[Solved] How to mount a NTFS partition if it not "clean"

[audiolover]

My nvme storage, formatted NTFS, is sometimes not mounted because it is "not clean". A restart solves the problem so it does not happen all the time.

Can I force it to be mounted, even if it is not clean?
Maybe by adding something in fstab where it is mounted?

[sunrat]

Is it happening after booting Windows? Maybe you need to disable Windows Fast Startup.

[audiolover]

I run Debian, not Windows. It is NTFS because it is a shared drive.
It happens at the beginning of the boot sequence, my PC boots from a different drive and then tries to mount the nvme storage drive.
That is when the "not clean" message appears.

[pbear]

It is NTFS because it is a shared drive.

Shared with what or whom? An NTFS partition shared with Windows will be placed in a semi-hibernation state at shutdown if Fast Startup is enabled, hence sunrat's question. FWIW, I'm inclined to think that's not the problem here, as no number of reboots in Linux will clear that condition (although the hiberfile can be removed manually in terminal). Rather, I think you have a file system problem. The best solution would be to run chkdsk, a Windows repair utility. If you don't have Windows on this machine, a Hiren's Boot CD can run the check. Alternatively, but not nearly as good. Linux has an ntfsfix command which can repair some issues (see man page for details).

As for the question asked, I'm not aware of an option to mount an unclean NTFS file system. A read-only mount might work, but I've no way to test.

[Aki]

Hello @audiolover,

Please change the subject of the first post to more accurately reflect its content, in the interest of other users; i.e. :

How to mount a NTFS partition if it not "clean"

Thanks.

[audiolover]

. "A read-only mount might work, but I've no way to test"

That would be good, it is a music database and editing is not done from within Debian

[audiolover]

We are now testing if this works: wake up Debian from hibernation. Maybe the NTFS drive will mount correctly.

[cfb]

I think you misunderstood what "pbear" wrote. It has nothing to do with Debian Linux.
The problem is "Fast Startup" in Windows. When this feature is enabled, Windows does not really shut down but more or less simply hibernate, thus still having its NTFS partitions mounted. This might lead to Linux being unable to mount.
Just search for "Windows Fast Startup" and you will see how to disable it.

[audiolover]

Fast startup in Bios is disabled

[audiolover]

And the problem is that Debian is not mounting the NTFS partition, I am not on Windows with this PC.
The Windows pc has nothing to do with this issue.

[audiolover]

The problem already existed even before I connected to the partition from my Windows PC so the "fast startup" feature iin Windows was not the problem

[RedGreen925]

The problem already existed even before I connected to the partition from my Windows PC so the "fast startup" feature iin Windows was not the problem

So from the very start of formatting the drive on Linux with THE most problematic file system for compatibility you have had problems? With it somehow never being connected to windows system before this, with the problem still present. But yet you persisted with using a file system you cannot mount on the drive instead of using something like fat or exfat if needing larger that 2TB file support which usually never has a problem. And can be shared just as easily between the systems then there is the absolutely zero effort made to even mount the damn thing in Windows and do a file system check to remove the unclean status so it will have some hope in hell to work.

[CwF]

If you ever get the partition 'clean', then step through the process manually to verify/vindicate Debian's handling of NTFS.

Boot clean with the drive NOT in fstab.
As a normal user verify the drive is present in /dev/disk/by-this-way-and-that/* <-- this is your 'what'
Mount manually.
I would mount the drive with systemd-mount without any declarations, or via the DE's method.

Code: Select all

systemd-mount what where

Test access.
Umount, reboot, repeat, confirm.

I use qcow2's formatted NTFS and pass them to windows as usb. I mount them as required in Debian vms via usb, sata, virtio scsi, whatever. Never had a NTFS problem caused/fixed by Debian. I would always 'fix' the drive in Windows and unmount it manually before shutting down.

[audiolover]

Somehow a bios update solved the problem.
No idea what setting/update caused the issue

[Aki]

Somehow a bios update solved the problem.
No idea what setting/update caused the issue

This is a very unusual finding.

note: I replaced the [Solved] tag in the first post.