Re: ntfs formatted USB hard drive mounts as read only - SOLVED.

[rcdawson]

I am running Linux Mint KDE 17.1. I am attempting to mount an ntfs formatted hard drive using a SATA to USB adapter. It insists on loading as read only. The ls reports the permissions are as follows: dr-x------ 1 rcdawson rcdawson 4096 Nov 1 11:05 797C2B242927C231. (I am the user rcdawson. I am also the sudo user) If I plug this drive into one of my other two machines, one running Linux Mint 17.3 and one running 18.0, the drive mounts and I can both read and write to it. I don't have other ntfs formatted hard drives to compare, but the flash drives that I have work without a hitch.

The hard drive automatically mounts at /media/rcdawson/797C2B242927C231, the "797C2B242927C231" being assigned automatically. the permissions for /media and /media/rcdawson are the same as those for the corresponding directories on the two machines where I can successfully mount the drive. Something, however, is telling this one machine that the drive should be mounted read only. Is it because it is ntfs? Mint 17.1 uses kernel 3.13.0-37. Mint 17.3 uses 3.19.0-32. Could that explain why the hard drive mounts on Mint 17.3 (and a still more up to date Mint 18), but not on 17.1?

Help. I would like to be able to share this drive with a Windows machine, but I'm not quite ready for the trauma of updating the whole computer.

Thanks in advance.

Richard

[Flemur]

I don't know why the differences, but you might consider putting a line in /etc/fstab on each OS so the ntfs partition mounts the same way in each. FWIW, here's mine, but using the partition LABEL:

Code: Select all

LABEL=NTFS    /mnt/NTFS    ntfs    user,windows_names   0 0

Yours might look like:

Code: Select all

UUID=797C2B242927C231 /media/rcdawson/797C2B242927C231 ntfs user,windows_names   0 0

[rcdawson]

Putting "UUID=797C2B242927C231 /media/rcdawson/797C2B242927C231 ntfs user,windows_names 0 0" into /etc/fstab broke everything! The machine would not boot.

Furthermore, this seems to be a generic problem. I have another ntfs-formatted, USB hard drive, and it too is automatically mounted as read only. I am certain that in the past I was able to mount these same hard drives on this computer. In fact, some of the files I stored then are still on the drive! What could have changed to interfere with this machine mounting ntfs-formatted, USB hard drives? Assuming that the common factor preventing writing is that these are ntfs formatted.

[AscLinux]

You need to use ntfs-3g to mount rw, bare ntfs will use kernel driver which is ro. I do not use NTFS anywhere around me, so take it with a grain of salt.

[Flemur]

You need to use ntfs-3g to mount rw, bare ntfs will use kernel driver which is ro. I do not use NTFS anywhere around me, so take it with a grain of salt.

Grain of salt is good since "ntfs" is exactly the same as "ntfs-3g" and my "ntfs" filesystem doesn't mount read-only,

[AscLinux]

Mint is be different then, ntfs must be aliased to ntfs-3g. In other distros they are not the same. I'm really not a Mint user myself, just supporting some friends who are using it.

[Mark Phelps]

... Furthermore, this seems to be a generic problem. I have another ntfs-formatted, USB hard drive, and it too is automatically mounted as read only. I am certain that in the past I was able to mount these same hard drives on this computer. In fact, some of the files I stored then are still on the drive! What could have changed to interfere with this machine mounting ntfs-formatted, USB hard drives? Assuming that the common factor preventing writing is that these are ntfs formatted.

NTFS is sensitive to "clean removal", and if you simply disconnect or unplug or poweroff an external drive, you run the risk of filesystem corruption as a result.

If that happens, the filesystem is then marked as "dirty" -- and will only mount read-only after that.

To fix that, you have to mount the filesystem in a Windows environment, run CHDSK on it, and then "safely remove" the drive containing the filesystem.

[rcdawson]

I tried running chkdsk with Windows. Chkdsk /f reported no errors. The disk still mounts as read only on my Linux 17.1 box.

Any other suggestions?

[rcdawson]

To restate the problem: NTFS mounted USB hard drives mounted automatically, but as read only. The distribution is Linux Mint KDE 17.1.

Solution: install ntfs-3g. This was easily accomplished from the software manager. No pain at all!

[mfcallahan]

NTFS is sensitive to "clean removal", and if you simply disconnect or unplug or poweroff an external drive, you run the risk of filesystem corruption as a result.

If that happens, the filesystem is then marked as "dirty" -- and will only mount read-only after that.

To fix that, you have to mount the filesystem in a Windows environment, run CHDSK on it, and then "safely remove" the drive containing the filesystem.

A few years late here but I just want to add this is exactly what happened to me. I have a NTFS partition which auto mounts on Mint startup, and I also have a Windows VM running from a physical disk partition. Before booting the Windows VM, I make sure that NTFS partition is not mounted in Mint since I also have it mapped to a drive in Windows. While the Windows VM was running, my host machine (Mint) crashed while files were being written to that NTFS disk, and on reboot into Mint the NTFS partition was only mounting as readonly. Per your suggestion, I ran chkdsk (with chkdsk /x) which fixed the errors, and the next boot back into Mint again allowed the read/write permissions it previously had.