Locked Internal Drive

[SJMedia]

I have a Westinghouse Serial ATA Drive 300GB that has a lock showing on the desktop icon, but there is no box in the info window that I can uncheck to unlock it as I have done in the past. I tried accessing it through Terminal, but it would not let me (or I don't know the proper code sequence). Right now I can access the drive, read and write. The one thing I cannot do is create a new folder on the drive, unless I create it WITHIN one of the other folders already there.

Can someone please tell me how to repair this? Can I do it by installing Mac OSX on this drive?

PS. It will not allow me to verify or repair permissions either.

 

[FJ218700]

will it let you manually assign the user/system read/write permissions at the bottom of the get info window?

 

[gill99msu]

Locked Internal Drive

I believe I have the same issue.

I cannot create a new folder or file on the root of my internal drive. A right click doesn't give me the option and when I click and drag, it says the filename xxxx can not be moved because "SamsungHD" cannot be modified.


When I look at the info it says under Sharing & Permissions - You can only read.

Below that it has system, admin, and everyone all with Read & Write privileges.


On a side note - a while back, I was messing with permissions on my main drive and somehow fowled up the permissions where the system would do an endless loop of rebooting. I ended up doing a re-install where it backs up the personal folders and creates a new install. This worked, I'm back in now, but I'm running into strange things like this on my other internal drives.


MacPro
OSX 10.5.2

 

[merl1n]

In terminal type the following commands followed by hitting the return key:

sudo chown -R username:admin /Volumes/yourdrivename

sudo chmod -R 755 /Volumes/yourdrivename


where username is your shortname (like your home folder) and
yourdrivename is the name of the drive in question. Note if your drive name has spaces in the name you must add a backslash before the space. Also remember, Unix is case sensitive.

Example:

Name of drive = My Hard Disk

would be:

/Volumes/My\ Hard\ Disk

 

[gill99msu]

Locked Internal Drive

This did not solve my issue. The drive still shows locked, as well as the other issues.

Here is what my terminal window looked like....maybe this will help.

Should I get any kind of confirmation after the sudo chmod and chown?

-----------------------------------------------------------------
MacPro:Volumes joncargill$ ls -l
total 48
drwxrwxr-t 10 joncargill staff 408 19 May 19:07 GarageBand Jam Pack 3 Rhythm Section
lrwxr-xr-x 1 root admin 1 18 May 00:38 Macintosh HD -> /
drwxr-xr-x 1 joncargill staff 4096 16 May 20:06 My Book 320
drwxrwxrwx 1 joncargill staff 16384 19 May 20:00 NO NAME
drwxrwxrwx 19 root admin 714 19 Apr 17:39 SamsungHD
drwxrwxr-x 13 joncargill staff 510 19 May 07:37 TimeMachine
drwxrwxrwx 18 root admin 680 24 Apr 00:17 WesternDigitalHD
MacPro:Volumes joncargill$ whoami
joncargill
MacPro:Volumes joncargill$ sudo chown -R joncargill:admin /Volumes/SamsungHD

WARNING: Improper use of the sudo command could lead to data loss
or the deletion of important system files. Please double-check your
typing when using sudo. Type "man sudo" for more information.

To proceed, enter your password, or type Ctrl-C to abort.

Password:
MacPro:Volumes joncargill$ sudo chmod -R 755 /Volumes/SamsungHD

WARNING: Improper use of the sudo command could lead to data loss
or the deletion of important system files. Please double-check your
typing when using sudo. Type "man sudo" for more information.

To proceed, enter your password, or type Ctrl-C to abort.

Password:
MacPro:Volumes joncargill$

 

[gill99msu]

Locked Internal Drive

I have the same issue on 2 separate internal drives (WesternDigitalHD & SamsungHD) - not the master or whatever it's called (MacintoshHD).

I even turned on root login and logged in as the root user and tried the commands. Nothing seemed to work.

