Can't mount NTFS drive - "NTFS signature is missing."

Question

I am unable to mount my NTFS drive on the latest stable Ubuntu Server 14.04 :

$ sudo mount /dev/sdc /media/wd3TbHdd -t ntfs
NTFS signature is missing.
Failed to mount '/dev/sdc': Invalid argument
The device '/dev/sdc' doesn't seem to have a valid NTFS.
Maybe the wrong device is used? Or the whole disk instead of a
partition (e.g. /dev/sda, not /dev/sda1)? Or the other way around?

Here is my fdisk output (edited to remove non /dev/sdc info) :

$ fdisk -l

...

WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/sdc'! The util fdisk doesn't support GPT. Use GNU Parted.


Disk /dev/sdc: 3000.6 GB, 3000592982016 bytes
256 heads, 63 sectors/track, 363376 cylinders, total 5860533168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdc1               1  4294967295  2147483647+  ee  GPT
Partition 1 does not start on physical sector boundary.

 ...

I have 4 HDD's attached and one of them being a NTFS that works fine on my Windows machine but not here on my Ubuntu Server

Solution 1

You are trying to mount whole Hard Disk drive instead of Partition on it. Try mounting /dev/sdc1 instead of /dev/sdc.

Solution 2

sudo ntfsfix /dev/sdb2

solved my problem. I was trying for sudo ntfsfix /dev/sdb1. I guess I was pointing at a wrong partition.

Comments

[goo]

So, rather than fdisk, which "doesn't support GPT", use sudo parted -l, and see what that says about /dev/sdc

[IgorGanapolsky]

I still get an error: "the device '/dev/sdc1' doesn't seem to have a valid NTFS"

[user3901453]

I recommend opening separate question, because your's is not really related to device/partition problem of OP. However, it's possible that there's really no valid NTFS filesystem on that partition. Try double-checking that it exists, and if it does - run ntfsfix from ntfs-3g package.

[IgorGanapolsky]

Thanks, but I solved it with mkntfs command. Essentially this was an external SATA drive connected to my Raspberry PI.

[wjandrea]

Excuse me if I'm missing something, but how is this the same issue?

[remyx]

It's because I also faced the issue of NTFS signature missing and resolved it by do the steps I mentioned above. My apologies, wjandrea, if I misinterpreted the issue.

[Oli]

What do you mean by "updating them" in your fix? What did you do?