Cannot access Volumes (no permission)

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Level 2

279 points

Cannot access Volumes (no permission)

I upgraded my Mac to Leopard, ran all updates, repaired permissions and rebooted and I have no access to volumes other than the System drive.

I have two internal drives, both are partitioned to two volumes; on Drive 1 I have a System partition and a Data partition. I can access the System partition no problem, but the Data partition and the two partitions on the other drive have a lock symbol on them.

If I try to select them I am told I have no access privileges. If I try to change the permissions by going Info -> Sharing & Permissions, I can not change the permissions, I am told again I have no access privileges. The very confusing thing is when I log in as Root, I get the same errors.

G4 PPC MDD 1.25 Ghz + G5 PPC 1.8 Ghz 2 Ghz RAM, Mac OS X (10.5.6), 17" 2.16 Ghz MBP 1 GB RAM

Posted on Feb 21, 2009 3:24 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

baltwo

Level 9

62,362 points

Feb 21, 2009 12:06 PM in response to TGH

See Niel's guide at
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2087835

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Answer 2

TGH Author

Level 2

279 points

Feb 21, 2009 3:41 PM in response to baltwo

Uh oh... Niel's guide did not work. I tired Scenario 3, which applies to me and received this error in Terminal:

chmod 775 "/Volumes/Video/"
chmod: /Volumes/Video/: Operation not permitted

I then tried scenario number 2 and get this error:

sudo chown root "/Volumes/Video/"
chown: /Volumes/Video/: Operation not permitted

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Answer 3

TGH Author

Level 2

279 points

Feb 21, 2009 4:29 PM in response to TGH

I found a solution that worked.

In Terminal type the following sequence (obviously replace "Volumename with the name of your volume):

sudo chflags 0 /Volumes/Volumename
sudo chown 0:80 /Volumes/Volumename
sudo chmod 775 /Volumes/Volumename
sudo chmod -N /Volumes/Volumename

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Answer 4

baltwo

Level 9

62,362 points

Feb 21, 2009 7:53 PM in response to TGH

Thanks for the feedback. Good computing.

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Answer 5

TGH Author

Level 2

279 points

Feb 22, 2009 12:05 AM in response to baltwo

Thanks! It was perplexing and I am glad it is fixed now! I marked your message as "Helpful" because although it didn't solve my issue it was still helpful and I appreciate you taking the time to respond... :-D

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Answer 6

May 18, 2009 4:36 AM in response to TGH

Hi,
I recently changed the sharing permissions on my two intel iMacs both using Leopard 10.5.7.
After restarting them, I noticed they both were remaining on their gray startup screens.
I felt there was no other recourse than to archive and reinstall their operating systems.
Since then, I have not been able to open my external HD from either iMac.
I tried "get info" on it and noticed I have "custom access" and cannot change a thing.

I have tried the Terminal commands:
cd /Volumes
and
ls -go

and the outcome for my external drive is: drw-rw-r--+ 44 1564 30 Mar 11:26 iMac G5 17" (notice that it finishes with " which may be a problem?)

I am hoping you can help as I really do not want to re-format my HD which contains valuable information,

nicebeatz183

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Answer 7

May 20, 2009 8:26 PM in response to TGH

I have the situation of a locked external HD with custom access.

I have tried the Terminal commands:
cd /Volumes
ls -go
and the outcome is:
drw-rw-r-- 44 1564 30 Mar 11:26 iMac G5 17"
Could anyone tell me what the next step should be?

nicebeatz183.

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Answer 8

Jun 7, 2009 4:39 PM in response to nicebeatz183

actually, I had a similar case. I thought it was because of a corrupt volume. so I ran diskwarrior, it went on for 3 days, found bunch of overlapped files and said 'restored successfully' but I still can't boot into that OS and when i check the sharing&permissions of it from the other OS, only system and admin have read and write privileges.

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Answer 9

Jul 15, 2009 3:05 PM in response to TGH

Hi,
i have a similar problem, my la cie hard drive is locked and wont let me change the permissions and wont let me change the ownership - it says that the permissions are 'custom' - so i am trying to unlock using terminal window however my hard drive has the title 'Kris 200Gb - MUSIC & PHOTOS', so i am unclear as to what i should type into the terminal window, any help would be fantastic. I desperately need access to this hard drive.

thank you

Kris

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Answer 10

Alfchir

Level 1

0 points

Aug 30, 2009 5:19 AM in response to TGH

Brilliant... this solution worked beautifully... there's a whole bunch of other threads out there with the same problem... wish they could read your solution... thanks mate

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