cannot access volumes - no permission

Question

cannot access volumes - no permission

I am the admin of my macmini which is not on a network. After a freeze and reboot, I am locked out of my firewire external hard drives [la cie]. The error message is "the folder [volume name] can't be opened because you don't have permission to see its contents." When I get info for any of the drives, the permissions say i have custom access which cannot be changed [it always reverts back to the "custom"].

I found this link on the Leopard discussion board. http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2087835

I've never used terminal before

I keep getting this line: adsl-75-33-11-95:~ [username]$ [grey box]

I have tried to enter the Terminal commands:

cd /Volumes [after the "grey box"]

I get this:

-bash: cd/Volumes: No such file or directory

adsl-75-33-11-95:~ [username]$

can anyone help, please?

Thank you

Mac mini, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Sep 21, 2012 12:00 PM

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Answer 1

Niel

Level 10

741,911 points

Sep 21, 2012 12:40 PM in response to santabarbarian

You need to type

cd /Volumes

and not

cd/Volumes

Ensure the spacing and capitalization are correct when using the Terminal.

(70047)

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Answer 2

Sep 21, 2012 12:56 PM in response to Niel

Thank you Niel

I have this

adsl-75-33-11-95:volumes David$ ls -go

total 8

drw-rw-r-T@ 21 782 Aug 16 10:58 LaCie Disk

lrwxr-xr-x 1 1 Sep 20 06:46 Macintosh HD -> /

drw-rw-r-T@ 242 8296 Sep 17 11:17 Quadra2

drw-rw-r-T@ 13 510 Apr 23 08:41 Tera

drw-rw-r-T@ 152 5236 Sep 18 05:20 Terra2

drw-rw-r-T@ 999 34034 Sep 19 09:00 Terra22

to change the permissions sos that I can open and read/write to the drives, is there any reaon to not do this for each drive:

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 3

Niel

Level 10

741,911 points

Sep 21, 2012 1:07 PM in response to santabarbarian

Use the following commands on each except for Macintosh HD:

sudo chmod -N /Volumes/Volumename

sudo chmod 775 /Volumes/Volumename

In the case of the LaCie drive, put a backslash before the space. If needed, run the other two commands on each.

(70050)

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Answer 4

Sep 21, 2012 1:16 PM in response to Niel

Thank you - I understand the two name volume requiring a "\" and I do not intend to do it on "Macintosh HD" as it seems to be ok. I am only having problem with the external drives LCie disk, Quadra2, Terra, Terra2, Terra22

I just want to be clear [i'm a newbie and freaked about doing something wrong], you advise running these

sudo chmod -N /Volumes/Volumename

sudo chmod 775 /Volumes/Volumename

instead of these for each drive

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 5

Sep 21, 2012 2:45 PM in response to santabarbarian

running these two commands in this order

sudo chmod -N /Volumes/Volumename

sudo chmod 775 /Volumes/Volumename

did not reset the permissions sufficiently for me to access the externals, so I ran each of these for each of the externals

sudo chflags 0 /Volumes/Volumename

sudo chown 0:80 /Volumes/Volumename

sudo chmod 775 /Volumes/Volumename

sudo chmod -N /Volumes/Volumename

and I have access again [you can actually see the little lock on the disk icon disappear as the latter commands are executing]

Thanks Niel

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