Cant Mount NTFS filesystem?

[VanHalenMan]

I am having a problem with an Ubuntu live CD. I cant seem to mount my NTFS (XP) filesystem. When I double click on the drive two errors seem to come up.
First: /dev/sda2 is not removable
Second: Unable to execute pmount.

I have done this just fine in the past. The reason I need to do this is for Gparted. I know that I can just download a GParted ISO and burn it but I have sucky internet so that is practically impossible.

Any help here would be just great. Thanks.

[saivin]

Firstly, if you want to work on the partition with gparted (may be to resize or something) then the partition should not be mounted!

Secondly, I don't know the exact meaning of the errors you are getting but you can try the following if you really want to mount ntfs partition.

sudo mkdir /tmp/winxp
sudo mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sda2 /tmp/winxp

[VanHalenMan]

Well if it doesn't need to be mounted, then why can't I edit the partition?
I also tried editing it with a live Gparted disk, and it doesn't let me for some reason.
An exclamation mark comes up next to the drive..
Any idea what the deal is?

[D-cat]

Common possibilities are
1: the drive was not unmounted cleanly last time
2: there exists a hybernation file.

In either case, mount and gParted fear breaking Windows next time you try to boot it.

If you still have Windows, boot it, run a quick scandisk, then shut down by the power off option (do not hybernate).

If you do not have Windows any more, run ntfsfix on the drive (you may need to install ntfsprogs) in a terminal window.

[VanHalenMan]

First of all, I was not in hybernation, and what is ntfsfix, there is nothing wrong with the drive.. and what is ntfsprogs?

Oh yeah, and it has to have been unmounted cleanly because I have tried it on many occasions and it has never worked with anything.

[D-cat]

If it has never worked with anything then how could have been unmounted cleanly after the last time it was successfully mounted?

I think I need more background here. You said it was a WinXP OS drive, I asume then it's internal? Does Windows boot anymore? Has the drive been encrypted? Do you know even if the hard drive is functioning? Maybe more critical then, is there data on that drive that you need?

To answer your questions, ntfsprogs is a package available in Synaptic that provides several tools for dealing with NTFS partitions. One of those tools is a program called ntfsfix. ntfsfix man page excerpt:

DESCRIPTION
       ntfsfix  is a utility that fixes some common NTFS problems.  ntfsfix is
       NOT a Linux version of chkdsk. It only repairs  some  fundamental  NTFS
       inconsistencies,  resets  the  NTFS  journal file and schedules an NTFS
       consistency check for the first boot into Windows.

       You may run ntfsfix on an NTFS volume if you think it  was  damaged  by
       Windows or some other way and it can't be mounted.