How to write on a usb-harddisk with ntfs? (Solved)

[Roogan]

Hi folks!

The message I get, when I try to use my external harddisk is something like: "Because of the NTFS-driver you are allowed to "read only". What can I do to be able to "write also"?

I just started to use Precise Puppy 5.7.1 via USB-Flash-Drive. This is the last problem I have to solve, than PrecisePuppy will be my most beloved OS!

[don570]

You should be able to able to read and write with recent kernels
like precise. I bet your problem is because you are running from a USB flash stick.

If you can't solve the problem then you will have to use a disk formater
(either windows or linux) to resize the ntfs partition to leave some unformatted
space on your windows computer. Then gparted can format that
unformated space to fat32 .
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2180625


fat32 or fat 16 is the best for exchanging windows data with mac or linux
operating system.

_____________________________________________________


You could try putting a line in /etc/fstab to recognize the ntfs partition
at startup. Read about this on the internet.

________________________________________

[dancytron]

Whenever I've gotten a read only ntfs disk, the problem has been that there was some sort of error on the disk (and presumably Puppy didn't want to write to it because it was afraid of messing it up).

Both times it happened, I fixed it by running "chkdsk -f" in Windows on the disk.

[Flash]

FWIW, all my Puppies have been able to write on any NTFS-formatted disk or partition. I think dancytron must be on the right track, and, if you don't do any thing rash, you'll be able to fix the problem without any damage to the Windows partition.

[Karl Godt]

Whenever I've gotten a read only ntfs disk, the problem has been that there was some sort of error on the disk (and presumably Puppy didn't want to write to it because it was afraid of messing it up).

Both times it happened, I fixed it by running "chkdsk -f" in Windows on the disk.

Puppy's /bin/mount wrapper script is coded to handle ntfs mounting
by using the user space driver /bin/ntfs-3g .
This is a binary that became a little more cautious with newer versions beginning with Puppy-5 Lupu series .
The /bin/mount wrapper switches to use the inbuilt kernel driver ntfs.ko that only allows writing to already existing files if /bin/ntfs-3g cowards .


kernel 3.4 source :

CONFIG_NTFS_RW:

This enables the partial, but safe, write support in the NTFS driver.

| The only supported operation is overwriting existing files, without
│ changing the file length. No file or directory creation, deletion or
│ renaming is possible. Note only non-resident files can be written to
│ so you may find that some very small files (<500 bytes or so) cannot
│ be written to.
│
│ While we cannot guarantee that it will not damage any data, we have
│ so far not received a single report where the driver would have
│ damaged someones data so we assume it is perfectly safe to use.
│
│ Note: While write support is safe in this version (a rewrite from
│ scratch of the NTFS support), it should be noted that the old NTFS
│ write support, included in Linux 2.5.10 and before (since 1997),
│ is not safe.

| Symbol: NTFS_RW [=y]
│ Type : boolean
│ Prompt: NTFS write support
│ Defined at fs/ntfs/Kconfig:51
│ Depends on: BLOCK [=y] && NTFS_FS [=y]
│ Location:
│ -> File systems
│ -> DOS/FAT/NT Filesystems
│ -> NTFS file system support (NTFS_FS [=y])

It is perfectly safe to say N here.

[Roogan]

Thanks a lot for your time!

As an interested noob I think Karl provided the most profound hints. As a noob with a tiny shell-command-phobia (I am working on it ) I am not sure if I should try Karls way and if Karls way involves risks I shouldn't take. If there is a saver workaround for my problem, I will try that.

So, more information:

- I'd like use puppy via Flash-Drive on several computers.
- On my USB-Harddisk I have a truecrypt container that exceeds 4GB (so fat32 is out). I'd like to open and read/write within that container with both, Linux and Windows.

Are there other harddisk-format but fat32 or NTFS, that Puppy and Windows fully work with?

[Karl Godt]

Thanks a lot for your time!

As an interested noob I think Karl provided the most profound hints. As a noob with a tiny shell-command-phobia (I am working on it ) I am not sure if I should try Karls way and if Karls way involves risks I shouldn't take. If there is a saver workaround for my problem, I will try that.

So, more information:

- I'd like use puppy via Flash-Drive on several computers.
- On my USB-Harddisk I have a truecrypt container that exceeds 4GB (so fat32 is out). I'd like to open and read/write within that container with both, Linux and Windows.

Are there other harddisk-format but fat32 or NTFS, that Puppy and Windows fully work with?

My 4 machines run full installs, I even did not install that OEM Windows Vista that came with the used Dell I am currently running on the new two internal common HDDs .
Running full installs on common HDDs it is very simple to compile and install your own kernel, since you don't need to alter any initrd.gz for replacing modular build drivers .

To access Linux ext2-4 partitions in Windows I used http://sourceforge.net/projects/ext2fsd/

And I am not aware that Windows would allow any mount access to non-Windows file systems .

For a common user there are three OS to choose : AppleOS, some kind of LinuxOS and WindowsOS .

In a world that exist in large varieties of everything, they are neat few.

[dancytron]

Have you tried chkdsk yet? 99% chance that will fix it.

[Moose On The Loose]

Have you tried chkdsk yet? 99% chance that will fix it.

I have seen cases where chkdsk would refuse to fix a disk or would make a disk worse. I always recommend that everything important on a USB NTFS drive be saved elsewhere whenever you are going to do a chkdsk on it.

I have seen two cases where the drive was totally unusable on Windows and yet SuSE could mount it and copy the files off.

After the mount and copy, I did a mount with the "-o force" option and then a umount and when I was done Windows would like the drive again.

I never keep a USB drive in NTFS format because there are just too many weird things that can happen.

[Roogan]

Have you tried chkdsk yet? 99% chance that will fix it.

I just ordered another USB-Hard-Disk in order to copy everything before running chkdsk. And furthermore I can experiment with ext3 if I want to.

Thanks for your participation, I'll let you know, what solution it will be!

[Roogan]

What shall I say?

Wonders happen.

The new harddisk (ntfs) works perfectly with puppy. The old harddisk suddenly works perfectly too.

I assume, the other windows-computer "chkdsk"ed my old harddisk on its own, when I connected them.

Thanks for your advice and help, I really enjoy to become an more advanced puppy-user!

[Moose On The Loose]

After the mount and copy, I did a mount with the "-o force" option and then a umount and when I was done Windows would like the drive again.

I am going to type this from memory:

Code: Select all

mkdir /mnt/broken
mount  -v -t ntfs -o force -w  /dev/sdX1 /mnt/broken

IIRC, the order of the arguments mattered. The"-v" causes mount to say in some detail what it is doing. The messages gave a bit of re-assurance that the mount worked.