access locked NTFS from ubuntu

[June]

Hi guys, thank you in advance for checking this thread.

I've search on the Internet to find solutions but none of them are working. Please help me. Here's what happened:

I am on a dual-boot laptop with ubuntu 8.04 and Windows Vista. I was trying to correct an error in Vista, so I did exactly what the website says; that is; I cleaned up my C:\Windows\Prefetch and scheduled a volume check on the next startup. The first reboot was successful, the chkdsk was executed without errors too, but the next time to boot Vista was a failure. The booting process was terminated when loading some .sys file. So, now I am trying to access the NTFS partition via ubuntu and recover the files I deleted from the Recycle Bin to make Windows boot successfully.

Here's comes the problem:

The error msg I got when trying to mount the NTFS partition -

$LogFile indicates unclean shutdown (0, 0)
Failed to mount '/dev/sda2': this operation is not supported
Mount is denied because NTFS is marked to be in use. Choose one action:

Choice 1: If you have Windows then disconnect the external devices by
          clicking on the 'Safely Remove Hardware' icon in the Windows
          taskbar then shutdown Windows cleanly.

Choice 2: If you don't have Windows then you can use the 'force' option for
          your own responsibility. For example type on the command line:

            mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sda2 medai/Other_1 -o force

    Or add the option to the relevant row in the /etc/fstab file:

            /dev/sda2 medai/Other_1 ntfs-3g force 0 0

So, the NTFS disk was locked because of chkdsk.exe.

Then I tried to do a force mount -

sudo mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sda2 /media/Other_1/ -o force

$LogFile indicates unclean shutdown (0, 0)
WARNING: Forced mount, reset $LogFile.

It was mounted but I couldn't access the files. Nothing shows up after the "ls" command. Then I got an error msg:

ls: reading, directory: Input/Output error

Anyway, I still couldn't access the files in the Windows disk. Then I tried to fix the ntfs:

sudo ntfsfix sda2

Failed to determine whether sda2 is mounted: No such file or directory.
Mounting volume... Error opening partition device: No such file or directory.
Failed to startup volume: No such file or directory.
FAILED
Attempting to correct errors... Error opening partition device: No such file or directory.
FAILED
Failed to startup volume: No such file or directory.
Volume is corrupt. You should run chkdsk.

I also tried to use the vista recovery disc to repair my disk, but I couldn't load the C drive either.

Here's my system info if needed:

sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x653e463c

Device     Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1        1147     9213246   12  Compaq diagnostics
/dev/sda2   *        1148        7889    54155115    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3            7890       13026    41262952+   7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda4           13027       14593    12586927+   5  extended
/dev/sda5           13027       14462    11534635   83  Linux
/dev/sda6           14463       14593     1052226   82  Linux swap / Solaris

PS I believe that the * mark next to /dev/sda2 has something to do with this problem

df -h

File System           Size  Used Available Used% Mount location
/dev/sda5              11G  4.9G  5.6G  47% /
varrun                1.2G  208K  1.2G   1% /var/run
varlock               1.2G     0  1.2G   0% /var/lock
udev                  1.2G   56K  1.2G   1% /dev
devshm                1.2G     0  1.2G   0% /dev/shm
lrm                   1.2G   38M  1.1G   4% /lib/modules/2.6.24-19-generic/volatile
/dev/sda3              40G   24G   17G  60% /media/disk
/dev/sda2              52G   36G   17G  69% /media/Other_1

That's pretty much what I've tried. Does anyone have an idea how to unlock the NTFS disk under ubuntu? Or any other suggestion would be appreciated!!! Thank you so much.

[HROAdmin26]

PS I believe that the * mark next to /dev/sda2 has something to do with this problem

No, the * means that partition is marked as "bootable" and is nothing unusual.

You have a corrupted NTFS filesystem and what appears to be a failing drive. An input/output error is a hardware error. If you have I/O errors, the drive is failing. Forcing a mount of an unclean NTFS volume on Linux results in the transaction log being cleared/reset and data loss may result.

The df shows the Windows partition mounted under /media/Other_1. If an ls of /media/Other_1 shows no files, you'll have to move to a recovery process.

If you have data on this drive that you care about, I would:

1) Remove this drive from the machine
2) Install Windows to a new drive
3) Re-attach this drive as a 2ND HDD and try to access it in Windows
4) If the drive shows up:
4A) Copy your data off immediately
4B) If the files don't show up, run a recovery utility to see what files can be recovered.

* All of this can be done in Linux, but your experience level likely means you will have better results in Windows. A Windows forum may offer further support on recovery.

[June]

Hey thanks for quick reply!
Yeah you are right...I am fairly new to linux.
I do have data that I need in the drive but sadly, I can only try to format the drive and reinstall Windows to see if it's working. (I don't have much hardware knowledge, so I'd better not to remove the drive...I think)

But still, thank you so much for your suggestions!

[Kloschüssel]

Have you tried to do a recovery boot of windows and then shutdown it nicely with reboot and finally trying to mount it with linux?

These operations should "unmount" the drive correctly and you SHOULD be able to mount it with ntfs3g, even if windows cannot be started due to missing system files.

The problem looks to me as if the driver just is unable to access the drive because the ntfs filesystem was not unmounted due to the crash and I know that ntfs3g will prevent you to access a ntfs filesystem that is marked as "in use" (thus a unclean shutdown, a crash, filesystem error, data corruption, windows put to sleep mode, ...).

[June]

Yes, I've tried to use the Vista recovery disc to repair or even access the my C drive but it's just not working. I couldn't load my C drive from the recovery boot, thus were not able to shut down or fix it using the disc.

Thanks anyways.

[Kloschüssel]

Well, then you have banged up the fs seriously. Indeed it more looks like a hardware failure. You may consider to get a new hard disc.