Accessing external back up drive

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Accessing external back up drive

We had to replace the hard drive in our Imac (OS X version 10.6.8). We can no longer access our Seagate external back up drive. It tells us we do not have permission. I can open the permission box. Under all the users it says their permission is "custom". If I try to change any of them to "read & write" or any other option, it automatically reverts back to "custom" We have played ping pong back & forth between Seagate & Apple Support, but both feel it is the others' problem. Anybody else have this problem or any ideas on solutions? Of course this happens as we are trying to access pics for our kids yearbook due in 2 weeks 😟....

iMac (21.5-inch Late 2009), Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Apr 1, 2014 7:26 PM

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Answer 1

WZZZ

Level 6

13,238 points

Apr 2, 2014 6:03 AM in response to joanna707

If this drive isn't being used for Time Machine backups, or if it doesn't have a bootable volume - in other words, if it is only being used for storage, then in the Get Info for the drive try checking the box Ignore ownership. Also do not try to use the settings in my screenshot. They are set that way because this drive is a bootable volume (a clone.) And you must open the padlock with your admin password.

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Answer 2

WZZZ

Level 6

13,238 points

Apr 2, 2014 6:40 AM in response to WZZZ

Also, open Terminal in Applications>Utilities and copy/paste

ls -lhdO

leave a space, then drag in the icon for the external drive and hit enter. Please post the output you get.

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Answer 3

joanna707 Author

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Apr 2, 2014 3:49 PM in response to WZZZ

Thank you for helping!! 🙂 🙂

output:

drw-rw-r--@ 23 root admin uchg 850B Mar 3 17:24 /Volumes/Back Up Drive 1

imac:~ joanna$

Also, the external back up drive was used for time machine prior to replacing the imac hard drive.

And checking the "ignore ownership on this volume" box doesn't seem to make a difference; still get the "The folder "Back Up Drive 1" can't be hopened because you don't have permission to see its contents." message.

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Answer 4

WZZZ

Level 6

13,238 points

Apr 2, 2014 6:10 PM in response to joanna707

Can you please enter this command in Terminal, leave a space and drag in the external icon again.

ls -AOel

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Answer 5

Apr 2, 2014 7:44 PM in response to joanna707

Just as an aside, those permissions should be keeping you out at the directory level...you must have execute permission or you cannot really access a directory.

With directory, x does not mean execute in the usual sense, it means the user can search through and list the contents of the directory. Which means, without the x the read and write permissions cannot be execute for the directory.

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Answer 6

joanna707 Author

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Apr 2, 2014 10:55 PM in response to joanna707

now the output is:

ls: .DS_Store: Permission denied

ls: .Spotlight-V100: Permission denied

ls: .TemporaryItems: Permission denied

ls: .Trashes: Permission denied

ls: .com.apple.timemachine.donotpresent: Permission denied

ls: .fseventsd: Permission denied

ls: Backups.backupdb: Permission denied

ls: FreeAgent Drive: Permission denied

ls: FreeAgent Drive alias: Permission denied

ls: Mail - sbcglobal.net: Permission denied

ls: Mail2: Permission denied

ls: Movies: Permission denied

ls: Photos: Permission denied

ls: Unsorted Music: Permission denied

ls: desktop 4:15:12: Permission denied

ls: iMovie Projects.localized: Permission denied

ls: iPhoto Library: Permission denied

ls: iTunes Music: Permission denied

ls: mods: Permission denied

imac:~ joanna$

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Answer 7

WZZZ

Level 6

13,238 points

Apr 3, 2014 4:56 AM in response to joanna707

Try the following, but no guarantee this is the fix.

Copy/paste

sudo chmod 755

then leave a space and drag in the drive and hit enter. When you do this, you will be prompted for your admin password, which won't appear in any form, not even *******. Then hit enter again, whereupon you will be given a warning about using the sudo prefix (this is needed to give you special access to change these permissions), hit enter again, and wait until you get a new $ prompt.

Next, enter

sudo chflags nouchg

and again leave a space and drag in the drive and hit enter. You shouldn't need to enter your admin password again, and you shouldn't get another warning.

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Answer 8

Apr 3, 2014 7:42 AM in response to joanna707

You wrote that the external drive was used as a TM backup before you changed the internal drive. Was it acttivly being used? Were you looking to resume using this drive with TM?

