Level 1

36 points

HFS permissions from Windows 7

I've installed the Boot Camp updates in Windows 7 (x64) and I do indeed have read access to my HFS partition. I notice that you cannot access anything in the Users folder, which makes sense for security purposes however I would rather not put files I need to share in the root of my HFS partition.

What permissions does a folder on the HFS partition need for it to be accessible under Boot Camp? For instance, looking at the applications folder I see that it has "system", "admin", and "everyone" in the permissions list. That folder is accessible from Windows. I've tried adding the everyone permission to another folder within my home folder under Users but the folders don't even show up in Windows. Only the parent "Users" folder itself.

Has anyone had any success working with folders using the new HFS driver in Windows Boot Camp for any folders that are not in the root of the HFS partition?

Thanks

iMac 24 / MacBook Pro 17" / Mac Mini / iPhone 3G 16GB / iPhone Edge 4GB, Mac OS X (10.6), 3.06 Ghz / Core 2 Duo / 4GB Ram

Posted on Sep 1, 2009 5:53 PM

61 replies

KJK555

Level 4

2,906 points

Sep 2, 2009 2:51 AM in response to DJRumpy

I haven't had a chance to play with the new boot camp drivers yet, but it is very possible, that
they are using software to lock you out of the users folder contents.

You might run a symbolic link from your user folder to the root directory and trick it into
showing itself.

Kj ♘

DJRumpy Author

Level 1

36 points

Sep 2, 2009 3:42 AM in response to KJK555

I hadn't thought of trying a link. We used to use that trick when we were working with FTP servers.

drwxrwx---+ 6 Ron staff 204 May 27 09:35 Public

Those are the permissions (sorry, I did forget the -ale).

I'm trying the link now..rebooting..and back in a sec 😉

DJRumpy Author

Level 1

36 points

Sep 2, 2009 4:11 AM in response to DJRumpy

The symbolic link shows up as a 'file' one the windows side.

No glory...

Here's the LS from the root of the drive for the symbolic link:

lrwxr-xr-x 1 Ron admin 23 Sep 2 05:41 Archives_Win -> /Users/Ron/Archives_Win

I tried a hard link, which is legal in OS X, but apparently not via the command line. It looks like I'll just have to move my Archives folder. It appears that since the Shared folder is accessible, that might be a better home than the drive root, so I'll start there unless anyone has any other ideas.

Sep 2, 2009 8:53 AM in response to DJRumpy

I am having the same issues as are being discussed on this topic. I am using windows 7 with SL and new boot camp drivers. I can access the Macintosh HD and see the users folder, then I can see the 2 user profiles. My profile shows no folders or files at all when I try to view files. The other user shows all their files. We are both administrators. Does anyone know how I can figure out how to see my files?

trentmb

Level 1

0 points

Sep 2, 2009 8:58 AM in response to DJRumpy

I had zero permissions issues with my drive, I was able to navigate freely around folders.

I did find however that Windows couldn't read that had a little 2x2 pixel square character in their name.

The hatter

Level 9

61,031 points

Sep 2, 2009 9:03 AM in response to DJRumpy

When I have copied files from Win7 to Mac, sometimes I was asked to authenticate, even though they were on an NTFS data drive outside any user account, just data, created by Word 2007, but also my IE Favorites folder if I wanted to modify folder.

I don't understand Vista/Win7 ownership but I have run up against it a number of times.

And because of reported problems by some, not sure I'm ready to install BC 3.0 drivers (I don't use BC 2.x now in Win7 and everything other than date/time works fine).

With Mac OS on its own hard drive, and other HFS+ volumes, it sounds like any of those should show up and be readable however.

Some interaction with Paragon or MacFuse etc?

DJRumpy Author

Level 1

36 points

Sep 2, 2009 9:18 AM in response to BrianG007

Brian, what permissions are on the user folder that you can see on the Windows side? We're trying to determine if it's a permissions issue, or if it's something else.

Someone above suggesting creating a 'stock' user account to insure it has proper permissions and see if that works. I think I'll try that after work.

DJRumpy Author

Level 1

36 points

Sep 2, 2009 12:23 PM in response to DJRumpy

The mystery just gets deeper. I created two new accounts. A regular user and an Admin account. Both are visible from the Windows 7 side. This appears to only affect accounts that were created prior to the Snow Leopard upgrade.

