Can't edit my hard drives

[Essex Lad]

I have two EVO840 SSDs (1TB + 500GB) that were in my last Mac Mini 2012. Since the Mini died a few weeks ago, I've been using them externally with a 'new' 2014 Mini that only has a single 250GB SSD.

Since then, if I want to make changes using the 'Get Info' dialogue (photo), it accepts my password to undo the lock symbol, but won't let me change anything e.g options like 'Rename' are greyed-out. The same applies if I select 'ignore ownership of this volume'. Blackwatch Speed Test also denies me authorisation to check these drives but I can run it on the internal 250GB SSD.

I'm puzzled as to how I lost / get back permission.

Any ideas?

 

[Fishrrman]

What version of the OS is installed on the 2014 Mini ?

Looks like the external has 10.15.7 on it?

 

[Essex Lad]

Wow. I never noticed. I've no idea how it is showing Sequoia; I've never downloaded or used it. My previous Mini was on Catalina because that was the last supported OS for my MOTU audio interface. This 2014 has 12.7 Monterey and to save myself hundreds of pounds for a replacement a/i I'm trying to get a second startup disk to use Catalina.

Strangely, I spent a long time stripping my other, smaller 500GB disk today of anything unnecessary in readiness to copy over any crucial stuff to the 1TB - and that doesn't show any OS at all. It allows use of Black Magic Speed Test and is coming in at 34 MB/s (my 2014 is over 700 MB/s):-(

 

[MayflyMaven]

If that was a Catalina startup disk, then you have an APFS volume group, which will complicate your access to some of the content. The System member of the group will be mounted read-only by default, so you won't be able to change the volume name. Your write access to parts of that volume will depend on where you're trying to write. Also, IIRC, the "Ignore ownership" setting may not apply to both the System and Data volumes (haven't tested that in a while).

Try the following:

• Open Disk Utility
• Choose "Show all devices" from the View menu
• Select your "A Main Drive 1TB" volume in the sidebar
• Click "Unmount" in the toolbar
• Click "Mount" in the toolbar (now the volume will be mounted read-write, so you can rename it)
• Right-click the "A Main Drive 1TB - Data" volume in the sidebar and choose the option to reveal it in the Finder
• Open the Get Info panel for that volume
• Click the padlock icon and authenticate, then check the box to ignore ownership on that volume

 

[Essex Lad]

Thanks, much appreciated - I don't understand that but it worked for renaming. I forgot to unlock and authenticate for each volume. Does that matter?

Now both can be speed-tested but are coming in at less than 40 MB/s and seem to have frozen the test software.

Here's a couple of shots - I now have two folders for the 1 TB, one system and one data. The smaller one Ext 492 GB doesn't have a system folder. Any explanation welcome. I see the 1TB is described as an APFS Data Volume (which I read is best for anthing after Mojave) and the other is tagged as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) - Type USB External Physical Volume. Shoud I fix anything here?

 

[MayflyMaven]

"Ext 492 GB" should be all set, you should be able to access that volume's content in the conventional manner.

"Ext 1TB", I'd give this one a little more attention. You gave the System volume and the Data volume the same name. macOS won't care, but that could be confusing for the humans. Your Mac mini died and you have a 2014 Mac mini that is running Sequoia. If you have no intention of using the Catalina system on "Ext 1TB", then I'd delete that System volume. That will disassemble the volume group and turn the remaining Data volume back into an "ordinary" volume that is less likely to cause trouble for apps that can't handle volume groups. To do that, select the "Ext 1TB" System volume in Disk Utility's sidebar, then click the "-" button in the toolbar. Just be sure to select the right "Ext 1TB" volume – the one that has 14.39GB of data. Probably a good idea to have a backup of that Data volume too, but generally speaking, deleting a System volume is a pretty harmless and straightforward procedure.

After you delete the System volume, unmount and remount the remaining "Ext 1TB" volume. Now that it is no longer tagged as a Data-roled volume, it will appear as an ordinary volume in the Finder. At that point you can open the Get Info panel for that volume and see if you need rot disable ownership on that volume.

 

[Essex Lad]

"Ext 492 GB" should be all set, you should be able to access that volume's content in the conventional manner.

"Ext 1TB", I'd give this one a little more attention. You gave the System volume and the Data volume the same name. macOS won't care, but that could be confusing for the humans. Your Mac mini died and you have a 2014 Mac mini that is running Sequoia. If you have no intention of using the Catalina system on "Ext 1TB", then I'd delete that System volume. That will disassemble the volume group and turn the remaining Data volume back into an "ordinary" volume that is less likely to cause trouble for apps that can't handle volume groups. To do that, select the "Ext 1TB" System volume in Disk Utility's sidebar, then click the "-" button in the toolbar. Just be sure to select the right "Ext 1TB" volume – the one that has 14.39GB of data. Probably a good idea to have a backup of that Data volume too, but generally speaking, deleting a System volume is a pretty harmless and straightforward procedure.

After you delete the System volume, unmount and remount the remaining "Ext 1TB" volume. Now that it is no longer tagged as a Data-roled volume, it will appear as an ordinary volume in the Finder. At that point you can open the Get Info panel for that volume and see if you need rot disable ownership on that volume.

Thank you for this. I will have to wait until the weekend to concentrate on this again. My 2014 Mac Mini is actually running on Monterey, not Sequoia. I've migrated as much as I can from the 492GB disk to the 1TB with a view to only use one disk but my 2TB backup drive won't back it up as it doesn't have enough room (I thought it was supposed to overwrite the oldest saved backups when it got full :-/).