Cannot copy all files between NTFS disks

[psl]

Ubuntu 7.10 i386. NTFS disk with fresh install of W2K Czech edition and all security patches applied.
The same problem confirmed with Arch Linux, it points to some problem in NTFS for Linux implementation.

Story: A hard disk of my friend with W2K installation crashed, he asked me to fix his PC. I installed new disk to his PC and installed a fresh copy of W2K, Czech edition. I think that CZECH word is important here as I think I see some problem related to national characters in file names. I have two disks with NTFS partition now, I use a Ubuntu 7.10 to copy files between them. Both disks are OK, healthy and NTFS FS was created under W2K. I have a problem with some files from folder "Documents and Settings", during copy under Linux with "cp" as this command freezes at some stage. Some files cannot be copied. I think I don't need two disks to replicate the problem. I think I can test the copy problem on the same disk, to copy files from one directory to another on the same NTFS disk

1) mount disks
# ntfsmount /dev/sda1 /media/sda1/
# ntfsmount /dev/sdb1 /media/sdb1/
# mount | grep fuse
/dev/sda1 on /media/sda1 type fuse (rw,nosuid,nodev,default_permissions,allow_other)
/dev/sdb1 on /media/sdb1 type fuse (rw,nosuid,nodev,default_permissions,allow_other)

2) I can copy most files between NTFS disks, like C:\WINNT, etc (cp -prv /media/sda1/WINNT /media/sdb1/test/). No problem here.

3) I can copy files from "Documents and Settings" folder to my reiserfs linux partition. No problem. (cp -rvp /media/sdb1/Documents\ and\ Settings/ /root/test/)

4) I cannot copy folder "Documents and Settings" between NTFS partitions. Some problem with WRITE and Czech characters in file names?

# cp -rpv /media/sdb1/Documents\ and\ Settings/ /media/sda1/

copy of files is stopped at some stage, like it is stopped by some on some deadlock condition

5) Copy files from one directory to another, the same NTFS partition.

# cp -rpv /media/sdb1/Documents\ and\ Settings/ /media/sdb1/test/
....
cp: failed to preserve ownership for `/media/sdb1/test/Documents and Settings/Default User/Oblíbené položky/Média/Windows Media Showcase.url': Operation not supported
cp: failed to preserve ownership for `/media/sdb1/test/Documents and Settings/Default User/Oblíbené položky/Média': Operation not supported
cp: failed to preserve ownership for `/media/sdb1/test/Documents and Settings/Default User/Oblíbené položky': Operation not supported
`/media/sdb1/Documents and Settings/Default User/Okolní síť' -> `/media/sdb1/test/Documents and Settings/Default User/Okolní síť'
cp: failed to preserve ownership for `/media/sdb1/test/Documents and Settings/Default User/Okolní síť': Operation not supported
cp: cannot create directory `/media/sdb1/test/Documents and Settings/Default User/Okolní tiskárny': Operation not supported
cp: cannot create directory `/media/sdb1/test/Documents and Settings/Default User/Plocha': Operation not supported
cp: cannot create directory `/media/sdb1/test/Documents and Settings/Default User/Recent': Operation not supported
cp: cannot create directory `/media/sdb1/test/Documents and Settings/Default User/SendTo': Operation not supported
cp: cannot create directory `/media/sdb1/test/Documents and Settings/Default User/Šablony': Operation not supported
cp: failed to preserve ownership for `/media/sdb1/test/Documents and Settings/Default User': Operation not supported
cp: failed to preserve ownership for `/media/sdb1/test/Documents and Settings': Operation not supported

NTFS info:

ii libntfs-3g12 1:1.913-2ubuntu1 ntfs-3g filesystem in userspace (FUSE) libra
ii libntfs9 1.13.1-6 library that provides common NTFS access fun
ii ntfs-3g 1:1.913-2ubuntu1 read-write NTFS driver for FUSE
ii ntfsprogs 1.13.1-6 tools for doing neat things in NTFS partitio

[psl (slansky)]

Well, this report is not correct. I found the bug under Ubuntu and after that retested under Arch Linux. Arch Linux is better compared to Ubuntu. Point 2 (copy c:\WINNT directory) work well under Arch but doesn't work well under Ubuntu, I receive many errors, like described in point 5.

Summary, NTFS write support under Linux (including Ubuntu) is still not production quality but it is slowly improving. I am looking forward Ubuntu 8.04, to test it again. I hope that it will be better as I can see it in Arch Linux today. It means, I will be able copy all files between two NTFS disks; I cannot today. I can copy more files under Arch Linux than under Ubuntu but not all files :-(

BTW, I wish Ubuntu 8.04 will be so great that I will not need to take care about legacy OS on the PC of my friend anymore... ;-)

[Szabolcs Szakacsits (szaka)]

You did your tests with the two years old, obsolote, not production quality ntfsmount.

Stable read/write NTFS support is provided by a completely different NTFS driver, called NTFS-3G and it's built-in into Ubuntu 7.10.

The correct command to use the default Ubuntu NTFS driver is

mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sdb1 /media/sdb1/
 or
ntfs-3g /dev/sdb1 /media/sdb1/
 or probably only
mount /dev/sdb1 /media/sdb1/

[psl (slansky)]

I retested with NTFS disks mounted with "ntfs-3g /dev/sdb1 /media/sdb1/" and it works. I close this report.