Mounting NTFS hard drive with Ubuntu

You have to use Terminal window to type commands in Ubuntu. To find how and where the terminal will be... Click the following link..

http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/terminal

Then to get steps to mount NTFS volume click the link

http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Dapper#Windows

Hope this helps. Try and ask if any doubts arise...

So do i need to be on the internet to download these packages? and is this some type of command your have there.. Like I said I have never used Linux.. I am using Ubuntu 9.04 Desktop Version if this matters..

i prefer redhat,

but if you put ubuntu CD in their then if you type this
apt-get install ntfs-3g


it should install from the CD , if cd has this software

normaly i install from Internet  

Does it matter that i have two drives.. Do I have to specify which drive im mounting or when I type these commands it just knows? Sorry guys im a huge newb to linux... and have never tried to recover HD before.. I am new to the IT field you could say and am still learning so I appreciate all your patience..

you need hardrisk number
when you will run
fdisk -l
it will show you the harddisk name like this

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 2550 20480008+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 2550 7493 39707451+ f W95 Extd (LBA)
/dev/sda3 7494 9729 17960670 83 Linux
/dev/sda5 2550 7394 38911288+ b W95 FAT32
/dev/sda6 7395 7493 795186 82 Linux swap / Solaris



you need to tell which hardisk to mount

example, if its /dev/sda6

then you will have to tell that

have a look this one aswell
http://www.arsgeek.com/2006/09/25/ubuntu-tricks-how-to-mount-your-windows-partition-and-make-it-readwritable/

i will try these steps and post back.. Thanks..

It seems that your issue is a need to get data from a failing (or partially failing) hard disk.  Why go to UBUNTU to do this?

If you put the drive in your computer as a second drive (with the one that works) Windows will boot on the first disk with an active partition  (the one that works).

Once it boots, you can inspect the other drive from windows.

I think you're concerned about some sort of conflict, but if the failing drive is the 2nd drive in your computer, it will be fine, and won't boot if the primary disk is booting.

I like Ubuntu, it has it's place, but going down that path to get data from a hard disk is like buying an aircraft and learning to fly it so you can see what's in your back yard.

Just view the drive from your working windows installation.

If you don't want to install the drive inside the computer, get one of these cute devices from compgeeks

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=2020-OTB&cat=HDD

It has a power supply for the drive, can handle IDE and SATA drives, and ends up allowing access through a USB port on your working computer, and can be hot-inserted once your main machine is up and running.

JT92677, I reckon linux is great for recovering failed/failing hard disks that are no longer accessible through windows.

To the OP: However, I would say that if you can see the drive in windows, you can probably backup the data from there. Linux has some great tools for doing bit level copying if the NTFS file structure is broken (and for that matter if NTFS is broken on the failing disk, then being able to mount ntfs partitions in linux isn't going to be much use). What I would suggest is to try a live boot cd like knoppix (most recent distros have ntfs3g already installed) and try to get a backup image of the disk using dd. Then you can mount the image file you get from the dodgy disk in a program like GetDataBack for NTFS (costs $ though) and go from there.

to apochimongitus - There are windows utilities that can get data from failed drives as well. hlh-admin (the questioner) lacks familiarity with Ubuntu, so I assume it would be more involved trying to work with Ubuntu, or any linux distribution, than to take a more familiar approach.

I've used Steve Gibson's spinrite program to recover data that is weak, and produces high levels of error correction, and also have used some programs that recover data based on one of the two allocation tables, when the directory has been screwed up.

I'm not sure it can be said that Linux has the corner on hard disk utilities or file recovery programs. I've seen 'em in Windows and DOS as well.

My suggestion was based on the idea that going through all the effort of mounting a volume in Ubuntu, seemed a bit like overkill, especially for someone who was not sure about how to mount a volume in Ubuntu.

Sometimes the simplest way is also the most effective.

JT... Sometimes I can get a bit carried away with things... If you're going to fork out for GetDataBack for NTFS you may as well use the built in imaging software that it has anyway...

And you're right, linux doesn't have the market cornered when it comes to data recovery... but the tools with linux are typically free and they are what I used initially when cutting my 'data retrieval' teeth.

