[SOLVED] Cannot write to mounted (external) HDD

Issue

I have tried mounting my external (usb) HDD, but eventhough the permissions match (between the user and the mounted disk) I cannot write, even as root. I tried mounting using pmount and "normal" mount.

System info:

Linux b2 2.6.39.4-4 #1 Fri Aug 19 14:41:59 CEST 2011 ppc GNU/Linux

User info:

zero@b2:~$ id -a
uid=1001(zero) gid=100(users) groups=100(users),46(plugdev)

pmount test:

zero@b2:~$ pmount /dev/sdb1 HDD
zero@b2:~$ mount
...
/dev/sdb1 on /media/HDD type ntfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,uid=1001,gid=100,umask=077,nls=utf8)

zero@b2:~$ stat /media/HDD/
File: `/media/HDD/'
Size: 4096          Blocks: 8          IO Block: 512    directory
Device: 811h/2065d  Inode: 5           Links: 1
Access: (0700/drwx------)  Uid: ( 1001/    zero)   Gid: (  100/   users)

zero@b2:~$ touch /media/HDD/testtouch
touch: cannot touch `/media/HDD/testtouch': Permission denied

I also cannot add any new directories. Interestingly enough I CAN edit and save existing files (but not copy etc.)

test writing to existing file:

root@b2:/home/zero# mount -t ntfs /dev/sdb1 -o umask=022,gid=100,uid=1001 TEST/
root@b2:/home/zero# mount -l
...
/dev/sdb1 on /home/zero/TEST type ntfs (rw,umask=022,gid=100,uid=1001)

zero@b2:~$ cat TEST/test 
zero@b2:~$ echo "writing text" > TEST/test 
zero@b2:~$ cat TEST/test 
writing text

Any ideas?

Solution

Read/write access to NTFS filesystems in the Linux kernel. Use ntfs-3g (FUSE) if you need read/write access.

sudo apt-get install ntfs-3g
sudo mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sdb1 /media/HDD
sudo touch /media/HDD/I_can_write,_my_friends

NTFS-3G homepage:

• http://www.tuxera.com/community/ntfs-3g-download/

More or support of NTFS in Debian:

• https://wiki.debian.org/NTFS

Answered By - Igor Chubin