Ok - I have a new Macbook Pro running the latest version of the operating system. Can anyone PLEASE tell me what to type, in Single User mode at the root directory, in order to change the drive from read-only to writeable? Ty in advance to any listening gurus.
MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.3)
Welcome to the Apple Support Communities
If you are referring to the startup drive, type:
mount -uw /
chmod 1755 /
exit
Hi - ty for replying.
I am *assuming* I am using the startup drive. A nasty accident caused the whole system to go from writeable to read-only. I can get online by holding down the option key and selecting a recovery disk I did not know I had the foresight to create (despite my constant harranguing of my kids to "back-up, back-uo, back-up"), and selecting "get help online".
I tried to first line, it told me that mount -uw/ is an illegal command. I tried the second line and it went on to give me a list of the ways you can use the chmod command, but it did nothing helpful expect wait expectantly for me to tell it what to do next.
I'm kind of lost. I would back everything up and just reformat the bloody thing, but I cannot find the recovery disk my husband misplaced while I was in the hospital.
Any help would be truly appreciated, guys.
LizFS2 wrote:
I tried to first line, it told me that mount -uw/ is an illegal command.
That's not the command. There's a space between "uw" and "/", and that's why Mac OS X is telling you that this is an illegal command
Oh, lord. Pay attention, Liz. Thanks.
Got to exit, and it told me it "cannot find audit control port" and kind of hung up there.
Type "reboot" and your computer will restart. Then, check that your computer can start correctly
Ty. Do I go through the last set of commands, and type "reboot" instead of "exit"?
Correct
Ok - will try (and ty, mende1, for sitting up with me this far and trying to help).
Hi,
Did all that, it went to boot. Got the apple, the spinning disk and the progree board at the white screen. It's still doing what it did before: the bar gets to about a quarter of the way across and then it disappears and shuts down the machine. Tried this three times, the same thing each time.
It does tell me, in disk repair, that the disk can't be repaired. But it also tells me that both the main and recovery disks are read-only. If either were truly messed up, I would not be here. So I know there *must* be a way to change the disk to make it writeable, so that disk repair can actually write to repair it.
Does that make sense?
Barring this, is it possible to save any of my files?
Sorry - I meant "progress bar".
Start in single-mode user again, and read this thread in order to get the MacBook Pro running > https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4073179?start=0&tstart=0
Hi.
Did that. Read the entire thread, wrote down the commands (being careful about spacing). Now, keeping in mind that I cannot boot normally and get into Terminal, and that I am starting at the root command, I did exactly as it suggested and it told me that it "cannot change the file system - file is in read only mode".
I'm kind of stuck, arent I?
DO NOT try to change the permissions of any files, reinstall OS X, or do anything else until you've backed up your data.
The boot volume is mounted read-only because the internal drive is malfunctioning. It could fail completely with no further warning.
If you want to preserve the data on the boot drive, you must try to back up now, before you do anything else. It may or may not be possible. If you don't care about the data, you can skip this step.
There are several ways to back up a Mac that is unable to fully boot. You need an external hard drive to hold the backup data.
1. Boot into Recovery (command-R at startup) or from a local Time Machine backup volume (option key at startup.) Launch Disk Utility and follow the instructions in the support article linked below, under “Instructions for backing up to an external hard disk via Disk Utility.”
How to back up and restore your files
2. If you have access to a working Mac, and both it and the non-working Mac have FireWire or Thunderbolt ports, boot the non-working Mac in target disk mode by holding down the key combination command-T at the startup chime. Connect the two Macs with a FireWire or Thunderbolt cable. The internal drive of the machine running in target mode will mount as an external drive on the other machine. Copy the data to another drive. This technique won't work with USB, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth.
How to use and troubleshoot FireWire target disk mode
3. If the internal drive of the non-working Mac is user-replaceable, remove it and mount it in an external enclosure or drive dock. Use another Mac to copy the data.
Mende1, thank you for the time you took to try to help, even if it didn't go the way I had hoped.
Hi, Linc -
I apologize for not answering this sooner. I was ill. I appreciate you taking the time to try to help. Unfortunately, I was unable to create a backup per those instructions. It gives me an IO error. I tried repairing again, but it hangs up in the exact same place every time, when the disk is checking the extended attributes file. It gets that far and then I get the write error. It then tells me to back up, but won't let me do it,
If I boot in single user mode, is it possible to type a command that would let me back up the one important user file? Is there a command line I can type to copy that one single file to an external drive? If so, can you point me in the right direction?
I suppose I could take this to a repair shop, but no one is going to try as hard as me to save that file. I need to do that, if at all possible. If I can do that, I'll take it in to Apple and let them fix it. It's under warranty.
Thank you again,
Liz
How to change drive from Read Only to writeable?
