# cant mount windows partition

## c707176

hi 

I have troubles when mounting my windoes partition. I always get the message: 

mount: unknown filesystem type 'ntfs'

What could be wrong?

Cheers.

This is my /etc/fstab:

/dev/sda1               /mnt/win        ntfs            noauto,ro,user,noexec   1 0

/dev/sda2               /boot           ext2            noauto,noatime         1 2

/dev/sda5               /               ext3            noatime                 1 1

/dev/sda3               none            swap            sw                      0 0

/dev/sda6               /scratch        ext3            noatime                 0 5

/dev/sda7               /data           ext3            noatime                 0 4

/dev/sda8               /home           ext3            noatime                 1 3

/dev/cdroms/cdrom0      /mnt/cdrom      iso9660         noauto,ro,user         0 0

/dev/sdb1/              /mnt/usb        auto            noauto,user,rw,sync        0 0

#/dev/fd0               /mnt/floppy     auto            noauto                 0 0

# NOTE: The next line is critical for boot!

none                    /proc           proc            defaults               0 0

# glibc 2.2 and above expects tmpfs to be mounted at /dev/shm for

# POSIX shared memory (shm_open, shm_unlink).

# (tmpfs is a dynamically expandable/shrinkable ramdisk, and will

#  use almost no memory if not populated with files)

# Adding the following line to /etc/fstab should take care of this:

none                    /dev/shm        tmpfs           defaults               0 0

----------

## Naib

sounds like you dont have NTFS support compiled into or as a module for your kernel

what is the output of grep NTFS /usr/src/linux/.config

```

jrb@Fluid ~ $ grep NTFS /usr/src/linux/.config

CONFIG_NTFS_FS=m

CONFIG_NTFS_DEBUG=y

# CONFIG_NTFS_RW is not set

```

----------

## c707176

grep NTFS /usr/src/linux/.config

 gives:

# CONFIG_NTFS_FS is not set

I guess I have to activate it under Filesystems DOS/FAT/NT

*> MSDOS fs support                                  │ │

  │ │               <*> VFAT (Windows-95) fs support                      │ │

  │ │               (437) Default codepage for FAT                        │ │

  │ │               (iso8859-1) Default iocharset for FAT                 │ │

  │ │               <*> NTFS file system support                          │ │

  │ │               [ ]   NTFS debugging support (NEW)                    │ │

  │ │               [ ]   NTFS write support (NEW)

what does NTFS write support mean? Is it really for writing to NTFS? I thought that this doesnt really work.

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## nixnut

NTFS write support enables you to change files on ntfs filesystems as long as the size does not change. You can't create new files and you can't make any changes that would alter the filesize.

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## loki99

 *nixnut wrote:*   

> NTFS write support enables you to change files on ntfs filesystems as long as the size does not change. You can't create new files and you can't make any changes that would alter the filesize.

 

I always wondered what this is good for!?

Can someone give me an example where something like this would make sense?

TIA!  :Cool: 

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## keithjr

A lot of my media is on my windows partition, if you just want to view (look, don't touch!) music or video, it's no problem.  Also this lets you copy files otherwise trapped in an NTFS partition into another partition if you want to edit them.

This is my first time trying to enable this under gentoo, if you compile it as a module, you simple need to have the module loaded and everything's peachy?  Or is there some other setup to be done?

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## xtaski

ntfs write support works - i use it with my XP/Gentoo dual boot laptop to access my ntfs files... I recommend having a FAT partition b/c it's more "proven" but I've had no problems using my ntfs partition just like it was an ext or fat mount...

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## xtaski

although I should suggest you upgrade to the latest kernel to really use a more stable ntfs kernel

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## nixnut

Moved from Installing Gentoo to Kernel & Hardware.

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## keithjr

OK, here's a fascinating problem I've never had to deal with before... I  mounted my ntfs partition fine, but it seems to have defaulted to making it only readable by root.

This means that the regular user can't even SEE the files on the partition, and since the whole thing is read-only for EVERYBODY, including root, it tells me I  can't change the permissions on it...

