Data Recovery » How to Fix When NTFS Partition is in an Unsafe State

How to Fix When NTFS Partition is in an Unsafe State

“NTFS partition is in an unsafe state. Please resume and shutdown Windows fully” is the error message encountered by users who are running dual boot Windows 8.1/10 either with Linux or Ubuntu.

This error pops up when the dual booting system fails to shut down completely when you attempt to turn off Windows (Instead it will directly go to the hibernation or fast restarting).

Hibernate mode is similar to sleep mode, only it saves your open documents and active applications to your hard disk instead of RAM. This allows your computer to completely shut down, which means it consumes no power when in Hibernate mode.

When you hibernate Windows, you’re simply halting the system and saving all of its data (into a large file called hiberfil.sys). When your system wakes up from hibernation, all of your applications and files will be in the previous state just like how they were when you left them. It also sets a flag in hiberfil.sys to indicate that Windows is hibernating to other operating systems.

Making modifications to your Windows (NTFS) partition while it is hibernated could be harmful since it could prevent Windows from resuming hibernation or cause it to crash. If the hibernation flag is set, the NTFS partition will not mount. In this article, you can find reliable solutions to resolve the “ NTFS partition is in an unsafe state please resume and shutdown” error.

Is it Possible to Resolve Windows is Hibernated Refused To Mount?

Yes, it is possible to fix NTFS partition is in unsafe mode error, first avoid making any modification to your NTFS partition while in hibernation mode. This could result in a system crash. Therefore, shutting down Windows completely, disabling fast startup, and a few other solutions can fix error when NTFS partition is in unsafe mode. Please resume and shutdown Windows fully” error in no time.

How to Fix the Error “Resolve the NTFS Partition is in an Unsafe State Please Resume and Shutdown”?

Step 1: Shutdown Windows Completely

If you are running on a dual boot system, the latest versions of Windows operating systems like Windows 8.1, 10, startup very quickly. This is because they default to the hibernation state by placing the RAM contents onto the hard drive before shutting down. This mechanism is to reboot the OS quickly. This is why the startup is much faster in the recent Windows OS compared to earlier. Even though it is an advantage, it prevents the user from accessing the Windows volume under other operating systems in dual boot. Hence, it gives rise to “NTFS partition is in an unsafe state. Please resume and shutdown Windows fully” error.

To fix this:

1. Save and close all your opened documents. Reboot your Windows OS.

2. Hold down Windows and R keys together when Windows is still loading.

3. Type shutdown -s -t 00 in Run window and click OK key.

Wait until your system shut down completely. Once done, wait for few seconds and start the computer. Ensure you are booting into Ubuntu or Linux (whichever you use).

Step 2: Disable Fast Startup

Above solution might resolve the error “NTFS partition is in an unsafe state. Please resume and shutdown Windows fully” after the reboot. But, disabling fast startup might fix it permanently. So, if you are running dual boot with Windows and Linux/Ubuntu and don’t use Windows often then disabling the fast startup is recommended.

Steps to Disable Fast Startup:

1. Open Control Panel and select Power Options.

2. On the left pane, click “what the power button does”.

In earlier Windows versions, navigate to Control Panel select Hardware and Sound -> Power Options -> Choose what the power buttons do.

3. Next, opt to Change settings that are currently unavailable under System Settings (under Advanced settings in old Windows editions).

4. Uncheck Turn on fast startup option and Save changes.

Step 3: Mount File System In Read Only Mode

Note: This method is applicable when you are unable to mount the NTFS partition in Ubuntu. You will receive an error when you try to mount the NTFS partition in Ubuntu. 

Error mounting /dev/sda5 at /media/itsfoss/01BC76G7Z2628FB0: Command-line `mount -t “ntfs” -o “uhelper=udisks2,nodev,nosuid,uid=1000,gid=1000,dmask=0077,fmask=0177” “/dev/sda5” “/media/itsfoss/01BC76G7Z2628FB0″‘ exited with non-zero exit status 14: The disk contains an unclean file system (0, 0).

Metadata kept in Windows cache, refused to mount.

