raduray
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Q: Lost system privileges after adding SSD

I have a 2011 MacBook Pro.  It came with a 750GB HDD.  I just installed an OWC 120GB SSD as the Boot/Program disk and placed the old HDD, holding my Photo, Music and Download files, in the optical drive position.

 

This is how I proceeded:

1.  First I made sure to have an updated Time Machine backup to my USB external drive.  I never did have to use it, at least so far.

2.  Created Photo, Music and Download directories at the root level of the old HDD and moved all my photo, music and download files from the user folder to the new folders.

3.  I then physically installed the SSD into the HDD bay and moved the HDD to the optical bay per the instructions from OWC.

4.  Started up the system and it booted from the HDD in the optical bay.

5.  Using Disk Utility, I created two partitions on the SSD.   The first partition, titled RECOVERY was 1.1 GB and the second partition, titled SSD BOOT held everything else.

6.  Using Recovery Disk Assistant, I created a Recovery partition on the RECOVERY partition.  After that was completed, I no longer saw the RECOVERY partition in Finder.  That is as expected.

7.  Using Carbon Copy cloner, I cloned the HDD, excepting the newly created Photo, Music and Download directories, to the SSD BOOT partition.

8.  Restarted the system while pressing the Option/Alt key.  I was given the option of booting from the SSD or from the HDD and I selected the SSD.  Boot proceeded as expected and I was into my system, with all my settings and configurations apparently intact.  The only thing that was abnormal was that I had to re-establish the Dropbox link. 

9. Linked Lightroom to the Photo directory on the HDD, linked iTunes to the Music directory on the HDD, and created a symbolic link in my Users directory to the Download directory on the HDD.

10. After the above steps, I tested my applications, including Parallels, and everything seemed fine.  I thought I was done.

 

11. Several days later, I ran the I1Display Pro photo calibration for my monitor, and found that I could only change the User profile and that the System proflie was greyed out.  I subsequently tried to copy a photo paper color profile to SSD BOOT/Library/Color Synk/Profiles directory and was denied access.  I do have access to the equivalent folder in the user directory.

 

So, I obviously broke something and, although my user account has Admin privileges, I no longer have access to system files. 

 

How did I break this and How do I fix it?

 

Would appreciate any assistance.

OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on Mar 13, 2013 12:28 PM

by Eric Root,Solvedanswer
Eric Root Eric Root
Level 9 (74,186 points)
iTunes
A:

Apple support article:

 

Troubleshooting Permission Issues

Posted on Mar 13, 2013 12:43 PM

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raduray

Q: Lost system privileges after adding SSD

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  • by Eric Root,Solvedanswer

    Eric Root Eric Root Mar 13, 2013 12:43 PM in response to raduray
    Level 9 (74,186 points)
    iTunes
    Mar 13, 2013 12:43 PM in response to raduray

    Apple support article:

     

    Troubleshooting Permission Issues

  • by raduray,

    raduray raduray Mar 13, 2013 1:25 PM in response to Eric Root
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 13, 2013 1:25 PM in response to Eric Root

    Eric, this helped a little bit. 

     

    I ran Repair Disk Partition on Disk Utilities and after rebooting I received a password prompt when trying to modify the Color Profiles directory on the boot drive.  After typing the password, I was able to make the change.  So, that's a bit of progress.

     

    However, when I ran the color profiler app, it still did not allow me to make the changes at the system level.  From xRite's FAQ, I need system privileges to do that, but as I'm logged in as a user I should have it.

     

    I ran another test.  I created a new test user with Admin privileges to see what would happen.  When I logged in under this test account, I could not even see the boot drive in Finder.  Nor could I see the parent Apple's MacBook Pro icon which, when I'm normally logged on, shows the Boot Drive, the Data drive, and a network icon as well as grayed out home and net icons.

  • by raduray,

    raduray raduray Mar 13, 2013 4:24 PM in response to raduray
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 13, 2013 4:24 PM in response to raduray

    After additional research, I found that the monitor profiler app requires read/write privileges for all users in order to effect changes at the system level.  I must not have noticed I didn't have system access with this app before upgrading to to SSD.

     

    So all seems OK, except I still don't understand why a new admin user can't see the system folder.

  • by pvanhorn,

    pvanhorn pvanhorn Mar 13, 2013 4:55 PM in response to raduray
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 13, 2013 4:55 PM in response to raduray

    It's not totally clear anymore what the problem is. If you can't see the /System folder, then it's probably becuse Finder is hiding it. Even non-admins have read access on that folder. If that's not the case, then something bad happened when you copied the data over. In Finder, cick on the Go menu up top and click Go to Folder... and type in /System.

     

    If it desplays the System folder, then it's just that Finder makes it difficult to see that folder unless you know where to look. If it throws an error indicating that you do not have permission to view this folder, then you have serious permission problems.

     

    I would recommend using Disk Utility to clone data like that rather than any sort of third party application. Disk Utility is very solid in this capacity I've found, particularly when it comes to permissions.

  • by raduray,

    raduray raduray Mar 13, 2013 5:19 PM in response to pvanhorn
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    Mar 13, 2013 5:19 PM in response to pvanhorn

    Thanks.  This was the hint that I needed.  I was able to see anything I wanted using the Go menu.  Then I explored the finder sidebar preferences and found that, in the sidebar options, the Apple Macbook was not enabled and the Hard Drives were only partially enabled (the checkbox showed a hyphen) - that's why I could see the Data Drive  but not the boot drive.  Once I checked the Apple MacBook and the Drives, I was able to see everything.

     

    The only remaining question (minor) is why the side panel options for the new user defaulted to this and how can I change this default.

  • by pvanhorn,

    pvanhorn pvanhorn Mar 13, 2013 10:18 PM in response to raduray
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 13, 2013 10:18 PM in response to raduray

    Not sure why they chose to change the defaults for finder, but you can drag whatever you like onto that left sidebar and it will stay. They changed it incrementally in Lion and then Mountain Lion to make the system files more difficult to find.