Error mounting external hard drive

When I tried mounting an external hard drive connected via usb I got the error quoted below. So far I've tried using ntfsfix and chkdsk. My operating system is Arch Linux and the drive is NTFS formatted.

Error mounting /dev/sdb1 at /run/media/ssb/HITACHI: Command-line `mount -t "ntfs" -o "uhelper=udisks2,nodev,nosuid,uid=1000,gid=100,dmask=0077,fmask=0177" "/dev/sdb1" "/run/media/ssb/HITACHI"' exited with non-zero exit status 13: ntfs_attr_pread_i: ntfs_pread failed: Input/output error
Failed to calculate free MFT records: Input/output error
NTFS is either inconsistent, or there is a hardware fault, or it's a
SoftRAID/FakeRAID hardware. In the first case run chkdsk /f on Windows
then reboot into Windows twice. The usage of the /f parameter is very
important! If the device is a SoftRAID/FakeRAID then first activate
it and mount a different device under the /dev/mapper/ directory, (e.g.
/dev/mapper/nvidia_eahaabcc1). Please see the 'dmraid' documentation
for more details.

Here's the output of sudo ntfsfix /dev/sdb1:

$ sudo ntfsfix /dev/sdb1
Mounting volume... OK
Processing of $MFT and $MFTMirr completed successfully.
Checking the alternate boot sector... OK
NTFS volume version is 3.1.
NTFS partition /dev/sdb1 was processed successfully.

user285082

Posted 2013-12-28T02:12:36.253

Reputation: 101

Then it is a Unix issue with NTFS, and god knows what it is. – Moab – 2017-06-21T01:38:21.790

Windows Explorer has no troubles while navigating the hard drive. – user285082 – 2013-12-28T02:17:20.943

Answers

I am a Linux fanatic here, and can answer this question.

I have had this error, and it is due to the fact that Linux doesn't natively run NTFS.

NTFS is a Windows format, Linux can run it, however it will run much better formatted as FAT32, or best as EXT4.

To summarize, reformat the drive and try again. If this doesn't work, install gmtp. This will help compatibility when connecting devices.

I'm not sure on arch linux, but on ubuntu and debian systems, the command is

sudo apt-get install gmtp.

Jakob Q.

Posted 2013-12-28T02:12:36.253

Reputation: 21

1You're telling the OP they should format their disk as the very first suggestion? ... – Kinnectus – 2017-08-07T20:55:31.623

1This is what i found works permanantly. Anything else i have found does not work well, if it goes to FAT32 or EXT4 it will permanantly work. gmtp is a temporary solutuon, could potentially allow a backup before formatting. – Jakob Q. – 2017-08-07T22:06:44.517

@JakobQ. Then, after installing gmtp, what should I do? (I've got the same error) Should I try again mounting the external hard disk? – Marco Ottina – 2019-08-27T20:52:19.747

every time this happens to me i do as it says

run chkdsk /f on Windows then reboot into Windows twice. The usage of the /f parameter is very important!

then windows fixes it,
just because windows explorer reads it does not mean the file-system it good
trust me i know from personal loss...

Vencen

Posted 2013-12-28T02:12:36.253

Reputation: 43

Do the chkdsk as able but make sure Windows shits down correctly, too, to ensure the filesystem is not marked as "dirty" and give yet another error code. – Kinnectus – 2017-08-07T20:57:20.300