Tuesday, March 29, 2016

How to Mount Hibernated Windows Partitions in Linux

ERROR:
Error mounting: mount exited with exit code 14: Windows is hibernated, refused to mount.
Failed to mount '/dev/sda5': Operation not permitted
The NTFS partition is hibernated. Please resume and shutdown Windows
properly, or mount the volume read-only with the 'ro' mount option, or
mount the volume read-write with the 'remove_hiberfile' mount option......

Why ?
You are seeing this error because you hibernated Windows instead of turning it off the normal way (in newer versions of Windows, hibernate might be the default option).

Hibernating saves the current state information to the hard disk and then powers down the computer. When you turn off Windows by hibernating it, you are essentially pausing the system and saving all of that information into a big file called hiberfil.sys This way when you resume from hibernation all of your applications and files will be exactly how you left them. It also sets a flag in hiberfil.sys to let other Operating Systems know that Windows is hibernated.

Shutting down the computer closes all programs and ends all running processes before powering down the computer

Making changes to your Windows  partition while it is hibernated could be dangerous, ,t could cause Windows to not resume from hibernation or to crash after resuming.

In Linux to mount hibernated windows do as following:

Make Folder of any name in Media Directory(/media)
e.g. Make folder manually or

sudo mkdir /media/WINTMP

After then Run this command (with superuser permission if needed) in terminal with created folder name where to mount windows partition. Here sda2 is a partition of windows file System so First Check that where your windows partition is stored.
e.g.

sudo mount -t ntfs-3g -o remove_hiberfile /dev/sda2 /media/WINTMP

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Solution for Windows 8 and 10:
There is a new feature in Windows 8 called Fast Startup.This feature is enabled by default, Windows 8 does not actually completely shutdown when you choose shutdown. Instead, it does a "hybrid shutdown". This is something like hibernating; it makes booting Windows 8 back up faster. So, you need to disable this feature to be able to shut it down properly, and be able to mount the Windows partitions. Fast Startup can be Disable from power option in Control Panel.By disabling Fast Startup windows 8 will take a longer time to boot.

If you still aren't able to mount without getting errors, you should turn off hibernation completely. Open Command Prompt as Administrator and Run following Command :

powercfg /h off

Browsing Privacy in Mozilla Firefox using about:config


The about:config (Configuration Editor) Page lists Firefox settings known as preferences that are read from the prefs.js and user.js files in the Firefox profile and from application defaults. Many of these preferences are advanced settings that are not present in the Options dialog.

The prefs.js file does not actually contain all of the settings. It only stores changes made to the defaults, after they are written back to disk. prefs.js is a plain-text file that can be edited with a text editor. However, its recommended that you don't edit it directly since you can damage your profile if you make any mistakes.
A user.js file is an alternative method of modifying preferences, recommended for advanced users only. Unless you need a user.js file for a specific purpose you should use about:config instead. The user.js file does not exist by default.

Warning: Changing these advanced settings can sometimes break Firefox or cause strange behavior. You should only do this if you know what you're doing or if you are following trustworthy advice.

How: 

  1.     Enter "about:config" in the firefox address bar and press enter.
  2.     Press the button "I'll be careful, I promise!"
  3.     Follow the instructions below.

Starting Steps :
  •     privacy.trackingprotection.enabled = true
        This is Mozilla’s new built in tracking protection.
  •     geo.enabled = false
        Disables geolocation.
  •     browser.safebrowsing.enabled = false
        Disable Google Safe Browsing and phishing protection. Security risk, but privacy improvement.
  •     browser.safebrowsing.malware.enabled = false
        Disable Google Safe Browsing malware checks. Security risk, but privacy improvement.
  •     dom.event.clipboardevents.enabled = false
        Disable that websites can get notifications if you copy, paste, or cut something from a web page, and it lets them know which part of the page had been selected.
  •     network.cookie.cookieBehavior = 1
        Disable cookies
        0 = accept all cookies by default
        1 = only accept from the originating site (block third party cookies)
        2 = block all cookies by default
  •     network.cookie.lifetimePolicy = 2
        cookies are deleted at the end of the session
        0 = Accept cookies normally
        1 = Prompt for each cookie
        2 = Accept for current session only
        3 = Accept for N days
  •     browser.cache.offline.enable = false
        Disables offline cache.
  •     browser.send_pings = false
        The attribute would be useful for letting websites track visitors’ clicks.
  •     webgl.disabled = true
        WebGL is a potential security risk. Source
  •     dom.battery.enabled = false
        Website owners can track the battery status of your device. Source
  •     browser.sessionstore.max_tabs_undo = 0
        Even with Firefox set to not remember history, your closed tabs are stored temporarily at Menu -> History -> Recently Closed Tabs