Moving data between NTFS and XFS partitions can be destructive

rupeshforu3 · 2023-10-12 15:45:15

Hi I am Rupesh from India and I have a system with Intel i3 10th gen 10100 processor and Asus h510 me motherboard. I am using Arch Linux since one year and used other Linux distributions since 15 years. Previously I have copied data to and from windows NTFS partition without any errors but now I can't.

I have nvme SSD and a 4 TB sata Seagate barracuda compute Hard disk and generally I move files to and from nvme SSD and sata hdd.

I have created two xfs partitions and other ext4, fat32. I have installed Arch Linux using one xfs partition for root / file system and another xfs partition for home ie., /home. I used ext4 for boot /boot and fat32 for efi ie., /boot/efi.

In the secondary Seagate barracuda compute Hard disk I have not installed any operating system but I have created NTFS partitions in this disk and mainly use it for storage backup purposes.

Yesterday I have downloaded some videos from YouTube of size 20 gb using YouTube download manager. After that I have booted into Arch Linux and in gnome I have opened Nautilus file manager and first copied files from my home directory which is present in nvme SSD xfs partition to the directory present in hdd NTFS partition.

I have checked whether I have copied all files from my Linux system to NTFS partition and found that everything went fine and so I have deleted the files present in my home directory.

After that I have booted into windows 11 and ran file system check on this NTFS partition using chkdsk /x command.

Finally I have launched windows explorer and tried to open the copied folder but I got error as " file or directory in accessible".

I thought something went wrong and so I ran deep file system check using the command chkdsk /f /r /x and it has taken an hour and tried to open again the same folder but unfortunately I got the same error "file or directory inaccessible".

Finally I have booted into Arch Linux and in gnome I have tried to open the copied folder but unfortunately I got error as can't open.

I have searched web for the words " file or directory inaccessible" and many suggested to run data recovery like recuva and so I done the same. But unfortunately the data recovery software failed to locate copied files.

Previously once I have copied some video files from NTFS partition to my home directory and after that I have opened terminal emulator and issued the ls command but the output is not as expected.

For example suppose there are files with names abc.mp4 def.mp4, ghi.mp4 and ran the ls command but output is something like

πππ[esc]abc.mp4[esc]
πππ[esc]def.mp4[esc]
πππ[esc]ghi.mp4[esc]

Here I am getting many non ASCII characters along with original file names.

The ls command is showing non ASCII characters for the files which are copied from NTFS partition but the same command is showing or working properly for the files which are copied from other xfs Linux partition.

I thought that terminal emulator is not working normally and so I have redirected the output to a text file and opened in text editor like gedit but I am getting same to same as in terminal emulator window.

I have noticed such unusual behaviour of ls command a number of times.

There is no physical damage to my Seagate barracuda compute Hard disk I mean I am able to access all files present in this disk except the particular folder.

Now my requirement is there any way to open the damaged folder present in sata Seagate barracuda compute Hard disk NTFS partition. I mean are there any utilities to file system check NTFS partition.

I have copied video files from my Linux system to NTFS partition which are not important but can I trust always not to be done.

From four months I have moved files to and from NTFS partition and xfs partition a number of times but I have not found any errors

I think that the main reason for such failure is I have not done firmware update properly in my Linux system.

After that I have moved files from my Linux system to NTFS partition and lost. Another thing after firmware update is that my Linux system is running slowly than previous.

Kindly try to suggest what is the reason behind getting error "file or directory inaccessible" and at the same time why I am getting many non ASCII characters in file names copied from NTFS partition.

Regards,
Rupesh.

seth · 2023-10-12 20:37:11

After that I have booted into windows 11 and ran file system check on this NTFS partition using chkdsk /x command.

First things first: 3rd link below. Mandatory.
Disable it (it's NOT the BIOS setting!) and reboot windows and linux twice for voodo reasons.
The parallel access can screw up the FS massively.

Next: ntfs3 or ntfs-3g?

There is no physical damage to my Seagate barracuda compute Hard disk I mean I am able to access all files present in this disk except the particular folder.

That's not a metric, https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/SMART
("smartctl -a" for a general oversight, the "PASSED" you might see in there is borderline meaningless)

Here I am getting many non ASCII characters along with original file names.

Is that actually relevant to the situation at hand? Ie. is this also a present problem?
The filenames were /strictly/ ASCII, no Devanagari or eg. the weird-ass UTF8 ":" that sometimes shows up in youtube video names?

rupeshforu3 · 2023-10-13 12:58:31

Hi today I have mounted the the NTFS partition and tried to access the files and I was able to open it.