Failed to mount ‘/dev/sda5’: Operation not permitted

The NTFS partition is in an unsafe state. Please resume and shutdown

Windows fully (no hibernation or fast restarting), or mount the volume

read-only with the ‘ro’ mount option.

Boot into Windows and then power down the computer by turning it off fully. When you boot back into Ubuntu, the partition will automatically mount in read-write mode when you open it in Nautilus (which is a terminal in which the Nautilus file browser is embedded).

In case, if you are unable to mount NTFS partition in ubuntu, then mount the file system in read-only mode manually.

  • See if you have a mount point (folder to mount your partition in), for your Windows partition then use this command ls /media and hit Enter.
  • If you don’t see a folder for your Windows partition, run the following command to create one: sudo mkdir /media/windows and hit Enter.
  • Next, mount the partition in read-only mode onto this folder by using this command mount -t ntfs-3g -o ro /dev/sda3 /media/windows and hit Enter.

You can now use any Ubuntu program to view/open files on your Windows drive. However, the partition is in read-only mode, you won’t be able to write or edit any files.

Step 4: Fix and Mount NTFS Partition

In case, if you are unable to mount Windows NTFS volume due to the error “The NTFS partition is in an unsafe state. Please resume and shutdown Windows fully” when using dual boot then, use “ntfsfix” command.

It is a Windows command available to repair the NTFS volume. It can easily fix errors related to MFT, MFT Mirror, file system inconsistencies, etc. So, follow the procedure below and fix NTFS volume; then mount it.

To run “ntfsfix”:

1. Open elevated Command Prompt.

2. Type sudo ntfsfix /dev/sdXY and hit Enter key.

3. In the above command, replace X with your Drive Letter and Y with Partition Number.

For example, consider “sudo ntfsfix /dev/sdc1”, “sudo ntfsfix /dev/sda2”, “sudo ntfsfix /dev/sdb1”, etc. where c, a, and b are Drive Letters and 1, 2, and 1 are Partition Numbers.

If running the “ntfsfix” code does not help you in mounting the drive, then it seems your partition is broken. And, you have to make use of a result-oriented NTFS partition recovery software to restore your data from the affected volume.

Wondering which program to use for recovering NTFS partition data? Then, utilize Remo Recover Windows, a reliable data recovery tool to restore data from lost, deleted, inaccessible, corrupt, or damaged APFS, NTFS, and NTFS5 partitions safely. The tool can even unformat NTFS drives on any version of the Windows operating system. This self-explanatory tool can easily recognize and restore more than 300 different file types like photos, videos, office files, and many more.

click here to download Remo Recover

Fix a Broken Windows NTFS Partition in Ubuntu?

Nowadays many tech-savvy people like to configure their computer with a dual boot system. Due to various reasons, either of the OS can get corrupted, this leads to Grub (Ubuntu Bootloader) detecting only the Ubuntu partition. This might prevent the user from booting into the Windows partition. To fix the broken Windows NTFS partition in Ubuntu follow the steps below.

  1. Use Gparted to Fix Broken Windows NTFS Partition on Ubuntu

Gparted is an open source partition editor that can create/resize the partition. It is a graphical front end of Linux OS.

Installation steps of Gparted on Ubuntu are:

  • Type sudo apt install gparted gpart and hit Enter.
  • To open the Gparted press Ctrl + Alt + T key, in the command box type Gparted and hit Enter.
  • Now you will find an erroneous NTFS partition, Go to the Device tab and select the Attempt data rescue option to fix the erroneous NTFS partition. Click on the confirmation dialogue box.
  • Now press OK to initiate the scanning process.
  • Wait for the process to complete, once the issue is fixed you can mount the NTFS partition by running the following command sudo mount /dev/sda4 /media/abhi/win.
  • Finally, update the grub, so that it detects the bootable Windows operating system. To make it detect, type the following command sudo update-grub and hit Enter.

Conclusion

Here in the above article, we saw how to fix windows that are hibernated and refuse to mount and also to fix the error NTFS partition is in an unsafe Mode. If your partition is broken and unable to recover data from it, use a reliable partition recovery software by Remo Recover.

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