can't write to NTFS slave drive

[Guest greyskyzen]

So I have two hard drives. one of them obviously runs linux (mandriva 2005) and the other is still using an NTFS file format, and is about 40G larger than the other one.

 

I'm still not too sure that I want to keep using Linux, or if I might want to go back to Windows just for the duration of this semester. (you have to admit, after being a Windows user since 3.1, it's hard to switch.) so I don't want to format the old one with Linux just yet.

 

Is there any way I can mess with the files, add new ones, delete old ones and such while keeping NTFS as the file system? And if not, is there any way to switch back and forth without having to format the drive or endangering files, or just burning a shitton of CDs?

 

Or perhaps some backup programs? I've never paid much attention to such things because I've never had more one instance of major file loss... but maybe it could help now?

 

Common sense tells that there isn't anything, but I figured I"d give it a shot anyway.

 

Whee.

 

-adam

Edited August 16, 2005 by greyskyzen

[tyme]

You should be able to read the NTFS partition if you set it up through Mandrake Control Center. Personally, when I shared things between Linux and Windows I set up a small FAT32 partition because it was just simpler (admitedly, that was some time ago). However, you can make NTFS read/writable, you should be able to set this all up through the Mandrake Control Center.

 

I've used windows since 3.11, I started with Linux in 1999. I'm now on Linux 99% of the time, even during school - so it can be done ;)

[Guest greyskyzen]

I looked around in the Mandrake Control Center and found one thing that I thought would allow me to write to the drive, but naturally it didn't. It still refuses to delete things from the drive, which disables moving of files, renaming, etc. So it's slightly a pain in the ass.

 

So, admittedly stupid, I'm asking... how do I set up the drive to be writeable?

Edited August 16, 2005 by greyskyzen

[aioshin]

If im not mistaken, the default kernel of mandrake dis-allow the ability to write into an ntfs partition, try to share on a FAT32 drive....

[pmpatrick]

You can't write to ntfs from linux. Write support for ntfs is considered experimental in the current linux kernel and not enabled in the mandrake kernel. There is a program called captive ntfs that gives some kind of write capability to ntfs but I've heard it's pretty slow. Not sure if it's available for mandrake but I believe captive ntfs is available in knoppix. You have to have a winxp or win 2000 install for it to work because it needs a windows dll to work.

[tyme]

hmm...in my 2.6.12 kernel, NTFS write support is marked as (NEW) not (EXPERIMENTAL), so it's definitely not experimental anymore :P

 

(don't make me take a screenie ;) )

 

that being said, i do remember Mandriva not compiling it into the kernel. If you -really- want, I could step you through compiling a new kernel that will allow you to read/write NTFS partitions. let me know, i'll do a quick install and update of mandriva and give you step-by-step instructions.

[scarecrow]

The "write" abilities of the Linux kernel are STILL limited to replacing equally sized files, and not adding/deleting files and directories.

For doing so, you need to install either:

1. "Captive NTFS" (not supported anymore, but usable under 2.6.12 with the help of a few patches). It works fine with NTFS 5.1 (WinXP SP1), but you have to use the SP1 files under the driver wrapper- the SP2 ones won't work.

NTFS 5.0 (win2000) filesystems are marred by a major bug, do NOT use Captive for such partitions, else the danger of losing data is big.

2. Paragon's NTFS driver for Linux (it's a kernel module) works fine for all kinds of NTFS partitions and 2.6.X series' kernels, it's slow (although way faster than Captive), but it's not cheap to obtain (some 70 bucks or so).

Edited August 16, 2005 by scarecrow

[pmpatrick]

I stand corrected. It's been a while since I've looked at the issue. It sounds like the best advice is still to use a FAT32 partition to transfer files back and forth. The issue with captive ntfs and sp2 underlies the problem; ntfs remains a moving target and MS has no interest in having the filesystem interoperate with linux.

[Guest greyskyzen]

Alright then, looks like I'll be setting up a FAT32 partition here once I get off my lazy ass. If I have any trouble with that, and chances are, I will.... I'll be back. Yee.

 

Thanks, guys! This kind of community is probably the greatest linux feature so far =P

 

I normally don't do this, but...

 

 

[scarecrow]

Have in mind that your FAT32 partition has to be not bigger than 32 GB- else you will encounter various problems (exchessively large slack space on the partition, windows "refusal" to write data in there, and all sorts of "goodies"...).

[theYinYeti]

Thanks scarecrow!

 

That's valuable knowledge you have on filesystems! I'll try and remember those two posts you wrote.

 

Yves.

[pmpatrick]

I thought that the 32GB limit in winxp was for creating and formating a FAT32 partition with the winxp tools:

 

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documen...kc_fil_ryhg.asp

 

Although Windows 2000 and Windows XP Professional can mount FAT32 volumes of any size, Windows 2000 and Windows XP Professional can format FAT32 volumes up to 32 GB only.

 

I personally have 50GB and 85GB FAT32 partitions which winxp sees and uses fine. They were created with other partitioning tools(Acronis Disk Director). I must also mention that I rarely use winxp these days so if there are anomalies with larger than 32GB FAT32 partitions, I may not have noticed.

[ffi]

There´s a 2.6.14.0 kernel available from mandriva and the latest kernel is 2.6.15.3, I believe, do these have proper NTFS write support?

 

If so how to enable it? I´ve unticcked give read only access and ticked give write access but I´m still unable to write.

 

# This file is edited by fstab-sync - see 'man fstab-sync' for details
/dev/hda3 / ext3 defaults 1 1
/dev/hdc /mnt/cdrom iso9660 user,iocharset=utf8,noauto,ro,exec 0 0
/dev/hdd /mnt/cdrom2 auto umask=0,user,iocharset=utf8,noauto,ro,exec,users 0 0
/dev/hda2 /mnt/win_c vfat umask=0,iocharset=utf8 0 0
/dev/sda1 /mnt/win_c2 ntfs umask=0,nls=utf8 0 0
/dev/hda5 /mnt/win_d vfat umask=0,iocharset=utf8 0 0
/dev/sda2 /mnt/win_d2 ntfs umask=0,nls=utf8 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0

Edited February 11, 2006 by ffi

[scarecrow]

There´s a 2.6.14.0 kernel available from mandriva and the latest kernel is 2.6.15.3, I believe, do these have proper NTFS write support?

 

If so how to enable it? I´ve unticcked give read only access and ticked give write access but I´m still unable to write.

That "write" support is available since 2.6.9, but it's nothing more than replacing equally sized files.

If you can't afford Paragon ntfs, then look around for a captive-ntfs for Mandriva- it does not cost a penny, it's dog slow, but it works.

Another solution is accessing your NTFS partitions via an emulated OS (say that VMware now offers player and server for free!). This is both very fast and reliable, but VMware is resources-hungry, and it's not particularly easy to setup (the free versions come with absolutely no support at all!).

[ffi]

Thanks I´ll give captive a try for now. It works for root but as a user I still can´t write to ntfs.