How to delete a corrupted file on an NTFS partition?

Question

I have an NTFS partition(/dev/sda3) mounted via ntfs-3g on arch linux. This partition contains a file called cee431d2730eb5e1697bd57b3bb529 which I want to delete.

ls -la returns the following output

ls: cannot access 'data/cee431d2730eb5e1697bd57b3bb529': Input/output error
total 16611578
#Some other files...
d?????????  ? ?       ?              ?            ? cee431d2730eb5e1697bd57b3bb529

Similarly file cee431d2730eb5e1697bd57b3bb529 returns cee431d2730eb5e1697bd57b3bb529: cannot open 'cee431d2730eb5e1697bd57b3bb529' (Input/output error)

ls -i also returns ? cee431d2730eb5e1697bd57b3bb529(it can't find the inode)

I tried deleting it with rm -f which also fails with an input/output error(both as root and normal user).

Running ntfsfix /dev/sda3 also didn't fix the problem.

Answer 1

As far I know, currently there is no Linux tool for the fixing of ntfs partitions. ntfsfix is only a trick, it simply sets the partition as "clean", but it actually doesn't clean it.

Writing to a corrupted filesystem endangers the data on it, and we generally don't trust ntfs, thus we try to avoid the further data corruption, this is why this tool rather chooses to reject the deletion.

You need to use a different operating system to fix the partition. Ideally, to avoid rebooting your Linux, it is useful if you use some virtualization technology for that with direct partition access.

Answer 2

I hope this helps some people.

I had an external hard drive with NTFS partitions hooked up to Linux server and there was one folder on it that I could not access.

For example, if I tried to cd into that folder I'd get Input/output error.

I actually used Windows 10 to fix the issue, and it was as easy as it gets:

1. I just plugged that drive into a Windows 10 computer.
2. It immediately noticed that there were some issues, after auto-mounting it, and it offered the option to "Scan and Fix". So, I simply chose that option.
3. After about 15 minutes (for this 4TB drive), it completed successfully.

Thankfully, after that, the drive worked correctly when I later plugged it back into the Linux server.

Answer 3

Asked 5 years, 1 month ago

dated 10/13/2021 https://www.theregister.com/2021/10/13/how_ntfs_finally_made_it/

• NTFS is a proprietary file system from Microsoft
• NTFS-3g is an open-source, free, driver for linux to allow linux to access an NTFS file system
• From the article: Starting with the Linux 5.15 kernel, NTFS is finally being fully supported in Linux. This journey hasn't been easy. Just because something is proprietary doesn't mean that Linux and open-source developers can't reverse-engineer it or finagle some way of using it...NTFS however proved to be much more difficult to port over (comparing to SAMBA)

Unless there has been some official statement in the recent past from Microsoft and/or the Linux community, you must still assume any oddities with NTFS in Linux are the result of that proprietary'ness of NTFS which eluded the Linux folks, and you need to use a corresponding Microsoft Windows operating system to really fix it properly . That means mounting the file system into Microsoft Windows and using their scan & fix... if you value the data you have on that ntfs filesystem and want it to be reliable/dependable.

One should not use an NTFS file system in Linux if they do not have and/or are unable to obtain and set up a Microsoft Windows 10 or 11 operating system should the need arise to scan & fix NTFS (or at least understand the risk you are taking).