[Solved] Files disappearing from NTFS shared partition

Fuxino · 2015-11-04 01:14:20

I'm not sure where to post this, so I'm posting it here, even if I'm not really a newbie...

I have bought a new laptop with Windows 8.1 (64-bit) pre-installed, and I set up a dual boot with Arch. The laptop has a 1TB HDD + 24GB SSD. The SSD doesn't appear to be used, it does not have a drive letter, in the Windows disk management utility it just says "OEM partition". I thought maybe the SSD is used as a cache device (like a hybrid drive)? I'm not sure how to verify this, though.
Anyway, I successfully installed Arch, after which the HHD contains the following partitions:
1. The EFI system partition (100MB)
2. A NTFS partition where Windows is installed (372GB)
3. A NTFS Data partition to be accessed from both Linux and Windows (434GB)
4. A Linux LVM partition where I installed Arch (with three logical volumes for root, home and var) (108GB)
There are also two recovery partitions (900MB and 15GB).

So, using Arch I copied some files from an external drive to the Data partition. The problem is, when I rebooted into Windows, the Data partition appeared completely empty. Worse than that, rebooting into Arch the file had disappeared, but using df -h it appeared they were still there (several GB of space were taken), but invisible.

I followed the advice on the Wiki to disable fast start-up and I haven't used hybernation, so that's not the problem.

What am I missing? I'm quite lost here.

Last edited by Fuxino (2015-11-04 15:38:03)

LCvanDinteren · 2015-11-04 11:31:33

What kind of files?

Maybe the files are hidden?
In windows check "show hidden files" somewhere in properties,
In arch, use: ls -a

What happens to files that you copy to Data partition from windows?

Fuxino · 2015-11-04 12:25:49

Just some regular files (documents, pictures, music, videos). The files are not hidden, in Windows the Data partition appears 100% free even if I copied several GB of data.

Anyway, I googled a bit more and found that the SSD caching could be the problem, so I disabled (uninstalled) ExpressCache from Windows (as suggested here) and now the system seems to work, I copied some file from Arch in the Data partition and I can see them ok with Windows.

Side question: would it be save to partition the SSD and use it as a regular disk for installing Arch?

LCvanDinteren · 2015-11-04 12:35:49

Good to hear you've solved the problem, dont't forget to mark thread as [SOLVED].

I am not familiar with HHD's, but it seems your windows is not depending on it, so I guess it should be safe.

losko · 2015-11-04 12:54:17

I've seen a couple of those notebooks (from Asus) using a 24Gb mSata SSD unit as disk cache.
You MUST use it for Arch ...without ExpressCache is useless from Windows side.
Arch will fly!

Arch Linux

#1 2015-11-04 01:14:20

[Solved] Files disappearing from NTFS shared partition

#2 2015-11-04 11:31:33

Re: [Solved] Files disappearing from NTFS shared partition

#3 2015-11-04 12:25:49

Re: [Solved] Files disappearing from NTFS shared partition

#4 2015-11-04 12:35:49

Re: [Solved] Files disappearing from NTFS shared partition

#5 2015-11-04 12:54:17

Re: [Solved] Files disappearing from NTFS shared partition

Board footer