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Judah Wolf
Asked: 2015-02-11 22:37:44 +0800 CST

Windows folder on external hard drive invisible in Ubuntu

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I installed Ubuntu on my computer pretty recently, and I convinced my roommate to put it on his computer we were using as a media center for movies, etc hooked up to a TV. We had an external hard drive that had all the media on it, but when plugging it into either of the computers with Ubuntu, one of the file folders shows up as empty, and only one. We also have two computers with Windows, and the folder content is visible on those! I am running Ubuntu 14.10, and my roommate has 14.04.

I can't wrap my head around this because all the questions I’ve seen similar to this had all their folders universally disappear, while for us it's selective to this one folder only (which has mp4 files, like the other ones). Viewing "hidden files" doesn't help either.

14.04

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    All this is due to Windows ntfs file permissions. Read this Q&A first (you're unfortunately in the "expert" category with your settings)

    To change your settings to "non-expert mode", you need Windows to set the permissions so that Ubuntu can read them or convert the ntfs partition to ext4.

    1. Windows Solution (both Windows and Ubuntu will be able to read everything)

      a. Boot Windows

      b. Right-click the drive that has the problems and click Properties, then go to the tab Security

      The window that pops up should show the current owner. Click "Change." The "Select User or Group" pop up box appears.

      c. In the text box, type in your current user name (you should be an admin), and hit the "Check Names" button. Your name will be replaced with the "official" system name (i.e.,preceded by computer name and back slash) and click OK

      d. The box disappears, sending you back to the Advanced Security Settings window.

      e. A new tick box appears below owner, with the text Replace owner on subcontainers and objects. Select this tick box.

      f. Also select the tick box Replace all child object permission entries with inheritable permission entries from this object

      g. Make sure that Everyone and System appears on the Permission entries window, if not, click Add. The same box that appears in the step above shows up again. Type Everyone, click Check Names, then System and Check Names and then OK

      h. remove all other users and press Apply

    2. Ubuntu Solution. (Windows will not be able to read the files any more)

      Look here how to convert ntfs to ext4

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