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gss107
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Q: Can't Change Permissions On My External Hard-Drive!?

My Mac Pro running 0SX 10.5.8 crashed the other day resulting in my external Hard-drive's permissions changing! Which are now set to 'Custom' and not allowing me to access anything on that External Hard-drive!? I'm the only user so my 'user' is the admin, I DO have a password set up also, which still works but every time I try to change the permissions using 'apple i' nothing happens!? please help!

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.8), Dual Core Intel Xeon

Posted on Jun 26, 2010 3:22 PM

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gss107

Q: Can't Change Permissions On My External Hard-Drive!?

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  • by Kappy,

    Kappy Kappy Jun 26, 2010 3:40 PM in response to gss107
    Level 10 (270,928 points)
    Desktops
    Jun 26, 2010 3:40 PM in response to gss107
    See if this helps:


    To fix this:

    1. Launch Terminal, which resides in the Macintosh HD > Applications > Utilities folder.

    2. At the Terminal prompt, type the following command:

    sudo chmod a+rwx "/Volumes/partition_name"

    where: partition_name is the name of the affected partition.

    3. Press Return.

    4. Type your Admin password when prompted, then press Return.

    5. At the Terminal prompt, type exit and press Return.

    6. Quit (Command-Q) Terminal.

    7. Relaunch Finder: Press and hold the Option key, click and hold mouse button 1 on the Finder icon in the Dock, select "Relaunch" from the Finder icon's contextual menu.

    You should then see the volume, or be able to use Disk Utility to Unmount it, then Mount it and see it.

    Reset the permissions for Group and Other for the partition as desired. Do not change the permissions for Owner.

    If you want a volume / partition unmounted at startup, see:

    • this tip Mac OS X Hints, or...

    • this tip on the OSX86 Project forums.

    Good luck!

    Dr. Smoke
    Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X

  • by baltwo,

    baltwo baltwo Jun 26, 2010 4:58 PM in response to Kappy
    Level 9 (62,256 points)
    Jun 26, 2010 4:58 PM in response to Kappy
    If Kappy's steps don't fix things, see Niel's guide.

  • by Kappy,

    Kappy Kappy Jun 26, 2010 5:06 PM in response to baltwo
    Level 10 (270,928 points)
    Desktops
    Jun 26, 2010 5:06 PM in response to baltwo
    I guess I should own up that their Dr. Smoke's steps.

  • by baltwo,

    baltwo baltwo Jun 26, 2010 5:15 PM in response to Kappy
    Level 9 (62,256 points)
    Jun 26, 2010 5:15 PM in response to Kappy
    Nah! He gets enough accolades to keep him satisfied. BTW, you're new avatar keeps throwing me for a loop, but I guess change is needed every so often.    

  • by Kappy,

    Kappy Kappy Jun 26, 2010 5:18 PM in response to baltwo
    Level 10 (270,928 points)
    Desktops
    Jun 26, 2010 5:18 PM in response to baltwo
    Yeah, every once in a while it's nice to make a change. Hopefully tells people I'm a nice guy. Don't really know if that's working.