We are kinda assuming, of course, that the OP is actually talking about 'for real' data recovery as opposed to just copying the data from an old disused hdd.

Apochimongitus.

hlh-admin: I just re-read the original post and noticed you say the HDD failed. If that is so, is it visible in the BIOS, and if it is visible in BIOS, when you go to the disk manager mmc are you able to see the disk in there? If your 'system' can tell that the drive is there, then there is a good chance you will be able to recover the data from any operating system. I would also recommend a program called Get Data Back for NTFS it is a very competent automated data recovery solution. You have to pay for the software but that will be a heap less than what you'd pay for a pro to do it. It is always a good idea to take an image of the drive initially before you start any work on it and work from the image rather than the suspect disk.

Hope this helps.

Apochimongitus.

Apochimongitus -- I actually used GetDataBack -- I like their approach. They let you diagnose the hard disk, show you all the stuff you'll recover, and then ask for money so you can actually get the data.  This is better than paying first, and finding out that the drive is so utterly hosed that it's useless to pursue (like a head failure, or motor problem, the worst is that high-speed grinder sound <<grin>>)

As they say about their program "The software can even recover your data when the drive is no longer recognized by the operating system or when all directory information is lost." -- It comes down to reconciling how valuable the data is, and how much one's time is worth. For the inquisitive, I think the current price of GetDataBack is about $80 in round numbers. For me, it was worthwhile when I needed to use it. I got the NTFS version, and it worked very well. This was a couple of years ago, no doubt the latest version(s) are even bettter.

If it is the error I'm thinking of this should work.  Let us know what


# Create passwords for your account and root account
passwd
sudo passwd root
# Mount a NTFS partition - replace sda#/sdb# with the appropriate device (sda1, sdb1, hda1, etc..).
# You can find which device you need with the command
sudo fdisk -l
sudo mkdir /mount/oldos
sudo mkdir /mount/goodos
sudo mount -r -t ntfs-3g /dev/sda# /mount/oldos -o force
# If it says ntfs-3g does not exist install it with the command below then repeat
sudo apt-get install ntfs-3g
sudo mount -w -t ntfs-3g /dev/sdb# /mount/goodos -o -force
# Open up the directories with root permission so there are no isssues
sudo nautilus /mount/oldos
sudo nautilus /mount/goodos

aschuete:

ok this is the error im getting when i go through this..
"ntfs_attr_pread_i: ntfs_pread failed: Input/output/error
Failed to calculate free mft records: Input/output/error
NTFS is either inconsistent, or there is a hardware fault, or its a
SoftRAID/ FakeRAID hardware. In the first case run chkdsk /f on Windows
then reboot into Windows twice. The usage of the /f parameter is very important!
If the device is a SoftRAID/FakeRAID then first activate it and mount a different device under the /dev/mapper/ directory, (e.g. /dev/mapper/nvidia_eahaabcc1). Please see the 'dmraid' documentation for more details.."

I have done everything correct i believe.. The drive shows in Ubuntu / Computer but it wont let me access it..

Windows does not see drive.. I am trying to use GetDataBack and there is no drive besides the main hd that i see..

if linux can see the drive but not mount it, this is not a problem. Open up a root console and type:
"dd if=/dev/sda (or whatever the hard drive is being recognised as) of=/media/sda1/<some good backup directory>/harddisk.img conv=noerror,sync bs=512k" or something to that effect. Even if you cannot mount the drive, dd will do a bit level copy of the drive and make an identical (ie. errors corruptions and all) copy. The noerrror and sync switches allow you to continue reading the drive after a bad sector and the sync switch will put all 1's in place of the unreadable data. This may take some time... I have personally had a drive that took over 3 weeks to get an image of only 10GB... luckily the drive didn't die in the process (although it was starting to) and thankfully i was able to recover that person's photos that they hadn't backed up.

Once you have an image of the drive, you can use get data back on the image (rather than the faulty drive) and it will 'hopefully' be able to recover some data for you.

Apochimongitus.

apochimongitus:

I am linux newb so can you tell me what to type... i see what you have up there but you broke up your command and I dont know whats part of the command and whats not... Also i am backing up everything to a external harddrive if this matters..