Not able to access ldm partition

kde84 · July 8, 2025, 2:35am

Ubuntu Version:

Ubuntu 25.04

Desktop Environment (if applicable):

KDE Plasma

Problem Description:

One of my drives is in ldm format.
To access it I used ldmtool as described here: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1227285/how-can-i-mount-a-microsoft-ldm-partition-in-ubuntu-18-04-lts-desktop

This worked but now it is not working.

I am getting this error:

An error occurred while accessing ‘Media’, the system responded: The requested operation has failed: Error mounting /dev/dm-0 at /media/skc/Media: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/mapper/ldm_vol_TURINGCOMP-Dg0_Volume2, missing codepage or helper program, or other error

I think this may be because I messed with some permission settings for the disk or folders in it, as I was not able to delete/rename some files in it. Tough I was still not able to do these operations.

I don’t quite remember what I did. I think I changed group of some folders in the disks and execution and write properties.

I am using kubuntu. Thank you.

Relevant System Information:

Screenshots or Error Messages:

What I’ve Tried:

rubi1200 · July 8, 2025, 2:56am

Welcome to Ubuntu Discourse

Post the complete output of this command:
sudo blkid

After pasting, highlight the text, press Ctrl+E on the keyboard to wrap with code tags.

Thanks.

kde84 · July 8, 2025, 2:59am

/dev/nvme0n1p1: UUID="1DDC-6760" BLOCK_SIZE="512" TYPE="vfat" PARTUUID="66f95e55-fa8a-4dfb-a38e-7cc6766ed79f"
/dev/nvme0n1p2: LABEL="kubuntu_2504" UUID="d587ad9e-b1c4-435e-8249-1f18045bc986" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4" PARTLABEL="kubuntu_2504" PARTUUID="38738171-5b90-4109-b665-810a8d4c8a9b"
/dev/loop1: BLOCK_SIZE="131072" TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/loop8: BLOCK_SIZE="131072" TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/loop6: BLOCK_SIZE="131072" TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/loop13: BLOCK_SIZE="131072" TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/loop4: BLOCK_SIZE="131072" TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/loop11: BLOCK_SIZE="131072" TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/loop2: BLOCK_SIZE="131072" TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/loop0: BLOCK_SIZE="131072" TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/mapper/ldm_vol_TURINGCOMP-Dg0_Volume2: LABEL="Media" BLOCK_SIZE="512" UUID="F2EAE8D2EAE893DF" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/loop9: BLOCK_SIZE="131072" TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/loop7: BLOCK_SIZE="131072" TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/sda2: PARTLABEL="LDM metadata partition" PARTUUID="3592147e-7051-11ef-85b4-4cedfba7e08f"
/dev/sda3: PARTLABEL="Microsoft reserved partition" PARTUUID="3592147f-7051-11ef-85b4-4cedfba7e08f"
/dev/sda1: PARTLABEL="LDM data partition" PARTUUID="35921484-7051-11ef-85b4-4cedfba7e08f"
/dev/loop5: BLOCK_SIZE="131072" TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/loop12: BLOCK_SIZE="131072" TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/loop3: BLOCK_SIZE="131072" TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/loop10: BLOCK_SIZE="131072" TYPE="squashfs"

Thank you.

rubi1200 · July 8, 2025, 3:08am

Do you have ntfs-3g installed?

If not, then first sudo apt update and then sudo apt install ntfs-3g

Once installed, create a mount point, if not already done:
sudo mkdir -p /mnt/media

Use ntfs-3g to explicitly mount the volume:
sudo mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/mapper/ldm_vol_TURINGCOMP-Dg0_Volume2 /mnt/media

If no errors, check the contents:
ls -l /mnt/media

If there are any errors along the way, post them here so we can try and figure out what is going on.

kde84 · July 8, 2025, 3:13am

Getting this error after running the mount command.

Failed to mount '/dev/mapper/ldm_vol_TURINGCOMP-Dg0_Volume2': Input/output error
NTFS is either inconsistent, or there is a hardware fault, or it's a
SoftRAID/FakeRAID hardware. In the first case run chkdsk /f on Windows
then reboot into Windows twice. The usage of the /f parameter is very
important! If the device is a SoftRAID/FakeRAID then first activate
it and mount a different device under the /dev/mapper/ directory, (e.g.
/dev/mapper/nvidia_eahaabcc1). Please see the 'dmraid' documentation
for more details.

rubi1200 · July 8, 2025, 3:22am

Are you dual-booting with Windows or have access to a Windows computer?

If yes, you need to boot Windows with the drive or attach it.

Then open an admin command prompt and run this:
chkdsk E: /f

If it says the drive is in use then schedule for the next reboot.

After chkdsk completes successfully, reboot Windows twice to clear the dirty flag.

Try mounting it again on Kubuntu as before.

kde84 · July 8, 2025, 3:25am

No dual boot.

Should I try install windows?

rubi1200 · July 8, 2025, 3:27am

Are you able to mount read-only?
sudo mount -t ntfs-3g -o ro /dev/mapper/ldm_vol_TURINGCOMP-Dg0_Volume2 /mnt/media

This would let you copy data from the drive but won’t help fix errors.

kde84 · July 8, 2025, 3:37am

No luck. Same result as before.

rubi1200 · July 8, 2025, 4:07am

At this point I am out of ideas.

Either there are serious permissions issues or a failing drive.

You may want to look at the logs looking for I/O errors and also consider a SMART test on the drive.

Do you have backups of the data?

kde84 · July 8, 2025, 4:55am

No backup.
I will install windows and then backup the data and then format the drive in Linux suitable format.

Then again install Linux.

Thanks for the help.

oldfred · July 8, 2025, 1:18pm

You turned dynamic partitions on in Windows. With MBR shown as SFS in fdisk, Dynamic also on gpt as LDM.
Why, especially with gpt?

Dynamic partitions in Windows was its proprietary work around for the old 4 primary partition limit with old MBR(msdos) partitioning. With gpt, you have in effect 128 primary partitions and can even create more. What in Windows said to convert drive to dynamic?

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/storage/disk-management/change-a-dynamic-disk-back-to-a-basic-disk
Dynamic disks have been deprecated from Windows and are no longer recommended. Microsoft’s official policy is a full backup, erase dynamic partitions and create new basic partitions. There is no undo.

Some third party Windows partitioning tools may undo the dynamic partitions. I have in past seen Aomei and EASEUS be used. They had free versions that included the conversion.
If only 4 partitions I have seen testdisk be used also.

But before any major change be sure to have good backups.

There is a Linux tool to read LDM.
https://packages.ubuntu.com/search?keywords=ldmtool

kde84 · July 9, 2025, 2:16pm

I tried Aomei and EASEUS but but I found another: NIUBI partition manager.

This had very clean UI and it had free version which allowed this conversion.

I found it in this video:
https://youtu.be/qEAUXvbzSxY

Thanks for the solution.

system · July 12, 2025, 2:17pm

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