Windows won't detect NTFS partition but Linux can

Indy500 · 23 Aug 2011 at 21:56

As title, single NTFS partition on a Samsung F3 1TB drive is not being detected by Windows XP, but Linux reads it fine. In fact, if I have the drive plugged in while booting Windows the system halts.

The same behaviour occurs whether it's directly connected via SATA to the motherboard, or via USB external enclosure. I've tried different cables as well :confused:

The drive shows up fine in the BIOS.

System spec:

Asus M4A88TD-V Evo/USB3
Phenom II X4 955 (stock)
2x2GB Crucial DDR3-1333
Samsung F3 1TB SATA2 7200rpm
Western Digital 500GB AAKS SATA2 7200rpm (OS drive)
Liteon IHAS124 DVD-RW SATA

bledd · 23 Aug 2011 at 22:34

Right click Computer, Manage

Disk Management, right click, set drive letter

Indy500 · 23 Aug 2011 at 22:41

bledd. said:
Right click Computer, Manage

Disk Management, right click, set drive letter

As I said, if I try to connect the drive internally, Windows doesn't boot.

If I use a USB enclosure, it doesn't show up in Explorer or Disk Management\Control Panel.

bledd · 23 Aug 2011 at 22:44

Sorry, only half read it..

If that's happening, I'd wipe it in gparted (part of ubuntu or get parted magic boot cd)

Then re-create the partition.

Indy500 · 23 Aug 2011 at 22:46

bledd. said:
Sorry, only half read it..

If that's happening, I'd wipe it in gparted (part of ubuntu or get parted magic boot cd)

Then re-create the partition.

I would have done that, but it has 850GB of files I want to preserve. I would copy them off in Linux if I had enough space on the 500GB WD drive...guess I'll have to buy another 1TB drive.

Pho · 23 Aug 2011 at 23:32

Maybe give TestDisk a try on it, primarily to see if it complains about your partition - it's recovered corrupt partitions for me before and saved gigabytes of files.

Still goes without saying to backup first though.

Indy500 · 24 Aug 2011 at 00:14

Pho said:
Maybe give TestDisk a try on it, primarily to see if it complains about your partition - it's recovered corrupt partitions for me before and saved gigabytes of files.

Still goes without saying to backup first though.

Already tried that, it doesn't indicate a problem when I scanned the drive.

Uhtred · 24 Aug 2011 at 00:37

sr4470 said:
Already tried that, it doesn't indicate a problem when I scanned the drive.

Run a check disk /r although I would get that data off first

masterluke · 24 Aug 2011 at 08:14

Chkdsk wont work if windows doesnt assign a drive letter. Out of interest, in what OS and using what method was the NTFS partition created.

EDIT - you could use ntfsfix in linux to schedule a disk check when the disk is booted connected to windows.

Indy500 · 24 Aug 2011 at 16:58

masterluke said:
Chkdsk wont work if windows doesnt assign a drive letter. Out of interest, in what OS and using what method was the NTFS partition created.

EDIT - you could use ntfsfix in linux to schedule a disk check when the disk is booted connected to windows.

XP Pro 32-bit. It only started doing this recently when I changed motherboard.