Help...  I just want the normal user to be able to read it.  any ideas?

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## xtaski

can you post your /etc/fstab? or are you mounting from the command line?

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## keithjr

Sure can... here's the relevant section:

```

/dev/hda2               /boot           ext3            defaults,noatime        1 2

/dev/hda3               /               jfs             noatime                 0 1

/dev/hda4               none            swap            sw                      0 0

/dev/cdroms/cdrom0      /mnt/cdrom      auto            noauto,user             0 0

/dev/fd0                /mnt/floppy     auto            noauto,user             0 0

/dev/hda1               /mnt/winxp      ntfs            noauto,user             0 0

```

that last one is the partition-in-question.

I'm probably doing something horrifically wrong.

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## jesse_kahtava

When I mount NTFS partitions I usually set the user I want it to belong to by doing

```
mount /dev/hdX /mnt/hdX -o uid=1000
```

That gives the user with uid 1000 (which is me) access to it.

If you want to find your uid, run:

```
cat /etc/passwd | grep YOUR_USERNAME
```

Of course, this is just a one shot thing.

To make it mount at boot you could add something like this to fstab:

```
/dev/hdX   /mnt/hdX   ntfs   ro,uid=1000   0 0
```

You can also add gid=???? for group permissions and umask=???? to set initial file permissions.

Perhaps there is a better way, but hopefully this will be a push in the right direction...

----------

## xtaski

Try this:

/dev/hdaX /mnt/X ntfs user,umask=0222 0 0

(no need to specify a user/group)

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## alaindu

unhelpful solution: delete windows.

he he (its for the best)

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## xtaski

 *alaindu wrote:*   

> unhelpful solution: delete windows.
> 
> he he (its for the best)

 

+1

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## keithjr

oh, that would have happened so long ago if I didn't have an ATI card.

umask=0222 worked like a charm.  

thanks a million!

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## Zyzzyva100

I am having this same problem, however I tried all the solutions listed in the thread, and nothing works.

This was working yesterday, and then I had to get rid of ivman (since it doesn't play nicely with KDE 3.4) to get my cdrom working, and now this doesn't work.

I know its a permissions problem because i can view the files from root, but my user can't see the files.  I even tried adding the ro,uid=1000 to fstab and it didn't work.  Trying umask 222 0 0 just gave me an error saying access denied.  If I just try to click on the drive from konqueror, I get an error saying that the folder /mnt/sdb1 can not be entered.

Normally, however, I can still see at the bottom of the window that there are 4 folders on the drive.

Anybody have any ideas how I can get access back to my drive here?  All my media is on it, and I miss my music.

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## Zyzzyva100

Well nevermind, I fixed it somehow.  I logged into KDE as root, unmounted the drive, changed ownership of the /mnt/sdb1 folder, and exited.

Now my user is the owner of that folder, and this may not be ideal, but I only need to read from this drive for the time being (ie until I back it up and reformat as fat32 for better sharing with windows, assuming I decided to reinstall windows).

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## kEiNsTeiN

Although this had been discussed a billion of times: dont, DONT YOU EVER mount a ntfs-portition writable! (except if you hate the stuff that's saved on that partition so much, that you want to rip it apart, kick it with boots and flush it down the toilet...)

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## Zyzzyva100

Even as a newbie, I know that.  But since I am the owner, does that mean its writable?  Under the permissions it shows owner as only being able to view files, which is what I want.

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## Kaapeli

Isn't the new ntfs code in 2.6 kernel safe, because it doesn't really allow you to modify the filesystem structures at all, it only allows you to overwrite the existing data on the existing files. Didn't they make that change because the "real" write support to ntfs partitions was unstable and broke things.

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## mettallicat

i've the same problem 

```

# mount /dev/hda1 /home/ricardo/windows/

mount: unknown filesystem type 'ntfs'

```

here you have my config

```
# grep NTFS /usr/src/linux/.config

CONFIG_NTFS_FS=y

CONFIG_NTFS_DEBUG=y

CONFIG_NTFS_RW=y
```

so why i can't mount an ntfs disk  :Sad: 

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