Enable NTFS Writing Using Linux (Ubuntu)

The coexistence of Linux (Ubuntu in my case) and Windows on one computer is becoming increasingly more common as people get used to more complex operating systems. One of the problems common in such situations is the exchange of data between the two operating systems, personal documents, for example.

Personally, I have hard drive dedicated to data and hope that Windows and Ubuntu can both read and write to that one disk.

The latter was partitioned with NTFS under Windows, my original operating system. This works with no problems of course.

Linux disks are formatted in EXT, so in a different format, which does not facilitate data exchange between the two systems.

Now it is possible to have Ubuntu write to NTFS. That is the purpose of this tutorial based on Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn) and higher.

1 - Reading data on a NTFS hard drive

I begin by opening the desktop. Among the items displayed I can see my hard drive and Windows, what interests me on this hard drive is the folder containing personal data.

To open, the same as in Windows, I double click it and navigate to the target directory.

For example I will open the text editor Gedit html file. I can then read the file with no problems. I then try to make a change to the file. And of course I cannot do this, because it is NTFS and linux cannot yet write on it. When you try to write to the disk, you will get a warning saying read-only.

2 - Enable writing on NTFS

Firstly we will install the package ntfs-config. Open Synaptic (System Menu / Administration / Synaptic Package Manager) and search for ntfs-config. Select it for installation and click the Apply button. The installation will complete shortly.

Back in Ubuntu.

Run the configuration tool using the Applications menu / System Tools / Tool Set NTFS.

In the window that appears choose the partition where you wish to activate the writing and validate by clicking on Apply. In the next window select the two options and validate.

3 - Writing Test

You can then create any new documents or files onto your NTFS partition from ubuntu. It will be a success as we have now installed ntfs-config. Now you can freely write any files you like to the windows partition. In fact, you can manipulate files across both operating systems if need be.