Bug 215033 - NTFS disk not mountable by NTFS3 after a failure
Summary: NTFS disk not mountable by NTFS3 after a failure
Status: RESOLVED ANSWERED
Alias: None
Product: File System
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Other (show other bugs)
Hardware: All Linux
: P1 blocking
Assignee: fs_other
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2021-11-15 12:15 UTC by Antonio Petricca
Modified: 2021-12-02 10:15 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

See Also:
Kernel Version: 5.15.x
Subsystem:
Regression: No
Bisected commit-id:


Attachments

Description Antonio Petricca 2021-11-15 12:15:38 UTC
Hi, I'am the author of Buddy Linux (https://github.com/antonio-petricca/buddy-linux) which I uses everyday. 

The issue scenario boot sequence is:

1) The PC is a Windows 10 laptop on a NTFS partition.
2) The above partition hosts the LVM loopback files where Buddy Linux root partition has been installed.
3) An external USB pendrive, set a default boot device, hosts GRUB.
4) The initrd process mounts the NTFS volume by NTFS3 driver, setup the loopback files, mount EXT4 file system on them, and finally starts a native image of my Buddy Linux system.

Today, a system freeze caused by the bug https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=215007 which I already submitted, made my system no more startable by NTFS3 driver.

I started the PC by a live linux distro, I checked that the NTFS volume was dirty, so I fixed it by the ntfsfix tool, but it could not starts again.

So, I tried by the old NTFS-3G, and it boots and uns without any problem.

Please, could you tell how to recover from this situation and use again the NTFS3?

Thank you in advance.
Antonio Petricca
Comment 1 Antonio Petricca 2021-11-16 13:56:13 UTC
Hi, I installed a full distro onto a pendrive, added the kernel 5.15.2 and tryed mounting the NTFS partition.

It says that cannot mount it because the volume is dirty and force flag is not set, or there is a bad superblock, or happened an unknown error.

Thank you.
Comment 2 Antonio Petricca 2021-11-17 05:46:03 UTC
I did another attempt. I used the 'force' option and it worked, so I discovered that 'ntfsfix -d /dev/sda3' did not clear the dirty bit as expected.

Is it safe to boot with `force` option?

Should I do a CHKDSK by Windows 10?

Thank you so much!
Comment 3 Hanabishi 2021-11-17 11:42:51 UTC
NTFS3 is not supposed to be used with potentially damaged partitions. Using the force flag is not recommended, this can lead to errors and data loss. And the driver has no any error checking/fixing capabilities.
You should always run chkdsk in Windows first if there are any doubts about the partition integrity, the dirty flag is not made just for fun.
Comment 4 Antonio Petricca 2021-11-17 20:09:14 UTC
I will try with CHKDSK and then I will give a feedback.

Tahnk you so much!
Comment 5 Antonio Petricca 2021-12-02 10:15:49 UTC
Issue fixed by CHKDSK.

Thank you!

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