I took one of the drives(WesternDigitalHD, backed up the files to another location, then erased the drive with drive utility. This reset the permissions and all is well on that drive.

I'd still like to find a solution to this issue so I've left drive 2 (SamsungHD) alone, looking for a solution....in the event I somehow do it again in the future.

 

[PYR0M310N]

I believe it is referring to harddrive locks. For instance inside xbox's they have harddrives which are lock, which is why if you want to change the harddrive inside of them, you have unlock the drive, transfer stuff to it and then relock it.

There are programmes which did this for a xbox, so i presume there will be equivilents on the mac and pc. A google search for unlock harddrive will probably find it.

 

[merl1n]

In the finder, select the disk and go a "Get Info" on it. If you see at the bottom of the window "Ignore ownership..." is checked, uncheck it. Also, if you can get a screen shot of the window, post it here. I helped someone else with a similar problem and it was only when I saw the screen shot that led me to the solution.

 

[gill99msu]

Locked Internal Drive

I think I've got the attachment on this message...

This is one screenshot with all the stuff.
You can see the drive icon with the lock on the Samsung icon on the desktop
You can see the Ignore Ownership is unchecked.
You can also see the privileges on the volume - very intersting
You can see where the option to create new folder is not allowed in the GUI or the Terminal command.
You can also see the chown and chmod commands run again.

Thanks for your help!

 

[merl1n]

First, run Disk Utility First Aid and repair permissions on your boot disk.

See if that fixes the problem. If not proceed...

In Terminal run this:

sudo chown -R username:username /Volumes/yourdrivename

sudo chmod -R 755 /Volumes/yourdrivename

where username is your shortname (like your home folder). Note this is a bit different than before where your username is also your group name.

Then type the following in Terminal and post the output:

ls -alf /Volumes

Also what is your "home directory name (shortname) on your boot disk?

 

[gill99msu]

Locked Internal Drive

I have completed these steps, with screen captures attached.

Unfortunately, still no solution.
Home folder name = joncargill

Although frustrating throughout the process, I'm learning loads of stuff. I've only had a mac for a couple months now, so this is some good practice at some basic work - screen grabs, terminal commands, etc. Thanks

 

[merl1n]

I have completed these steps, with screen captures attached.

Unfortunately, still no solution.
Home folder name = joncargill

Although frustrating throughout the process, I'm learning loads of stuff. I've only had a mac for a couple months now, so this is some good practice at some basic work - screen grabs, terminal commands, etc. Thanks

Ok, I looked at your terminal output. It looks like the system wants you to be the root user in order to run the command, so type the following (commands are in bold) in Terminal:

sudo -s

This makes you the root user

ls -al /Volumes

chown -R joncargill:staff /Volumes/SamsungHD

chmod -R 775 /Volumes/SamsungHD

To exit from root user, type exit

Post the output from the terminal window so we can have a look see.

 

[gill99msu]

Locked Internal Drive

MacPro:~ joncargill$ sudo -s

WARNING: Improper use of the sudo command could lead to data loss
or the deletion of important system files. Please double-check your
typing when using sudo. Type "man sudo" for more information.

To proceed, enter your password, or type Ctrl-C to abort.