Now I just need to figure out how to 'rename' my old account, and then copy all of the data into a newly created account.

Sep 2, 2009 1:10 PM in response to DJRumpy

Not necessarily. Run ls -ale on 2 accounts, a pre SL one, and an SL account, and post both. It will help to see if the permissions are the same.

DJRumpy Author

Level 1

36 points

Sep 2, 2009 1:50 PM in response to Community User

Too late 😉

My problem is resolved in a round about way. No worries though. It was an interesting exorcise in using the OS X root account under Snow Leopard. I just enabled the root account. Renamed my old account home folder. Created a user account matching the renamed home folder. Created a new account. Added the new account's access to the renamed home folder, and logged back into the 'new' account.

Once there it was a simple matter to copy my old user content. I'm not overly concerned about cookies, libraries, or program preferences so I just left those behind.

I verified it's working properly from Windows 7 with the new home folder.

Here is a sample from the Desktop permissions if your curious. The top one is from my 'original' home directory. The second is from the new home directory.

Old Desktop Folder:
drwxr-xr-x+ 4 ronold staff 136 Sep 2 14:45 Desktop
0: user:ron allow list,add file,search,add_subdirectory,deletechild,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeextattr,readsecurity

New Desktop Folder:
drwx------+ 14 ron staff 476 Sep 2 14:45 Desktop
0: group:everyone deny delete

The hatter

Level 9

61,031 points

Sep 2, 2009 2:05 PM in response to DJRumpy

Hum.... I installed the BC 3.0 in my Windows 7 and could read and view the entire Mac HFS volume which resides on another hard drive. No limits.

And I booted from SL DVD and repaired and then did the install upgrade over my 10.5.8 system.

KJK555

Level 4

2,906 points

Sep 2, 2009 4:43 PM in response to DJRumpy

Hi DjRumpy:
I have media four's mac drive 7, It works pretty well for reading hfs+ volumes. I usually run it in read
only mode.

I usually share info via NTFS using Paragon NTFS on the Mac side. That solves permission issues
on both sides.

Kj ♘

DJRumpy Author

Level 1

36 points

Sep 2, 2009 4:52 PM in response to KJK555

On the mac side, I just use MacFuse (Open source freeware), and NTFS-3G to read/write to my NTFS partitions. I'm all set at this point. The new home folder took care of whatever permissions glitches were going on.

Thanks for everyone's help and suggestions.

J_42

Level 1

0 points

Sep 2, 2009 6:46 PM in response to DJRumpy

Hey DJRumpy, macwiz1220. I'm running Snow Leopard, just updated from Leopard, and my /User/username folder is inaccessible from Vista, and yes, I went ahead and updated my bootcamp drivers, and can see most of the HFS+ drive, but /User/username appears completely empty. 10.6 wasn't a clean install, so it's my /User/username folder from Leopard.

Has anybody figured out another workaround other than the funky business with root user and creating a new account (possibly loosing my setting along the way)?

DJRumpy Author

Level 1

36 points

Sep 2, 2009 6:58 PM in response to J_42

The only way I've found is to just create a new user account and copy all of your data over. You might just try creating a temporary admin account and log into that account. Delete your original account in the 'Accounts' preference pane, but tell OS X to keep your home directory.

Re-add your original account again using the same account name as your home directory that you kept via the Accounts preference pane. It should prompt you that a home folder already exists and ask if you want to use that. If you select Continue, it should go in and correct all of the permissions.

I didn't try that method but it may be easier for you if your not comfortable migrating your old user folder.

For example, if your 'bad' Account Name is "Bill", you can create a new account called 'temp' (make sure it's an Administrator account).

Log out and log in as 'temp'.

Open the Accounts preference pane and delete your 'Bill' account. It should ask you if you want to retain your home folder or delete it. Tell it to keep the home folder.

Create a new account called 'Bill'. It should tell you that a home folder with that name already exists and ask if you want to Continue. Tell it to continue.

At that point it should go into that folder and correct all of the permissions.

I don't know if this will fix things back to 'default' permissions for the bad home folder, but it might.

As always I would suggest you have a good backup before you do this, just in case.

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HFS permissions from Windows 7