NTFS-3G.PROBE(8)

💅 NTFS-3G.PROBE(8) ✨

okay so bestie, welcome to ntfs-3g.probe — it lives in section 8 of the System Manager's Manual (that's the system manager shelf, iykyk), and it's genuinely one of the most useful little gremlins in the NTFS-3G family. Let's get into it 🎀

---

🌸 NAME 🌸

ntfs-3g.probe — probe an NTFS volume's mountability. That's it. That's the whole job. It pokes the volume and tells you if it can mount. Iconic, honestly.

---

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

ntfs-3g.probe <--readonly|--readwrite> volume

so you pick one of --readonly or --readwrite, and then you hand it a volume. That's the whole vibe check 🫶

---

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

The ntfs-3g.probe utility tests a volume to see if it's NTFS mountable read-only or read-write, and it exits with a status value accordingly. Like, it doesn't mount anything — it just checks and then reports back through its exit code. Lowkey the most polite thing a utility can do.

And the volume you pass? It can be a block device or an image file. Both are valid, no cap 💖

---

💅 OPTIONS 💅

Below is a summary of the options that ntfs-3g.probe accepts. Yes, there's only a few. Quality over quantity, periodt.

• -r, --readonly — test if the volume can be mounted read-only.
• -w, --readwrite — test if the volume can be mounted read-write.
• -h, --help — display help and exit. the classic escape hatch 🌈

---

🍓 EXAMPLE 🍓

Test if /dev/sda1 can be mounted read-write:

ntfs-3g.probe --readwrite /dev/sda1

look at her go 😭✨

---

🔥 EXIT CODES 🔥

The exit codes are as follows — and honestly this list is the whole personality of the tool, so pay attention bestie:

• 0 — volume is mountable. slay 💖
• 11 — syntax error, command line parsing failed.
• 12 — the volume doesn't have a valid NTFS.
• 13 — inconsistent NTFS, hardware or device driver fault, or unsetup SoftRAID/FakeRAID hardware.
• 14 — the NTFS partition is hibernated.
• 15 — the volume was not cleanly unmounted.
• 16 — the volume is already exclusively opened and in use by a kernel driver or software.
• 17 — unsetup SoftRAID/FakeRAID hardware.
• 18 — unknown reason. 🙈 we've all been there
• 19 — not enough privilege to mount.
• 20 — out of memory.
• 21 — unclassified FUSE error.

ngl, exit code 0 is the only one that gives main character energy. everything else is a plot twist 💀

---

💀 KNOWN ISSUES 💀

Please see

https://github.com/tuxera/ntfs-3g/wiki/NTFS-3G-FAQ

for common questions and known issues. That's the FAQ, bestie, it's got answers.

And if you think you've found an undocumented problem in the latest release of the software, then please post an ntfs-3g issue describing it in detail so that the development team can be aware of the issue and take care of it:

https://github.com/tuxera/ntfs-3g/issues

fr fr, describe it in detail — the devs can't fix what they can't see 🧚

---

👑 AUTHORS 👑

ntfs-3g.probe was written by Szabolcs Szakacsits. king behaviour honestly 👑

---

🌈 THANKS 🌈

Alon Bar-Lev has integrated the utility into the NTFS-3G build process and tested it with Erik Larsson before the public release. team effort, we love to see it 🫶✨

---

🎀 SEE ALSO 🎀

• ntfs-3g(8) — go read that one next, bestie, it's the big sibling 💜

---

⭐ and that's the whole page! this one's ntfs-3g.probe 2026.9.28, dated back to January 2008 in the manual — vintage, but still serving looks. mwah 💋