NTFS-3G could not mount

[Odisey]

UPDATE: The HD started spinning after it cooled down. I successfully mounted it to a WIN machine and I am harvesting the files now!
I would still like to know how to address the following if ever needed in the future.

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Hello,
I had a HD crash in a WINXP PC. The last time that happened I just mounted the crashed HD to the Mac and harvested what I needed - got a new HD for the PC and moved on.

This time, when I plug in the HD and attempt to mount it, I get a dialogue box that says:

NTFS-3G could not mount /dev/disk5s1
at /Volumes/Storage because the following problem occurred:

$LogFile indicates unclean shutdown (0, 0)
Failed to mount '/dev/disk5s1'; 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 'Safely remove hardware' icon in the Windows taskbar then shutdown Windows cleanly.

Choice 2: If you do no 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/disk5s1/Volumes/Storage -o force

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

/dev/disk5s1/Volumes/Storage ntfs-3g force O O

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I have no idea what this means. How do I force the mount? What are the potential terrible things that can happen? Where is the command line? Where is the fstab file?

Thank you,
Marc

 

[velocityg4]

Glad to hear it worked out for you.

Anyways this dialogue normally appears when a drive has no unmounted properly from a Windows computer. Such as a forced reboot or unplugging an external without using the safely remove hardware option in the taskbar.

Choice 2: If you do no 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/disk5s1/Volumes/Storage -o force

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

/dev/disk5s1/Volumes/Storage ntfs-3g force O O

This is giving you two different methods for force mounting. The first is a command using Terminal in you /Applications/Utilities folder. The second is a hidden file located in a hidden directory in the root directory of your Macs boot drive.

Unless you are really comfortable with tweaking System files that could potentially bork your installation I would stick with the first safer option.

disk5s1 is referring to the drive and partition of the NTFS partition. So that particular Windows partition is seen as Disk 5 Partition 1. Volumes is a group of all attached partitions. While Storage is the particular label of you or someone gave your Windows partition.

When typing in 'mount -t ntfs-3g/dev/disk5s1/Volumes/Storage -o force' into Terminal you are essentially telling ntfs-3g to ignore the warnings and mount an NTFS volume anyways. I think these warnings are mainly put in place to keep the casual user from causing further problems for a Windows install that is already potentially problematic.

 

[BlueRevolution]

Anyways this dialogue normally appears when a drive has no unmounted properly from a Windows computer. Such as a forced reboot or unplugging an external without using the safely remove hardware option in the taskbar.

If this is what you did, the problem will sort itself out next time Windows starts. Backups are always safe, but this drive is no more prone to quitting than any other.

 

[ez3401]

Velocityg4 said,
"Anyways this dialogue normally appears when a drive has no unmounted properly from a Windows computer. Such as a forced reboot or unplugging an external without using the safely remove hardware option in the taskbar."

Thank you for this explanation. I was getting the same error messages on my mac, so I hooked up my ntfs formatted drive back up to my windows machine and unmounted it correctly this time, hooked it back up to the mac and I can now copy to that drive from my mac.