[HOW-TO] Force mount unclean shutdowned Windows NTFS or FAT32 drive in Linux

Last Updated on Sunday, 31 July 2011 05:01 Written by Richi González Sunday, 31 July 2011 04:59

Hello,

I am writing this article, because recently a friend of mine brought me his Windows laptop to backup some of his files and reinstall the O.S. I was having trouble because he had a Blue Screen of Death that wouldn’t let me boot into Windows, so to backup the files, I decided to use an Ubuntu Live CD and look for them in there. In Ubuntu I found out that the hard drive wasn’t being mounted, and figured out it was because the computer was turned off the hard way (power button pressed for a few seconds, or AC power cord disconnected).

To mount it I found out that running a very simple command in the terminal would force Ubuntu to mount it, or if you have access to the Windows O.S., simply restart your computer the correct way, and it you won’t need to force mount it.

Difficulty level: Easy