Why is my ntfs hard drive is read only?

doro1211 · Guru Joined: 06 Jun 2004 Posts: 312

I have enabled ntfs write support in the kernel (2.6.7). However, I cannot write to my ntfs partition, not even with root. The mount directory is chmod 777. What else could be causing this?

My /etc/fstab is as follows:

/dev/hda1 /windowsc ntfs noatime,umask=000 0 0

monkey89 · Guru Joined: 08 Mar 2004 Posts: 596

The NTFS write support built into the kernel is the safe write support. If you read the help section for it in "make menuconfig", it says that you can only overwrite existing files with files of the same exact size. There is no creation of anything.

-Monkey

Deathwing00 · Posted: Sun Jun 27, 2004 12:25 pm Post subject:

Moved from Installing Gentoo.

doro1211 · Guru Joined: 06 Jun 2004 Posts: 312

So is there no way to actually have full write support in ntfs?

Deathwing00 · Posted: Sun Jun 27, 2004 1:07 pm Post subject:

giuseppe · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 25 Apr 2004 Posts: 78

Hi!
I don't know if this work, but you could try:

http://www.jankratochvil.net/project/captive/

Bye.
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bungernut · Apprentice Joined: 24 Jan 2004 Posts: 173

put gid and uid into your fstab. I got root to write no problem and gave up and reformatted it to fat to make my life easier, still i am proof that it can be done.

JudgeNik · Posted: Mon Jun 28, 2004 2:08 am Post subject:

Isn't there a max. size limit on the FAT filesystem though?

What FS is writable with Windows and Linux on a 200GB drive?
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veezi · Apprentice Joined: 10 Nov 2003 Posts: 226

Hi ..

To my knowledge only vfat is common between windows and linux, and max partition size is 4GB (I might be wrong though!).

Back to NTFS, the only reliable read/write driver for linux that I know of is at http://www.ntfs-linux.com/, but it's not free!

Another option is to use the current write mechanism in the ntfs driver. Since it can only modify a file (keeping sam size) I find it usefull to create filesystem images on NTFS partitions and mount them on loop devices under linux. Actually, this was the exact use scenario that ntfs driver developers had in mind when enabling the write option!

Cheers,

idunno246 · n00b Joined: 26 Oct 2003 Posts: 64

guitardan311 · n00b Joined: 21 Jun 2004 Posts: 37 Location: Memphis, TN

i am trying to do this also, but only with my music folder really, so if i set up a partition for my music what filesystem should i use (that can read/write in windows and gentoo)? it will probibly be between 12Gb - 20Gb.

bungernut · Apprentice Joined: 24 Jan 2004 Posts: 173

i believe both fat32 and ntfs are write in both and both are limited in the terabyte of pentabite range, should be no prob

jdong · n00b Joined: 01 Mar 2004 Posts: 41

It seems like mass confusion here.

THE SCOOP ON NTFS WRITE:

The NTFS drivers built into the kernel support LIMITED WRITING. You must NOT change the size of files written, nor can you create new files or mess with files <500bytes. This driver is only useful for loopback Linux distros, like TopologiLinux.

The captive NTFS drivers linked in a previous post support FULL READ WRITE to NTFS. It works by using WINE and REACTOS to emulate Windows's ntfs.sys driver. I've used it quite a bit; it's safe, EXCEPT for writing to the root folder (where it may bump the NTLDR off the primary allocation table. DONT WRITE TO THE ROOT FOLDER OF A BOOTABLE NTFS PARTITION!!!!!!!)

There's a few downsides to captive NTFS:

(1) You're using bits of Windows from Linux -- you need to provide Captive with these files. I'm no lawyer, so I won't even try to explain the legal terms of doing this. Basically, you need to have a licensed copy of WinNT, 2k , or XP to do this.

(2) You're emulating the Windows API (WINE) and cloning Windows (ReactOS). Needless to say, Captive is VERY VERY slow -- it's not for copying large files (100MB takes about 10-20minutes to transfer).

(3) The above warning about writing to the root folder. I've trashed two separate installs of XP doing it. Just innocent editing of boot.ini, and Captive bumps NTLDR off to the secondary allocation table. You get the dreaded NTLDR NOT FOUND error booting Windows, and there's NO METHOD of recovery except a reformat of the volume. This kind of bug really worries me about what else Captive could do to a drive.

veezi · Apprentice Joined: 10 Nov 2003 Posts: 226

idunno246 · n00b Joined: 26 Oct 2003 Posts: 64

i sized my partitions using fdisk, and then formatted in windows, cant remember how, maybe partition magic. my windows dir is still ntfs though.

Wolfpack98 · n00b Joined: 11 Mar 2003 Posts: 61 Location: USA

nightm4re · Posted: Mon Jun 28, 2004 4:42 pm Post subject:

just a thought.. you could go the other way, make an ext2/3 file system, and use a program in windows to access it. I'm not sure how that works though. Here is the link:

http://uranus.it.swin.edu.au/~jn/linux/ext2ifs.htm

could be more useful than dealing with ntfs/fat... idunno though. haven't tried yet.

*EDIT*

whoops, just found out it's read only. nevermind! but I know i saw a similar project somewhere else...
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cwt137 · Posted: Mon Jun 28, 2004 4:55 pm Post subject:

veezi · Apprentice Joined: 10 Nov 2003 Posts: 226

Here's a comparison of FAT, FAT32, and NTFS from MS Docs:

Maffuster · n00b Joined: 03 Jun 2004 Posts: 38

Get a win98 bootdisk (www.bootdisk.com)

Fdisk the drive, and set up a partition as big as you want.

then format.

freelight · Posted: Tue Jun 29, 2004 11:31 am Post subject:

jdong · n00b Joined: 01 Mar 2004 Posts: 41

revertex · l33t Joined: 23 Apr 2003 Posts: 806

i'm not have time enough to install captive in my box, but works perfect, at least with knoppix.
i can read write ntfs partitions with the captive drives shipped with knoppix, i've used it to clean some xp box infected by viruses an work flawlessly.
the funny thing is that xp box are unbootable, and only using linux i can repair it.

drescherjm · Posted: Sat Jul 03, 2004 8:06 am Post subject:

veezi · Apprentice Joined: 10 Nov 2003 Posts: 226