After some time I searched web for how to fix or check NTFS partition and found a tool named ntfsfix and so I ran the command as follows

ntfsfix /dev/sda5

After the operation completed I tried to access the drive and finally I got error as drive is damaged.

15 minutes back I have accessed files from this NTFS partition but after running ntfsfix I am getting message as drive is damaged.

Finally my statement is don't run tools like ntfsfix or testdisk etc., on the disk which contains NTFS partitions.

If you run definitely there is going to be data loss.

Now I am thinking what to do if I want to copy files to and from NTFS partition.

I think that the main reason for this issue is previously I have updated firmware through fwupgrademgr.

Today I have installed Arch Linux freshly and from now I will avoid using firmware update.

Another thing is when a directory or file is copied to an NTFS partition file preveliges are also being copied I mean ownership details.

Suppose my username in Linux is work I have copied a directory and after rebooting I have logged into another account with name work2 and tried to open the copied directory but I can't access because the owner of this directory is work.

In general ownership details must be applied to linux partitions like xfs, ext4, ext4 etc., but the same thing is happening with NTFS partitions also.

seth · 2023-10-13 13:16:59

The tool of choice is windows chkdsk and did you bother to read my post?

rupeshforu3 · 2023-10-13 13:37:34

I can't understand what you are saying but what are the precautions to take while moving files from xfs to NTFS.

From the beginning I am arguing that after firmware update through fwupgrademgr the performance is low and I am getting errors.

So what is the need of this tool.

Does it improve system stability or destroy the system.

Just ignore the conversation taken between us upto now but kindly try to suggest what to do when I want to copy files to NTFS.

Last edited by rupeshforu3 (2023-10-13 13:39:58)

seth · 2023-10-13 13:40:04

Edit: this is going nowhere and you're not willing or capable to answer to very basic questions about the status quo and just expect some "I have problem, what's solution?" witchcraft - what is not based in reality.

Last edited by seth (2023-10-13 13:41:38)

rupeshforu3 · 2023-10-13 13:57:26

Here the issue is why the copied directory is not accessible and what is the reason behind it.

I strongly believe that the main reason may be firmware update was done and this update was from some idiots whose main ambition is to destroy others hardware.

I think that these firmware updates are not coming from Arch Linux community.

Do you think that after copying files from xfs to NTFS in Linux I ran chkdsk /x in windows. This is the main reason behind the directory not being accessible.

chkdsk in windows is a normal task performed by all the people.

Does chkdsk has the power to corrupt the filesystem.

Please try to answer my question whether linux firmware update is the reason behind file system corruption or windows chkdsk /x is the reason.

If the fault is from fwupgrademgr I will not use it and if it is from chkdsk /x I will be careful when using it.

If you give the right suggestion future data loss may be prevented.

seth · 2023-10-13 15:31:32

*sigh*

Despite you'll probably not read this either, it's most unlikely that an UEFI update causes any kind of FS corruption. You might get that indirectly through general IO errors but that would include other symptoms.
The most likely way how you corrupt the FS is through parallel access because of a hibernating windows.

rupeshforu3 · 2023-10-13 15:58:24

Here I think problem may be due to hybernation but previously after using fwupgrademgr the performance is slow but now I have installed Arch Linux freshly and not used fwupgrademgr and I will not use in future also.

I will look how to disable hibernation and fastboot in windows 11.

Last edited by rupeshforu3 (2023-10-13 15:59:19)

Arch Linux

#1 2023-10-12 15:45:15

Moving data between NTFS and XFS partitions can be destructive

#2 2023-10-12 20:37:11

Re: Moving data between NTFS and XFS partitions can be destructive

#3 2023-10-13 12:58:31

Re: Moving data between NTFS and XFS partitions can be destructive

#4 2023-10-13 13:16:59

Re: Moving data between NTFS and XFS partitions can be destructive

#5 2023-10-13 13:37:34

Re: Moving data between NTFS and XFS partitions can be destructive

#6 2023-10-13 13:40:04

Re: Moving data between NTFS and XFS partitions can be destructive

#7 2023-10-13 13:57:26

Re: Moving data between NTFS and XFS partitions can be destructive

#8 2023-10-13 15:31:32

Re: Moving data between NTFS and XFS partitions can be destructive

#9 2023-10-13 15:58:24

Re: Moving data between NTFS and XFS partitions can be destructive

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