Ubuntu – How to correctly fix a “dirty” NTFS partition without using chkdsk

disk-checkntfs

When I try to do a ntfsck to a NTFS partition I get this:

sudo ntfsck /dev/sdb1
Unsupported: replay_log()
Volume is dirty.
Unsupported: check_volume()
Checking 161792 MFT records.
Unsupported cases found.

How can I clean a "dirty" NTFS volume without having to actually use windows chkdsk tool in the NTFS volume.

I also did a ntfsfix and it said that everything was OK but it actually was not.

I also get the same "Dirty" error when trying to check the filesystem using the Disk Utility:

enter image description here

I am starting to think I need some powerful soap.

Best Answer

Try using ntfsfix, which was part of the old ntfsprogs package and is now located in the ntfs-3g package (which you may already have installed).
This is a command line utility which attempts to fix common NTFS problems. It's been a while since I last used it, but it should do its job simply by typing:

sudo ntfsfix /dev/sdb1

It also offers a specific option to clear the "dirty" flag on the partition:

sudo ntfsfix -d /dev/sdb1

which might or might not be required in addition to the first command. Have a look at man ntfsfix for more information.

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – Fix corrupt NTFS partition without Windows

Install ntfs-3g with sudo apt-get install ntfs-3g. Then run the ntfsfix command on your NTFS partition.

For example:

ntfsfix /dev/hda6

ntfsfix v2.0.0 (libntfs 10:0:0)

Usage: ntfsfix [options] device
Attempt to fix an NTFS partition.

-h, --help             Display this help
-V, --version          Display version information
Developers' email address:

linux-ntfs-dev@lists.sf.net Linux NTFS homepage: http://www.linux-ntfs.org

For newer Ubuntus You can use -b and -d option together. -b tries to fix bad clusters and -d to fix dirty states. So the command can be

sudo ntfsfix -b -d /dev/sda6

--help shows them

ntfsfix v2015.3.14AR.1 (libntfs-3g)

Usage: ntfsfix [options] device
    Attempt to fix an NTFS partition.

    -b, --clear-bad-sectors Clear the bad sector list
    -d, --clear-dirty       Clear the volume dirty flag
    -h, --help              Display this help
    -n, --no-action         Do not write anything
    -V, --version           Display version information

Ubuntu – How to use Ubuntu to rescue files from an NTFS drive

If it is a linux partition (ext4)

Go into a LiveCD or LiveUSB, then run sudo fsck -t ext4 /dev/sda# (where sda# is the device and partition number for your drive). If you're unsure which to run this on, please feel free to include in your question the output of sudo fdisk -l, and I can help narrow down which one to check.

If it is a Windows or NTFS partition

If the drive is "NTFS" and its returning unclean, you should boot into Windows and run a chkdisk on that partition. Within Linux, if you run an fsck on NTFS, its likely to break something (NTFS is a windows format, so you should use windows chkdisk). The NTFS fsck, while it may find the general errors, may cause problems if you need to run the NTFS drive within Windows.