Unable to mount Windows 10 partition; it "is in an unsafe state"

Question

I have both Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and Windows 10 Pro installed and I use them both very often. Sometimes, when using Ubuntu, I can see and use Windows partitions also. But sometimes, I cannot. I dont know why?

Ubuntu gives the error:

Error mounting /dev/sda5 at /media/mani/0AC217250AC21725:  
Command-line `mount -t "ntfs" -o "uhelper=udisks2,nodev,nosuid,uid=1000,gid=1000" "/dev/sda5" "/media/mani/0AC217250AC21725"' exited with non-zero exit status 14:  
The disk contains an unclean file system (0, 0).  
Metadata kept in Windows cache, refused to mount.  
Failed to mount '/dev/sda5': Operation not permitted  
The NTFS partition is in an unsafe state. Please resume and shutdown Windows fully (no hibernation or fast restarting), or mount the volume read-only with the 'ro' mount option

Although I have shut it down many times, it still gives me this error. Please help so that I can use the two operating systems easily.

Solution 1

You need to disable the "Fast Startup" feature. To quote the How-To-Geek:

Open up your power options by hitting Windows+X or right-clicking your Start menu and selecting Power Options. In the Power Options window, click “Choose what the power buttons do.”

If this is the first time you’ve messed with these settings, you’ll need click “Change settings that are currently unavailable” to make the Fast Startup option available for configuration.

Scroll to the bottom of the window and you should see “Turn on fast startup (recommended)"

Uncheck the "fast startup" box.

Then, shut down Windows 10, and you should be able to mount the NTFS partition from Ubuntu just fine.

---

^{How-To-Geek quotation taken from here.}

Solution 2

Also with disabling fast boot, you also need to disable hibernation.

In an elevated command prompt window, type powercfg /h off.

Solution 3

In case you use Windows much more often than Ubuntu, disabling fast startup may not be worth it. As the name suggests, if you disable it, Windows startup will be slower.

In that case, when you want to boot to Ubuntu, you can instead do this:

1. Boot to Windows
2. Restart
3. Boot to Ubuntu

That's because fast startup only applies if you shut down, not if you restarted.

Solution 4

You have to disable "Fast Startup" in Windows 10 Pro to solve this problem!

You can do this by going to "Control Panel -> Hardware and Sound -> Power Options -> Choose what the power buttons do -> Change settings that are currently unavailable"

Then scroll to the bottom of the window and uncheck "Turn on fast startup (recommended)" box. After that shutdown Windows 10 Pro. Then boot into Ubuntu. You will find that Windows partition(which is NTFS type) gets mounted easily !

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Comments

[You'reAGitForNotUsingGit]

Please provide a screenshot of the error. Also, you have disabled "fast startup" in Windows 10, right?

[Salman Arjumand]

Error mounting /dev/sda5 at /media/mani/0AC217250AC21725: Command-line `mount -t "ntfs" -o "uhelper=udisks2,nodev,nosuid,uid=1000,gid=1000" "/dev/sda5" "/media/mani/0AC217250AC21725"' exited with non-zero exit status 14: The disk contains an unclean file system (0, 0). Metadata kept in Windows cache, refused to mount. Failed to mount '/dev/sda5': Operation not permitted The NTFS partition is in an unsafe state. Please resume and shutdown Windows fully (no hibernation or fast restarting), or mount the volume read-only with the 'ro' mount option.

[Salman Arjumand]

this is the error, dont know how to paste the screenshot here..

[Boris Hamanov]

You also have to disable hibernation. Please see my answer. Cheers, Al

[Moilleadóir]

Both are disabled, but I still get this problem periodically.

[Benyamin Jafari]

What about if my windows 10 has been broken? So I cannot change this setting.

[You'reAGitForNotUsingGit]

@BenyaminJafari then you can mount it as RO I suppose

[Benyamin Jafari]

@You'reAGitForNotUsingGit Thanks for the guide, I've found a command to do it: mount -t ntfs-3g -o ro /dev/sda3 /media/windows

[Firelord]

+1. Works in 2021 too.