On my laptop, I run Ubuntu 13.10 dual boot with Windows 8.1. Since I have a somewhat small SSD and all of my music is stored on the Windows partition, I access it from there through Ubuntu by mounting the partition.

Today I booted into Windows for the first time since installing Ubuntu. When I went back to Ubuntu and tried to access the Windows partition, I got this error:

The NTFS partition is in an unsafe state. Please resume and shutdown
Windows fully (no hibernation or fast restarting), or mount the volume
read-only with the 'ro' mount option.

What causes this error?

Googling around led me to this Ask Ubuntu post, which enlightened me about Windows’ hybrid shutdown, or hybrid boot, feature.

Hybrid shutdown is a new feature in Windows 8, which doesn’t “fully” shut down Windows when you shut it down. It actually shuts down in a semi-hibernated state so it boots faster the next time you turn it on. This is fine if you’re only using Windows 8 on your computer, but I’d like to be able to safely access files on my Windows partition from Ubuntu.

Great, how do I turn it off?

Do the following:

1. Open the Control Panel.
2. Find your power settings.
3. Click ‘Change what the power buttons do’.
4. Click ‘Change settings that are currently unavailable’.
5. Uncheck the ‘Turn on fast startup (recommended)’ box and save your changes.

You should now be able to normally shut down Windows and then access your Windows partition from inside Ubuntu.