External Hard Drives Changing Permissions to Read Only

Question

Level 1

9 points

External Hard Drives Changing Permissions to Read Only

Three of my USB external hard drives have suddenly changed to read only. One of the times I was trying to transfer/back-up the files from one drive that had changed to read only to another external. Suddenly the second drive changed permissions. Then after plugging a third external, that drive changed permissions. They all were working perfectly fine with my computer and I have only been using them on MACS. Any explanations? Could there be something wrong with my USB ports? Is it possible to have a virus of some sort?

Thank you!

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Jan 7, 2011 8:02 AM

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Answer 1

Jan 23, 2011 9:19 PM in response to Kappy

Here's the thing that every forum I see keeps ignoring: The drives ALL worked BEFORE this problem NTFS or not, we were able to Read and Write with NO problems until, magically, the drive turned to read only. I am using a WD 2TB External USB Hard Drive. I have never formatted it, only used it right out the the box. I have PC's running XP, Vista, and Windows 7, and I have my Macs running OSX.

I have been Successfully transferring data between all of the computers with no problems until today. I transferred data literally 3 days ago from my Mac to my PC AND from my PC to my Mac using this drive. I always use the eject option on the drive. NTFS or not it DOESN'T matter. The issue is drives that worked with no issue suddenly becoming useless. Sadly this looks to be an issue with the Mac OS.

If we could get some true discussion and assistance on the root of the problem, or a patch from Apple, this would be great. I am not sure what is causing this but apparently it is no isolated incident as everyone is going form working to non-working without changing any settings.

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Answer 2

Feb 17, 2011 4:56 AM in response to Kappy

Congratulation on being one of the most unpleasant , unhelpful and arrogant people i've ever seen on a forum

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Answer 3

HWNewbie

Level 1

4 points

Feb 5, 2011 6:24 AM in response to beatlelili

I am not sure if people who comment on this forum feel the urge to sound like an experts just because they happen to contribute to it. All the technical solutions provided here are not going to lead anywhere. I had the same problem, my Toshiba 1TB and Hitachi 2TB external hard disks became read only all of a sudden. They were both formatted for PC and I had used them to save data from my Mac onto them and access them. This change from read/write to read only happened somewhere around the middle of January. I am convinced this is a Mac OSx issue.

I am an Apple newbie and tried the following and it worked like a dream. I got read and write back on. Of course because of the large hard disk size it took time.
Step 1 - Found disk utility through Spotlight
Step 2 - Clicked on the Disk I was trying to fix.
Step 3 - on the Bottom Right hand side there is an option called Verify Disk.
Step 4 - Make sure the external HD is connected directly into the USB not through a hub.
Step 5 - After a long verifying process, both my externals became read/write!

Please do NOT use any other option on disk utility or you could lose data. Just use the "Verify Disk" in disk utility.

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Answer 4

HWNewbie

Level 1

4 points

Feb 5, 2011 1:48 PM in response to Kappy

I am sorry I seem to have upset you by my response! However, your abuse is completely uncalled for and I am afraid I will have to report you for the abuse. You have also been abusive and bullying to another person on the discussion board.

My solution worked for me and it is a pity all your four or so posts were - how should I put it - less than helpful.

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Answer 5

HWNewbie

Level 1

4 points

Feb 12, 2011 2:59 PM in response to Kappy

I am sorry but I had no idea you can be so gratituously rude and pompous to people you do not even know. Your profession says you are some professor of finance. I hope your finance teaching was better than your online manners or maybe it was not after all and thats why you are on here with so many posts!

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Answer 6

Kappy

Level 10

362,007 points

Feb 17, 2011 11:24 AM in response to ronharp

Is this on a drive, folder, or file? If it's a drive then do this:

Select the drive's Desktop icon. Press COMMAND-I to open the Get Info window. At the bottom look for a checkbox labeled, "Ignore permissions on this volume." If it is checked then click on the lock icon and authenticate. Uncheck the box. Leave the window open.

Open the Terminal application in your Utilities folder. At the prompt enter:

sudo chown root:admin

Put a space after "admin" then drag the drive's Desktop icon into the Terminal window. Press RETURN. Enter your admin password when prompted. It will not be echoed.

killall Finder

Press RETURN.

This should fix the issue. Re-open the Get Info window for the drive to verify.

If this drive is a startup volume, then I suggest doing the following:

Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions

Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer. Now restart normally.

If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.

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Answer 7

Csound1

Level 9

60,063 points

Apr 30, 2012 1:52 PM in response to Mika77

Mika77 wrote:

In disk utility I had a look. I cannot verify or set permission (greyed out). The data coming back from info. How can I change this??
Name : FUJITSU MHZ2320BH G1 Media
Type : Disk

Partition Map Scheme : Master Boot Record
Disk Identifier : disk2
Media Name : FUJITSU MHZ2320BH G1 Media
Media Type : Generic
Connection Bus : USB
USB Serial Number : 560A48A291F9
Device Tree : /PCI0/EHC1@1D,7/@3:0
Writable : Yes
Ejectable : Yes
Mac OS 9 Drivers Installed : No
Location : External
Total Capacity : 298,1 GB (320.072.933.376 Bytes)
S.M.A.R.T. Status : Not Supported
Disk Number : 2
Partition Number : 0

