How to write to NTFS partition? (Solved)

[johnywhy]

how to make a partition on a local ntfs hard disk writeable?

thanks

[sunburnt]

Not much information, why can`t you write to it?
Have you mounted it so it can be accessed?

[rhadon]

Usually partitions on hds are writable.

Have you ever heared that more infos are helpful???

I like to help, but I don't like wasting my time to write about all possibilities I can think of.

~Rolf

Edit: ups. I've overseen your post, sunburnt.

[Makoto]

Are you trying to write to an NTFS-formatted drive?

[johnywhy]

yes, it's ntfs. Writable from MacPup.

Weird thing, it's set to auto-mount on startup, in Startmount, but it does not mount on startup. That is, it does not get a green dot on the desktop icon.

The /mnt/sda1 folder has a gray dot.

/initrd/pup_rw/etc/fstab and /etc/fstab both contain this line:
/dev/sda1 /mnt/sda1 auto

However, the folder-shortcut i previously put on my desktop pointing to one of it's folders does display the folder icon (not the triangle warning icon, which is what i usually see when a drive is not mounted). Also, if i open the folder shortcut, it actually opens, but i can only see 1 folder inside it (there are actually about 50 folders inside it, but can only see 1 of them).

I can manually mount the partition by clicking its drive icon on the desktop. Then all folders become available. But read-only.

Here are my results of the tests Barry recommends here
http://bkhome.org/blog/?viewDetailed=00036

Code: Select all

sh-4.1# ntfs-3g /dev/sda1 /mnt/sda1 -o silent,umask=0,no_def_opts,allow_other
fuse: mountpoint is not empty
fuse: if you are sure this is safe, use the 'nonempty' mount option
sh-4.1# echo $?
21
sh-4.1# 

After performing above steps, drive is still not mounted.

I can see the partition in gparted. Its flags are all UNchecked. It's First Sector is 16065.

Here are my results from the commands on this page
http://beginlinux.wordpress.com/2009/03 ... in-debian/

Code: Select all

sh-4.1# fdisk -l | grep NTFS
/dev/sda1               2       18050   144978592+   7  HPFS/NTFS
sh-4.1# mount
rootfs on / type rootfs (rw,relatime)mount –t ntfs-3g /dev/hda1 /media/windows
/dev/sda2 on /initrd/mnt/dev_save type ext4 (rw,noatime,barrier=1,data=ordered)
/dev/loop1 on /initrd/pup_rw type ext2 (rw,noatime,errors=continue)
/dev/loop0 on /initrd/pup_ro2 type squashfs (ro,noatime)
unionfs on / type aufs (rw,relatime,si=4531bcee)
tmpfs on /tmp type tmpfs (rw,relatime,size=516416k)
none on /proc type proc (rw,relatime)
none on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,relatime,gid=2,mode=620)
none on /sys type sysfs (rw,relatime)
shmfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,relatime,size=501188k)
none on /proc/bus/usb type usbfs (rw,relatime)
sh-4.1# 

Code: Select all

sh-4.1# mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sda1 /mnt/sda1     
fuse: mountpoin
t is not empty
fuse: if you are sure this is safe, use the 'nonempty' mount option
WARNING: NTFS f.s. mounted read-only.
nohup: appending output to `nohup.out'
sh-4.1# 

That also gives a popup warning that says

Code: Select all

The ntfs-3g driver was unable to mount the NTFS partition and returned this error message:
fuse: mountpoint is not empty
fuse: if you are sure this is safe, use the 'noempty' mount option
So, the inbuilt kernel NTFS driver has been used to mount the partition read-only. 

The drive icon on the desktop now has a green dot.

I seem to recall this was not an issue in lucid 5.2.5, but i could be mistaken.

Please tell me what other information would help.

Thanks!

[rhadon]

For me it looks like a corrupt file system. Some times ago I've had a similar problem with a VFAT partition.

If you haven't already done, I would make a backup of the important datas. If you also have Win running on this machine I would check it from Windows. If not, I would use Gparted or testdisk.

The easiest way is to make a complete backup, formatting new and restoring.


HTH
Rolf

[johnywhy]

thanks, Rolf.

reformatting the NTFS partition seemed hasty, since the drive was at least readable from 5.2.8, and writable from macpup.

Fortunately, i found this

The issue was that /mnt/sda1 contained some stuff. That's what the "mountpoint is not empty" error meant (gee, how logical!

/mnt/sda1 contained remnants of my TeamViewer installation. But not sure whether it was puppy's Teamviewer 5 installer, or Teamviewer 6 installer got from the web. see this thread for more details on Teamviewer issues-

Seems weird to me that an installer would put stuff inside the mountpoint, instead of in the drive itself-- but why would an installer put anything in sda1 drive at all? Puppy is installed on sda2. But what do i know.

Anyhoo, the solution to this problem was to delete and recreate the mountpoint directory /mnt/sda1.

I wonder if this issue has nothing to do with whether the drive is NTFS. I think that might be important to note, since it's easy to blame NTFS.

cheers!

[Flash]

I wonder if this issue has nothing to do with whether the drive is NTFS.

Almost certainly not.

[johnywhy]

I wonder if this issue has nothing to do with whether the drive is NTFS.

Almost certainly not.

our combined double-negative has me confused. Are you saying you think drive format (NTFS or other) is irrelevant in this issue?

[Flash]

Sorry, I misread what you wrote. I thought you said anything, not nothing.

In other words, you were right: the fact that the partition was NTFS had nothing directly to do with the problem. At least that's what I think.