Password:
MacPro:~ joncargill$ ls -al /Volumes
total 24
drwxrwxrwt@ 9 root admin 306 21 May 21:30 .
drwxrwxr-t 39 root admin 1394 1 May 17:53 ..
drwxr-xr-x 7 joncargill staff 306 21 May 21:30 GarageBand Jam Pack 3 Rhythm Section Part II
lrwxr-xr-x 1 root admin 1 21 May 19:03 Macintosh HD -> /
drwxr-xr-x 13 joncargill staff 510 21 May 00:18 MyBook320
drwxrwxrwx 19 root admin 714 19 Apr 17:39 SamsungHD
drwxrwxr-x 14 joncargill staff 544 21 May 00:18 TimeMachine
drwxr-xr-x 1 joncargill staff 8192 20 May 23:37 Untitled
drwxrwxr-x 12 joncargill staff 476 21 May 00:18 WesternDigitalHD
MacPro:~ joncargill$ chown -R joncargill:staff /Volumes/SamsungHD
chown: /Volumes/SamsungHD/.com.apple.timemachine.supported: Operation not permitted
chown: /Volumes/SamsungHD/.DS_Store: Operation not permitted
chown: /Volumes/SamsungHD/.fseventsd/00000000000000a1: Operation not permitted
chown: /Volumes/SamsungHD/.fseventsd/000000000025391a: Operation not permitted
chown: /Volumes/SamsungHD/.fseventsd/000000000025fc90: Operation not permitted
chown: /Volumes/SamsungHD/.fseventsd/00000000002b3f64: Operation not permitted
chown: /Volumes/SamsungHD/.fseventsd/00000000005de624: Operation not permitted
chown: /Volumes/SamsungHD/.fseventsd/00000000006c2a7e: Operation not permitted
chown: /Volumes/SamsungHD/.fseventsd/0000000000706619: Operation not permitted
chown: /Volumes/SamsungHD/.fseventsd/000000000072072e: Operation not permitted
chown: /Volumes/SamsungHD/.fseventsd/0000000000941738: Operation not permitted
chown: /Volumes/SamsungHD/.fseventsd/0000000000b01c45: Operation not permitted
....A whole bunch of Operation Not permitted ------1000's
chown: /Volumes/SamsungHD/Videos: Operation not permitted
chown: /Volumes/SamsungHD: Operation not permitted

MacPro:~ joncargill$ chmod -R 775 /Volumes/SamsungHD
chmod: /Volumes/SamsungHD: Operation not permitted
chmod: /Volumes/SamsungHD/.com.apple.timemachine.supported: Operation not permitted
chmod: /Volumes/SamsungHD/.DS_Store: Operation not permitted
chmod: /Volumes/SamsungHD/.fseventsd: Operation not permitted
chmod: /Volumes/SamsungHD/.fseventsd/00000000000000a1: Operation not permitted
chmod: /Volumes/SamsungHD/.fseventsd/000000000025391a: Operation not permitted
chmod: /Volumes/SamsungHD/.fseventsd/000000000025fc90: Operation not permitted
chmod: /Volumes/SamsungHD/.fseventsd/00000000002b3f64: Operation not permitted
...A whole bunch more of Operation Not permitted -------1,000's
chmod: /Volumes/SamsungHD/Videos/My Videos/Videos.doc: Operation not permitted

MacPro:~ joncargill$




No difference that I can tell. when I do whoami it still says joncargill after the sudo -s command. if I run this under the root login, I get the same results. It seems weird, even the root user doesn't have the rights to do anything to these files.

 

[blackscooby]

Very strange you get that response when performing a sudo -s

I get root when sudo -s is run.

Last login: Thu May 22 09:32:00 2008 from xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
mark-warrens-mac-mini:~ markwarren$ whoami
markwarren
mark-warrens-mac-mini:~ markwarren$ sudo -s
bash-3.2# whoami
root
bash-3.2#

 

[gill99msu]

Locked Internal Drive

I enabled my root user the other day and I will try the commands in the terminal under the root login. I'll post the results later this evening when I get home.

From my memory, I believe I tried the chmod and chown commands and got the same access denied messages, but we'll see. I've done so many commands and tried so many things before finding this message thread. That might be what's complicating the situation more. Anyway, thanks for the help, I'll update you with the results later today.

 

[gill99msu]

Locked Internal Drive

Unfortunately, this still did not work under the root login. It makes me wonder if something is so corrupted with the permissions that there is no way to get them straight without a format/erase...


