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I tried to wipe clean my NTFS Windows hard drive, to complete my transfer to Ubuntu. However, using the ntfs-3g command resulted in:

The disk contains an unclean file system (0, 0).
Metadata kept in Windows cache, refused to mount.
Failed to mount, '/dev/sda2' : 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

Please keep in mind that I DO NOT WANT TO READ-ONLY, I want to wipe it clean and use it for storage.

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  • "Please resume and shutdown Windows" is what you need to do.
    – Rinzwind
    May 1, 2014 at 17:49
  • You can install $ sudo apt-get install gparted and wipe and recreate whatever partitions you want. The unsafe message means that you are using fast boot. Just turn it off, or use windows' advanced booting options for a complete shutdown.
    – xyz
    May 1, 2014 at 18:06

1 Answer 1

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You do not need to mount this drive in order to format it (wipe it clean) and begin using it for storage. To format it, find it in the Disks utility, select it, click on the gears icon, and select Format. Then follow the prompts.

You can also format it using the filesystem of your choice from the Terminal with mkfs.<fstype>. For example, to format the disk using the ext4 filesystem, run:

sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdb1

Assuming, of course, that sdb1 is the partition you are trying to wipe.

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