storage partition - problem with dual boot

Question

I recently installed Ubuntu 12.04. I'm dual booting with Windows 7, and I have a NTFS partition for storage. When I save files to the storage partition in Ubuntu and reboot into Windows, I can't see the files and Windows doesn't recognize that the space is being used (it showed the same amount of free space left in the partition as before saving the files). Moreover, when I reboot back into Ubuntu, I'm unable to see those files either, but the amount of free space left in the drive is as if the files that I initially saved are still there. There's no problem with viewing files that I put into that partition from Windows.

I followed the instructions on http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/35807/how-to-harmonize-your-dual-boot-setup-for-windows-and-ubuntu/ to set up the storage partition. Some help with how to get at those files (from both windows and ubuntu) would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

This most likely is because you hibernate Windows before booting into Ubuntu - Windows stores some information about filesystem in memory and when you boot back into Windows after hibernation that information is restored from the hibernation image, making the actual state of the filesystem and what Windows thinks of it to go out of sync. Then, when Windows flushes its disk caches, it overrides changes so your files disappear.

This is a potentially dangerous situation which can lead to data loss and possibly filesystem corruption. You need to make sure Windows is shut down properly (not hibernated) before booting into another OS.

This answer provides some details: https://askubuntu.com/a/145904/14564

In your case, I suspect, Ubuntu does not complain because it is a storage disk, not Windows system disk, so there is no hibernation image on it, so Ubuntu has no way of knowing Windows is hibernated.

I hope you have copies of the files which disappeard from the storage partition as they're likely to be gone.