UPDATE, August 26, 2024: The solution to the drive issue was to run a scan on the C: drive, which fixed errors and allowed Linux Mint (and presumably Ubuntu) to once again access the drives.
The complication: In both Linux Mint and Ubuntu, my two main Windows drives (both NTFS) are producing errors and can’t be mounted (accessed). Digging around, there are a number of possible reasons. The easiest to test was that Windows was hibernating and preventing the Linux systems from accessing them (I am simplifying here because I’m the guy buying Linux for Dummies in 1999). I shut down (rather than restart) the PC and rebooted into Mint.
This brought back the secondary Windows SSD, but the primary (C:) drive still produced the same error. My research revealed a few other things to try, which I will do the next time I boot into Windows (I’m typing in Ubuntu at the moment).
But this weird inconvenience (it hadn’t happened until just the other day and I have no idea what triggered it) made me realize the best way to run Linux is (in order from best to least, uh best):
- On a completely separate machine
- In a virtual machine (VM) — if you’re just noodling around
- On separate drives
- On a partitioned drive
I am using option #3, which, until this glitch, has worked reasonably well. I’ll still tinker with things as they are, but I am now convinced the best way is to just run Linux on a completely separate PC, which I currently don’t have. I have parts, and could cobble together something, but it would not be great. The better solution would be to convert the current PC 100% to Linux after getting a new PC for Windows 12 Ad Edition or whatever. There is no timeline for such a thing, however (my PC dates back to 2019 and still runs everything I need without issue).
But for now, I continue to tinker and hammer down the lumps that keep popping up in the Linux carpet.
