How can I access this without formatting it.

  • Skull giver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl
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    1 year ago

    Gotta love that Linux verbosity! Windows will tell you "unknown error (0xabcdef)"while Linux will be super clear and tell you “error: error: rusty: unknown error”.

    It sounds to me like that partition is somehow in a bad state, so accessing the files with the standard driver is causing issues. Linux recognised the label, so it has determined the filesystem correctly, but it clearly can’t actually mount it.

    If this drive was used on Windows, it’s possible that this is because Windows didn’t properly close the drive and finish writing to it last time the drive was used. This is commonly a problem with internal disks when Windows goes to sleep/hibernation (which includes the modern fast shutdown) but in theory it’s also possible on external drives.

    If you can, try attaching the drive to Windows, then safe remove it, attach it again, and safe remove it again. That magic sequence is usually enough to get Windows to leave NTFS in a state where the open source drivers can use it again.

    If you’re planning on only using the drive with Linux, you may want to consider reformatting it into a Linux compatible file system. NTFS works on Linux, but even Microsoft’s own Windows driver is reportedly a piece of code programmers don’t like to work on. The reverse engineered Linux version is another step of jank on top of that.

    Both operating systems should be able to use exFAT reliably if you’re looking for an filesystem thst works better in Linux.

    • jayandp@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      Also, if you’re dual booting, Disable Fast Start in Windows! That’ll prevent drives from being mounted on Linux since Windows never technically “shutsdown” when Fast Boot is enabled.