Gvfs may corrupt NTFS partitions

[Calmarius]

Binary package hint: gvfs

I have a dual boot machine that runs Windows XP and Ubuntu 10.04 LTS. I have my NTFS partitions in the fstab so they mount themselves automatically.

I don't know exact steps to reproduce but it sometimes happen. I just moved some pictures to my NTFS partition from my camera on Ubuntu then I restarted my machine to boot in Windows to do something (also many programs on my XP updated themselves). After I finished my work I switched back to Ubuntu and I downloaded a ZIP and wanted to extract it. It had a lot of files. Extraction result in a lots of I/O errors. I took a look at the place I tried to extract the files and I saw something weird. Some of my music files appeared in that directory but with a different filename. I was able to play them but I was unable to delete them (no such file error or I/O errors, corrupted file descriptors?). Then I switched back to my Windows partition and ran "chkdsk -f" to repair the partition, it spotted the problem and deleted all corrupt file descriptors (all the pictures I just moved). After that, everything worked fine (and those wierd "links" to my music files also gone away). Since I moved the pictures from my camera and chkdsk deleted them they are lost permanently.

There was a similar issue a month ago, when I "lost" all my music files. I had a directory where I store all my music files but nautilus showed the directory as empty however I was able play any music if know its exact file name and typed its exact path in my music player. I switched to Windows and ran "chkdsk" an it restored the file descriptors.

Under windows I used to pull out my pen drive immediately after I copied the files on it without properly shutting it down. I have never had problems about this on that system but not in Ubuntu. Under Ubuntu if you do the same without umount you will lost or corrupt all the files you copied. If you always umount there is no problem (you see the pen drive led flashing maybe it closing the file descriptors and commit the changes that time?). Maybe a similar thing happens with the NTFS partitions if I shut down or restart my system just after I copied some files on my NTFS partition. Maybe the filesystem manager forget to commit?

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: gvfs 1.6.1-0ubuntu1build1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-21.32-generic 2.6.32.11+drm33.2
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-21-generic i686
Architecture: i386
Date: Mon Oct 18 18:38:28 2010
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release i386 (20100429)
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=hu_HU.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: gvfs

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

Thanks for the report, it has been some time without any response or feedback in this bug report and we are wondering if this is still an issue for you with the latest release of Ubuntu the Natty Narwhal, May you please test with that version and comment back if you're still having or not the issue? Please have a look at http://www.ubuntu.com/download to know how to install that version. Thanks in advance and sorry for the late response.

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

We are closing this bug report because it lacks the information we need to investigate the problem, as described in the previous comments. Please reopen it if you can give us the missing information, and don't hesitate to submit bug reports in the future. To reopen the bug report you can click on the current status, under the Status column, and change the Status back to "New". Thanks again!