SDB:Windows partition not mounting

From openSUSE

Version: 10.3-

Symptom

Mounting the Windows partition works not reliable during startup.

Cause

With openSUSE 10.3 the ntfs-3g driver is used for the first time. The driver makes it possible to write to ntfs partitions. If the Windows partition is not clean, for example you just switched the computer off or Windows crashed hard, ntfs-3g will not mount the filesystem. It will also not mount the partition if you used the suspend option (suspend to disk) or if you use an extern drive like USB and disconnected it without using the safe remove option in Windows. If you use the graphical boot in openSUSE you will not see the message, but can verify this if you look in /var/log/boot.msg, or just try to mount it manually:

 demo:~ # mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sda1 /mnt/
 Failed to mount '/dev/sda1': Operation not supported
  Mount is denied because NTFS is marked to be in use. Choose one action:

 Choice 1: If you have Windows then disconnect the external devices by
          clicking on the 'Safely Remove Hardware' icon in the Windows
          taskbar then shutdown Windows cleanly.

 Choice 2: If you don't have Windows then you can use the 'force' option for
          your own responsibility. For example type on the command line:

            mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sda1 /windows/c -o force

    Or add the option to the relevant row in the /etc/fstab file:

            /dev/sda1 /windows/c ntfs-3g defaults,force 0 0

The force option can mount the partition, but don't use this if you use Windows on the partition, it might harm the filesystem.

Solution

If you have this error, restart your Windows system and make sure it shutdown proper and don't use suspend. For external drives user the safe remove option in Windows. If you just want to read files from the partition, you can mount it manually in read-only mode:

demo:~ # mount -o ro /dev/sda1 /mnt/

This will use the old ntfs driver and mount the partition read only. There might be changes which are not written to the partition, restart Windows to bring it in a clean state again is the safer option.