Name : NieuwVolume
Type : Volume

Disk Identifier : disk2s1
Mount Point : /Volumes/NieuwVolume
File System : Windows NT File System (NTFS)
Connection Bus : USB
Device Tree : /PCI0/EHC1@1D,7/@3:1
Writable : No
Universal Unique Identifier : C7B58C48-D6BC-4078-9DAE-CB125901A4D6
Capacity : 298,1 GB (320.070.288.384 Bytes)
Free Space : 127,1 GB (136.438.530.048 Bytes)
Used : 171,0 GB (183.631.757.312 Bytes)
Number of Files : 85.578
Number of Folders : 0
Owners Enabled : No
Can Turn Owners Off : No
Can Be Formatted : No
Bootable : No
Supports Journaling : No
Journaled : No
Disk Number : 2
Partition Number : 1

That drive is formatted for Windows (NTFS) Macs can not write to it unless you reformat to FAT32 or HFS

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Answer 8

Dec 16, 2012 12:51 PM in response to beatlelili

I've been having this same problem off and on with different firewire drives connected to my computer, all in Mac OS Extended format (not NTFS). I couldn't figure out a solution until coming here and reading through the posts - and simply "verifying" the disk (doing nothing else) did the trick. Make sure you verify the partition itself, not just the root drive. Kappy has no idea what he/she is talking about... you CAN resolve the problem with a simple 'verify.' Hope this helps others who may (still) be experiencing this frustrating problem.

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Answer 9

Sep 16, 2014 4:35 PM in response to beatlelili

Hi...Lo,

I have NEVER done this before as I am a NEWBIE to this procedure and the whole FORM help. For ALL new readers of this form, what will fix this problem is to download from the following website, the "NTFS Driver for Mac OS" from Seagate: http://www.seagate.com/support/downloads/item/ntfs-driver-for-mac-os-master-dl/ -

This solved my whole problem from READ ONLY to both R&W.

I hope this HELPS all who read this and has this PAINFUL problem with little or NO good answers that I could find.

May GOD and HIS Son JESUS, bless and keep you all.

RonJammer(s)

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Answer 10

Kappy

Level 10

362,007 points

Jan 23, 2011 9:37 PM in response to Institian

Then I suggest you post a new separate topic because you are poaching another user's topic, and threadjacking is poor etiquette.

If you believe there's a problem with OS X and can document it then file a bug report at Feedback.

We're not here to debate your opinion of whether OS X is the reason you are having a problem when your problem is not well defined or stated.

Since you have not truly identified a problem evidenced with OS X there's nothing to discuss, true or otherwise. Everyone is NOT having a problem like you claim, and so far your description is just an isolated incident.

And, be sure to post a well defined problem and not a rant on what you perceive as a problem with OS X or discussions, etc. You are a first time poster so it would be useful to click on the Help & Terms of Use link in the right sidebar of the page and read the Terms of Use.

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Answer 11

Kappy

Level 10

362,007 points

Feb 17, 2011 11:58 AM in response to ronharp

Did you check the status of the "Ignore permissions ... " checkbox? It must be unchecked.

Repairing probably won't help any since DU does not fix a drive's privileges. If all else fails then you can follow the instruction here: Fix No Access Permissions on HD.

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Answer 12

Kappy

Level 10

362,007 points

Jan 7, 2011 9:16 AM in response to beatlelili

Select one of the drives. Press COMMAND-I to open the Get Info window. At the bottom in the Ownership and Sharing section note the assigned owner, group, and Everyone assigned permissions. Also, note whether the checkbox labeled, "Ignore permissions on this volume," is checked or not. Report back what your find.

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Answer 13

Jan 8, 2011 12:14 PM in response to Kappy

I am having the same problem. My firewire connected drive has also changed its permissions somehow. I can unlock the key at the lower right corner to change permissions, but everything is grayed out in the Sharing & Permissions section--it does say, "you can only read" and the only thing I can change is, "Ignore ownership on this volume." What do I do?

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Answer 14

beatlelili Author

Level 1

9 points

Jan 9, 2011 10:58 AM in response to Kappy

The users in the Sharing and Permissions section are grayed out. It says that I can Read & Write and the other two users are read only. There is no Details section and thus no "Ignore permissons on this volume."

Also, if I copy all the data on this drive to another external, will it corrupt that external?

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Answer 15

Kappy

Level 10

362,007 points

Jan 9, 2011 11:18 AM in response to beatlelili

But what are the users for owner and group? Are you listed as the owner with r/w privileges? Who is assigned to group?

The normal users and privileges for a hard drive are:

Owner=system with r/w privileges
Group=admin with r/w privileges
Everyone is read-only

So I suggest you try the following and see if this fixes things:

Open the Terminal application in your Utilities folder. At the prompt in the Terminal window paste the following command lines:

sudo chown root:admin

Put a space after "admin" then drag the icons of all three of the drives with which you are having a problem (or do it one at a time and repeat the command line) into the Terminal window. Press RETURN. You will be prompted to enter your admin password which will not be echoed.

sudo chmod a+rwx

Put a space after "a+rwx" and drag the icons of the drives into the Terminal window. Press RETURN.

killall Finder

Press RETURN.

Copying the data from one drive to another should corrupt anything assuming the destination drive is OK.

Message was edited by: Kappy

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