Issue mounting an NTFS partition

The error message is telling you something is wrong, and the ntfs3 kernel driver is preventing the filesystem from being mounted, to avoid further possible damage.

Your NTFS filesystem is either damaged, or the dirty bit has been triggered, which amounts to the same resolve – either way, it must be repaired with chkdsk.

No, just, no…

The only reason to take that route is to allow copying your files from the NTFS partition to another location – ntfs-3g will allow you to mount the partition (almost immediately) but it will not fix any damage with the filesystem. If you do this, please make sure to delete the block file afterwards, and fix the actual problem – either that, or format the partition as ext4 using GParted.

Repairing the filesystem with Microsofts’s own tool chkdsk is the only reliable method to check/repair a proprietary NTFS fielsystem – and this must be done from a Windows environment.

If you happen to be multi-booting with Windows then this is comparatively easy. Otherwise, you will need another Windows environment such as Hiren’s Boot DVD suggested by @Mirdarthos. As a last resort, you could temporarily move the NTFS disk to another (Windows) computer for repair.

Please see the following primer for an in-depth explanation:

Regards.


And yet, it has chkdsk.

Considering the partition was created in Windows XP, there should be no compatibility concerns, and later chkdsk versions are backward-compatible, in any case, if you use Hiren’s or similar.

You would need to mount the partition in Windows, assign it a drive letter (“X” for example, so you know which partition to target with chkdsk). Being Windows, there should be no obvious issue accessing it.

If chkdsk asks to unmount the partition before fixing it, allow it, but as it’s not a Windows system partition (C:\) it likely will not need to.

After everything is fixed, this is a valid suggestion, going forward.

Regards.

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