 at 21:55
  • @Zacharee1, your text editing is not correct. – willi uebelherr Sep 11 '16 at 21:58
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    You should make this two questions is the point, someone should of said. I will save you some time, the answer to the hdd not mounting is http://askubuntu.com/questions/145902/unable-to-mount-windows-ntfs-filesystem-due-to-hibernation now if you edit this to just ask about the file manger, I will vote to reopen this. – Mark Kirby Sep 11 '16 at 22:01
  • @williuebelherr I'm sorry about that, but it's very hard to figure out what you are trying to say, especially when it's essentially 3 questions in one. – TheWanderer Sep 11 '16 at 22:12
  • dear friends, many thanks for your cooperative answers. – willi uebelherr Sep 11 '16 at 22:38
  • @Mark Kirby, many thanks for this link. But before i installed Linux with Ubuntu, i have shut down the notebook. How i can check the ntfs partition for the hibernat state? And never i use the hibernating, always shut down. – willi uebelherr Sep 11 '16 at 22:44
  • Dear friends, the discussionin 145902 is very helpful. I have read about ntfsfix and the sceptical reaction. The windows now on this nb don't exist. I have to bring this partition in an stable state. If the user decide to go back to windows 10, i reinstall this. But can i use the ntfsfix program as a secure tool? – willi uebelherr Sep 11 '16 at 23:17
  • Dear friends, and if the user decide to use Linux, can i change the ntfs partition to an ext4 partition? Maybe with gparted? – willi uebelherr Sep 11 '16 at 23:18
  • ntfsfix is perfectly alright to use, as long as you don't have hibernation data you don't want to lose, which you don't. You can't change the filesystem type without wiping and reformatting (at least not in any way that's plausible to try). – TheWanderer Sep 11 '16 at 23:22
  • Dear Zacharee1, yes, now i can use the ntfs data partition. I used ntfsfix. There was all ok. After reboot, i checked and it is working read and write. fantastic. Many thanks. – willi uebelherr Sep 11 '16 at 23:42
  • Dear Zacharee1, with some partition manager under windows you can do it. Maybe, you lost some attributes. But not the data. You can change the owner and user/group rights after. And, of course, you have first to make a check for the partition. With gparted i have no experience. but this i will search in your askUbuntu and in the internet. Many thanks. – willi uebelherr Sep 11 '16 at 23:45
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    can i marked this thread as solved or you will do it? – willi uebelherr Sep 11 '16 at 23:47
  • @williuebelherr I have never seen a way to change a partition type that easily, but if you think you can do it, go ahead (and back up data!!!!). StackExchange is not like a forum (it isn't really at all). You can't mark threads as solved, because there are no threads, only questions and answers. You can mark an answer as the correct solution, and then it is pinned on top of all the other answers. If the question is reopened (it's now a valid question, so it should be) I'll write an answer and you can accept it. – TheWanderer Sep 13 '16 at 00:15

1 Answers1

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For some reason, Windows has decided to put hibernation data in drives where it doesn't seem to store any, even after a full shut down in some cases. Ubuntu won't mount these as a safety feature, to prevent loss of hibernated data.

However, like I said before, Windows doesn't always actually have hibernation data on the partition you want to mount. You might also just not care about the hibernation data and you really need to get to your Windows partition.

That's where ntfsfix comes in. It removes the hibernation data and allows Ubuntu to mount the partition. Run:

sudo ntfsfix /dev/sdXY

(where X is the drive letter and Y is the partition number)
on an NTFS partition. It will do its magic and leave you with a mountable NTFS drive.

TheWanderer
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