Hi Matthias,
Thank you for the concerns.
> as far as I know, up to now, no case of data loss with ntfs-3g was
> reported at least up to the release of version 1.0
Just like with any other filesystems, data loss is being reported
sometimes. Whether they are really data loss or not, and were caused by
ntfs-3g or not, that's a different issue. These are always investigated at
the highest priority and it's indeed true that at the moment there isn't
known fault in ntfs-3g which would cause data loss during normal operation.
Data integrity depends on the perfect cooperation on many factors, which
include but not necessarily limited to:
- ntfs-3g
- FUSE
- kernel, OS
- compiler, linker
- other libraries (libc, libpthread, etc)
- hardware (disk, RAM, motherboard, power supply, etc)
- user (errors, typos, misunderstandings, etc)
- other softwares (file manager, archiver, partitoner, etc)
Many stories could be told for any of the above categories. I think one
shouldn't jump to quick conclusions without hard facts and understanding.
> However, I have now heard of at least two cases of data loss, which makes
> me think that ntfs-3g isn't quite as safe as a 1.0 release ought to be
> (and I thought it were).
>
> The first case was reported on http://forum.ubuntuusers.de/topic/84118/
> Quote (Translation below):
> "Also ich habe mal jetzt den ntfs-3g Treiber gemäà Wiki Anleitung
> installiert und das Laufwerk erfolgreich gemountet. Bin dann auch mal
> sofort angefangen den ein oder anderen ID3 Tag zu editieren. Läuft alles
> problemlos. Nur muĂte ich nach einen Neustart gerade festellen das all
> meine Datein die ich geändert habe, samt der kompletten Ordner in demsie
> lagen nicht mehr vorhanden sind! Weder unter Windows noch unter Linux. "
>
> Translation:
> "I installed ntfs-3g according to the instructions in the wiki
> [wiki.ubuntuusers.de] and mounted it successfully. I started editing some
> ID3 Tags and it worked all right. After a reboot, I saw that all the
> files I had edited were gone, and also all the directories in which they
> lay. Neither Linux nor Windows can read them anymore."
What software was used to modify the ID3 Tags? How the files were modified?
Were the multimedia files DRM protected (Digital Right Management)?
If yes then it's possible that some softwares consider them pirated and
block access or even remove them. These things are indeed reported for
example with MP3s. Windows blocks modification, so user modifies them on
Linux then Windows blocks even the access due to "DRM violation". When this
happens then people react quite differently.
But there can be many other explanations too.
> The second case was my roommate. He uses OpenSuse 10.2. I set up ntfs-3g
> for him, including the latest version of FUSE. One day, I moved some 4 GB
> of MP3s around on his NTFS Partition, and again, many of those just
> disappeared
This sounds like what Ted explained. You can also read more explanation at:
http://www.ntfs-3g.org/support.html#locale
There are indeed reports of such "lost" and "missing" files which will
always appear again if the 'locale' mount option is set correctly.
Moreover the partition where the glibc locale data resides (typically
under /usr/share) must be already mounted before the NTFS partitions
(this is one of the reasons why remount of the partition after boot can
fix this problem).
It definitely seems that the transparent UTF8 conversation support should
be the next stage of the development. The current, error-prone solution
misleads too many people.
If you think that your problem wasn't due to an incorrect 'locale' option
or DRM handling related then please let us know.
Regards,
Szaka
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