Why can't I use my external hard drive after system restore?

Question

Level 1

50 points

Why can't I use my external hard drive after system restore?

I have a Verbatim external hard drive that I use for backup and my Macbook pro is running OSX 10.8.2 (I mention this because it was the same OS as before) and I routinely just connect it to throw some files on it every so often. A few months ago my internal hard drive died and I needed to get it replaced (I have a Time Capsule backup of everything on my computer, this other external hard drive is just for file storage) anyway, the time capsule works fine, but I just connected my external hard drive for the first time since the computer was fixed and I can't move any file to it. Anything and everything I try just gets a grey circle with a line through it appearing on the icon of whatever I try to move. I can read everything on the hard drive and I can take stuff off of it just fine, I just can't put anything new onto it. Can anyone explain why and hopefully tell me how to fix it?

MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on Sep 16, 2014 2:37 AM

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Answer 1

Ferrarr

Level 1

129 points

Sep 16, 2014 2:59 AM in response to Howmander

You can check to see if you have permission to read & write by right clicking and select Get Info. At the bottom under Sharing & Permissions make sure your user is listed to have Read & Write Privilege. If it is not listed there, add it by using the ➕. If your user is already listed with Read & Write Privilege, then you can delete your user and add it again.

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Answer 2

Howmander Author

Level 1

50 points

Sep 16, 2014 3:32 AM in response to Ferrarr

Thank you very much! I completely forgot about that aspect. Okay, so I went into Get Info, and under the Sharing and Permissions it has Username (Me) as read and write (Not sure if that's the current username or the old username as they're the same) is has staff as Read Only and everyone as Read Only and Ignore Ownership on this volume is checked. I clicked the lock icon so it was now open, however the list of names is grey, the privilege level is black but I can't seem to change them, and the + - and gear icons are all also grey and nothing happens when I click them. The lock icon is still open, but everything else is grey so I can't add users or seemingly delete them either.

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Answer 3

Eric Root

Level 10

684,039 points

Sep 16, 2014 10:15 AM in response to Howmander

You may need to rebuild permissions on your user account. To do this,boot to your Recovery partition (holding down the Command and R keys while booting) and open Terminal from the Utilities menu. In Terminal, type: ‘resetpassword’ (without the ’s), hit return, and select the admin user. You are not going to reset your password. Click on the icon for your Macs hard drive at the top. From the drop down below it select the user account which is having issues. At the bottom of the window, you'll see an area labeled Restore Home Directory Permissions and ACLs. Click the reset button there. The process takes a few minutes. When complete, restart.

Repair User Permissions

Permission Issues - Troubleshooting

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