What else was on the drive besides the TM backups? How were you trying to access the drive when you got the error message?

How did you restore the system after the internal drive was replaced?

If you go into TM preferences does the drive show up? If you try to select it as a backup disk what happens?

Before you start changing permissions here could you select the drive icon and do a Get Info and post the Get Info window. Make sure the permissions section is open.

Message was edited by: Frank Caggiano - The error message "The folder "Back Up Drive 1" can't be hopened because you don't have permission to see its contents." is that exactly what it said? What command were you using when you got that message?

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Answer 9

WZZZ

Level 6

13,238 points

Apr 3, 2014 7:53 AM in response to joanna707

Joanna, to post the screenshot that Frank is requesting, use Cmd-Shift-4 to outline the Get Info window. Then use the camera icon in the toolbar above and select the screenshot.

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Answer 10

joanna707 Author

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Apr 3, 2014 8:27 AM in response to joanna707

Hi Frank,

Yes, TM was being actively used. And when i restored my computer with the new hard drive, i did it through TM from that back up drive. And it worked! My desktop was entirely restored. I didn't actually notice that the external drive didn't give me permissions until i then tried to go into iphoto. The external drive was also used to store all of my music and photos (and that is what i really want off of it now). I didn't store my photos on my hard drive, and i didn't have them backed up. They were only on the back up drive (and iphoto used that as it's main library). Normally i would have gone into the back up drive, opened up the iphoto library on there, and from then on whenever i click on the iphoto icon it would pull from that back up drive library. But that is where i then realized i couldn't get into the back up drive.

I mainly just want to get my photos and music from the external drive. I don't care if i continue to use it for TM or not. I have another Seagate back up drive that i could use. It is just like the one that won't give me permission (except it is 1TB and the one with the pictures is 1.5TB). The 1TB works fine, lets me access it & has no problems. It wasn't actively used (but, obviously i should have been using it to back up my external drive for photos and pics.)

And yes, that is the exact wording of the error message when i click on the external back up drive.

and here is the get info window: User uploaded file

Thank you for helping!

🙂 joanna

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Answer 11

joanna707 Author

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Apr 3, 2014 8:28 AM in response to joanna707

Guess that screen shot didn't post right ..... i'll try again: User uploaded file

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Answer 12

joanna707 Author

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Apr 3, 2014 8:31 AM in response to joanna707

oops, i guess dragging it into the box didn't work. sorry .... here it is:

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Answer 13

Apr 3, 2014 8:51 AM in response to joanna707

According to the screen shot the system still believes this to be an active TM drive, the green icon the system gives the drive indicates this.

So if you open up System Preferences and go to Time Machine what shows? Is TM on or off? If it is on turn it off.

Now click Select backup disk, what gets displayed? Is the drive Back Up Drive 1 listed as a TM backup drive? If it is, select it and remove it.

Now look at the info window from finder is the icon still green or has it change to yellow? If it has changed try to access the disk now. If you still can;t access try to select the Ignore ownership checkbox.

Message was edited by: Frank Caggiano - One other thing to make change to the drive in the Info Box you will have to click the padlock to unlock it. You will then be asked fro your password to authenticate

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Answer 14

joanna707 Author

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Apr 3, 2014 9:12 AM in response to joanna707

yes, it was trying to be active, but kept failing. TM was on, I now have it off.

When i go into "select disk" (after having turned off TM), it lists Back Up Drive 1 as an option, but i don't seem to be able to deselect it. I think it is listed as an option because it is connected to my computer. (it also listed an SD card that i had in because i was downloading pictures from it.) Ok, nvm, i turned TM back on, then unselected the back up drive 1 and now it is gone from the list. Now i turned TM back off.

And now it is yellow. But i still got the same "The folder "Back Up Drive 1" can't be opened because you don't have permission to see its contents." message when i tried to open it.

I selected the "Ignore Ownership" box and relocked it. Still get the same message when trying to open it.

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Answer 15

Apr 3, 2014 9:29 AM in response to joanna707

OK so the drive icon is yellow and the ignore ownership boxed is checked.

Unmount the drive and spin it down and reboot the system when the system comes back up log in and spin the drive up and let it mount. When it does make sure the icon stayed yellow and the Ignore ownership is still checked and try the drive.

If after that you still cant access it post another screen shot of the Info window,

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