New install. Can't write to my data drive

Zorin OS 16 just installed. I mostly love it but I cant delete or rename files on my data drive. Formatted NTFS. Am I lacking a permission or something? I am a Linux novice.

It was a mistake to use NTFS partitioning, as that is really only for Windows.

What you want to do, is format the drive Using GPT, if the drive is only being used to boot a Linux OS. If you are going to dual boot, MBR/DOS is acceptable.

You want your drive partition to be EXT4. Once you have the drive ready, install Zorin OS.

You really don't want to be using NTFS, there is far too much work involved trying to get that to play well with Linux.

EDIT: Here is also my GPARTED with great clarification.

Hope this helps...

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This is possible and you may need to change ownership of the drive, then try getting read/write access.

As Trekker points out, being formatted in ntfs is another possibility. But checking permissions is definitely the first step that I would take.

@TLDD Are you dual-booting Windows and Zorin and wish to access files from both OS?
That will also influence your choice of filesystem.

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Not dual booting. The data drive is separate from the OS drive. The drive mounts ok and I can open and play the music and etc but I can't delete or rename any files.

Thanks for responding. Let me clarify. My data drive is separate from the OS drive. I had been using Kubuntu for the last few months and could read and write to the data drive. Installed Zorin with a fresh format on the OS drive and now can not delete or rename files on the data drive. I can open and play the MP3's and JPG's ok. I seem to lack write permission. I have waded through settings but cant find anything that seems applicable.

Sounds likely. Please see my response to StarTreker.

Have you changed the ownership of the drive to you?

sudo chown $USER:$USER /media/$DRIVE

Change $USER and $DRIVE to the actual username and drive name.

Sounds right. Can you describe exactly how to do this? Where can I find the actual name of the drive? I know almost nothing about Linux.

Sure, you can open the terminal with the keyboard shortcut ctrl+alt+t
Your $USER username is the one you made when you installed Zorin OS. It also shows in your terminal when you enter any sudo command with the prompt "password for $USER".

To find your Drive name, plug it in and open Disks from the Zorin Menu.
It will show up in the list in the Left Pane. Click it in that list and the details will be displayed in the Right Pane.
For example:
Device: /dev/sda1

Hmm, I must have something wrong in the syntax. I get the response: "chown: cannot access '/media/dev/sdb1': No such file or directory"

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How about just /dev/sdb1 without /media?

Will try that. Do the names need to prefaced with "$" ?

No... And I agree that is confusing.
The accepted convention is to mark "username" as "$USER" just as /home/$USER/ directory is shortened to "~".

I entered "sudo chown jd:jd /dev/sdb1" and got no error message, just a cursor on the next line. "delete" and "rename" are still greyed out in the context menu. I am assuming that my current username "jd" is the same username I used for the former Kubuntu install and serves as the owner name of /dev/sdb1.

Your current username is all you need. If your current $USER is "jd", then it should be sudo chown jd:jd /dev/sdb1

Yes, jd is my username and the syntax was exact. Sadly, no joy yet. Thank you for your help and I will try again after dinner.

Try this instead, the only difference is, there is no semi-colon in the middle of JD, instead there is a space. See if that works.

sudo chown jd jd /dev/sdb1

Hey TLDD, I tried to mention a possible solution below:

I am assuming that you have a backup of your data drive or you don't need the files and you want to use this drive exclusively for Linux.

  1. Open the "Disks" app.
  2. Your data drive should have multiple partitions as you are migrating from Windows 10.
  3. Open the menu from right top corner -> Continue to "Format Disk".
  4. Check the default configuration, and proceed by clicking Format.
  5. Once formatted, you'll notice that all the partitions that were created on the Windows are no erased and there is a plain drive.
  6. Now, under volumes section, you'll notice a "+" sign.
  7. A window will appear, you need to enter the name for your drive.
  8. Select the Ext4 format. (If you want to dual boot, you need to select NTFS)
  9. Click Confirm and you're good to go.

Note: Once formatting starts, it may take a while. Don't interrupt and keep the laptop plugged-in.

Welcome to Zorin. :peace_symbol:

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