Can't mount NTFS partition with write permissions

Question

I am running Ubuntu 16.10 and during setup I added my data drive which is ntfs, to automount in /etc/fstab file. The entry looks like this -

UUID=EA469A60469A2D77   /alpha  ntfs-3g rw,permissions,umask=0022,user,exec,uid=1000,gid=1000,locale=en_US.UTF-8  0       0

I would like to know what I am doing wrong and how to get write access to the mounted NTFS partition.

EDIT1:

prenx@prenx4x:~$ sudo lsblk -o NAME,FSTYPE,SIZE,MOUNTPOINT,LABEL
NAME   FSTYPE   SIZE MOUNTPOINT LABEL
sdb           111.8G            
├─sdb2 swap    18.6G [SWAP]     
└─sdb1 ext4    93.2G /          
sdc             3.7T            
├─sdc2 ntfs     3.7T /zeta      Zeta
└─sdc1          128M            
sda           953.9G            
├─sda4 ntfs   952.9G /alpha     ALPHA
├─sda2 vfat      99M            
├─sda5 ntfs     450M            
├─sda3          128M            
└─sda1 ntfs     300M            Recovery

After changing any option I test it using mkdir-

prenx@prenx4x:/alpha$ mkdir a
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘a’: Read-only file system
prenx@prenx4x:/alpha$ sudo mkdir a
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘a’: Read-only file system

Also I am unable to paste or create anything in any sub-folder as well.

Solution 1

If the NTFS drives are mounting as read-only, its probably because Ubuntu thinks their filesystems are unclean, probably due to hibernation, or a damaged file system. Do this:

in Windows

• boot into Windows
• open the Power control panel
• choose change what the power buttons do
• choose change options that are unavailable
• uncheck fast startup
• close the Power control panel
• open an administrative command prompt window
• type powercfg /h off
• type chkdsk /f c:
• approve to run chkdsk at next reboot
• type chkdsk /f x: (replacing "x" with drive letters of other visible NTFS partitions)
• reboot into Windows to let chkdsk run on drive C:

Solution 2

Using rw, permissions, umask=0022, user, exec, uid=1000, and gid=1000 seems excessive.

The Official Documentation is pretty straight forward.

Something like this should work for your purposes:

UUID=EA469A60469A2D77 /alpha ntfs-3g defaults,windows_names,locale=en_US.utf8 0 0

Comments

[The Prenx]

I tried these options but they are also not working for me.

[AnotherKiwiGuy]

What happens exactly? Can you explain in a little further detail? Also, can you post the output of sudo lsblk -o NAME,FSTYPE,SIZE,MOUNTPOINT,LABEL in your question?

[The Prenx]

Also about using all these many options, I reached here one option at a time, but none of those worked for me.

[AnotherKiwiGuy]

I know this may be a silly question, but have you done sudo apt-get install ntfs-3g?

[The Prenx]

Yes. I looked at some other forums, and they suggested sudo apt-get purge ntfsprogs, sudo apt-get purge ntfs-3g, sudo apt-get install ntfs-3g which I did. Plus the partitions are getting mounted as read only.

[AnotherKiwiGuy]

What about using /dev/sda4 instead of UUID=EA469A60469A2D77?

[The Prenx]

when I changed to /dev/sd4 from UUID, ubuntu didn't like that and it hanged and refused to boot.

[vanduc1102]

you can stop at the point close the Power control panel, below points quite complicated and may not need for some cases. it worked with for me with Ubuntu 16.10 and Windows 10

[Boris Hamanov]

@vanduc1102 No, you need to follow the complete instructions that I've given.

[user178602]

This worked perfectly. Thank you! BTW I did need to run chkdsk on both drives; I checked, out of curiosity.

[Owl]

Nope, not on mine. Mounts fine under windows. Mounts and writes fine under one linux system. Just not the other one!

[Boris Hamanov]

@Owl please start a new question to get some help. Thanks!

[Omer Sabic]

Actually, for me @vanduc1102 was right, it was all that was needed, NTFS partition now mounts as writable.