# mkfs.ntfs - formats a drive that windows can't read??

## Uncle_Psychosis

Hi guys

I recently bought a new hard drive and I want one of the partitions on it to be ntfs so I can share data between my gentoo/vista installs (I dual boot). 

I formatted the drive as ntfs by doing:

```
#mkfs.ntfs /dev/sdc2
```

and it formatted the drive with no errors. I could then mount it, write to it, etc using ntfs-3g without any errors at all. 

When I booted into Vista the drive wasn't in My Computer. I eventually found it listed under "disk management" which is hidden away somewhere. I'm currently reformatting it from within windows so hopefully all will be well when its finished (if Gentoo can't read it now I'll be seriously annoyed...)

Anyway---any ideas why the hell mkfs.ntfs didn't make a drive that was windows readable?

----------

## TJNII

What partition type did you use?

----------

## The Doctor

I think it might be due the Microsoft not-open-source ideas.  Why let people clone their product and kill their market share.

I bet Microsoft checks the file-system to make sure it is "true" before mounting it. Darn closed code. 

I am sure that the devs responsible for mkfs.ntfs would welcome a bug report.

----------

## Uncle_Psychosis

 *TJNII wrote:*   

> What partition type did you use?

 

I'm afraid I dont understand the question! It was just a normal, non bootable, primary partition.

I do remember that when I "printed" the partition table on the disk it said "type: linux" on the supposedly ntfs drive. I did think that was slightly odd at the time...

----------

## TJNII

 *Uncle_Psychosis wrote:*   

> I do remember that when I "printed" the partition table on the disk it said "type: linux" on the supposedly ntfs drive. I did think that was slightly odd at the time...

 

Ding ding ding!  That's the problem!  If Windows ignores partition types it doesn't know, so in this case it is ignoring your "Linux" partition.  Open up fdisk against the drive and set the partition type to NTFS.  I believe it is code 7, but I would check against a known good NTFS partition.

----------

## Uncle_Psychosis

 *TJNII wrote:*   

>  *Uncle_Psychosis wrote:*   I do remember that when I "printed" the partition table on the disk it said "type: linux" on the supposedly ntfs drive. I did think that was slightly odd at the time... 
> 
> Ding ding ding!  That's the problem!  If Windows ignores partition types it doesn't know, so in this case it is ignoring your "Linux" partition.  Open up fdisk against the drive and set the partition type to NTFS.  I believe it is code 7, but I would check against a known good NTFS partition.

 

Ahh, I see. Didn't realise I needed to change it. Grr. Thats annoying!   :Twisted Evil:   :Embarassed: 

----------