Last login: Thu May 22 19:31:42 on console
MacPro:~ root# whoami
root
MacPro:~ root# ls -al /Volumes
total 8
drwxrwxrwt@ 7 root admin 238 May 22 19:36 .
drwxrwxr-t 39 root admin 1394 May 1 17:53 ..
lrwxr-xr-x 1 root admin 1 May 21 19:03 Macintosh HD -> /
drwxr-xr-x 13 _unknown _unknown 510 May 21 00:18 MyBook320
drwxrwxrwx 19 root admin 714 Apr 19 17:39 SamsungHD
drwxrwxr-x 14 _unknown _unknown 544 May 21 00:18 TimeMachine
drwxrwxr-x 12 joncargill staff 476 May 21 00:18 WesternDigitalHD
MacPro:~ root# chown -R joncargill:staff /Volumes/SamsungHD
chown: /Volumes/SamsungHD: Operation not permitted
MacPro:~ root# chmod -R 775 /Volumes/SamsungHD
chmod: /Volumes/SamsungHD: Operation not permitted
MacPro:~ root# sudo -s
sh-3.2# ls -al /Volumes
total 8
drwxrwxrwt@ 7 root admin 238 May 22 19:36 .
drwxrwxr-t 39 root admin 1394 May 1 17:53 ..
lrwxr-xr-x 1 root admin 1 May 21 19:03 Macintosh HD -> /
drwxr-xr-x 13 _unknown _unknown 510 May 21 00:18 MyBook320
drwxrwxrwx 19 root admin 714 Apr 19 17:39 SamsungHD
drwxrwxr-x 14 _unknown _unknown 544 May 21 00:18 TimeMachine
drwxrwxr-x 12 joncargill staff 476 May 21 00:18 WesternDigitalHD
sh-3.2# chown -R joncargill:staff /Volumes/SamsungHD
chown: /Volumes/SamsungHD: Operation not permitted
sh-3.2# chmod -R 775 /Volumes/SamsungHD
chmod: /Volumes/SamsungHD: Operation not permitted
sh-3.2# exit
exit
MacPro:~ root#

 

[merl1n]

Unfortunately, this still did not work under the root login. It makes me wonder if something is so corrupted with the permissions that there is no way to get them straight without a format/erase...


Last login: Thu May 22 19:31:42 on console
MacPro:~ root# whoami
root
MacPro:~ root# ls -al /Volumes
total 8
drwxrwxrwt@ 7 root admin 238 May 22 19:36 .
drwxrwxr-t 39 root admin 1394 May 1 17:53 ..
lrwxr-xr-x 1 root admin 1 May 21 19:03 Macintosh HD -> /
drwxr-xr-x 13 _unknown _unknown 510 May 21 00:18 MyBook320
drwxrwxrwx 19 root admin 714 Apr 19 17:39 SamsungHD
drwxrwxr-x 14 _unknown _unknown 544 May 21 00:18 TimeMachine
drwxrwxr-x 12 joncargill staff 476 May 21 00:18 WesternDigitalHD
MacPro:~ root# chown -R joncargill:staff /Volumes/SamsungHD
chown: /Volumes/SamsungHD: Operation not permitted
MacPro:~ root# chmod -R 775 /Volumes/SamsungHD
chmod: /Volumes/SamsungHD: Operation not permitted
MacPro:~ root# sudo -s
sh-3.2# ls -al /Volumes
total 8
drwxrwxrwt@ 7 root admin 238 May 22 19:36 .
drwxrwxr-t 39 root admin 1394 May 1 17:53 ..
lrwxr-xr-x 1 root admin 1 May 21 19:03 Macintosh HD -> /
drwxr-xr-x 13 _unknown _unknown 510 May 21 00:18 MyBook320
drwxrwxrwx 19 root admin 714 Apr 19 17:39 SamsungHD
drwxrwxr-x 14 _unknown _unknown 544 May 21 00:18 TimeMachine
drwxrwxr-x 12 joncargill staff 476 May 21 00:18 WesternDigitalHD
sh-3.2# chown -R joncargill:staff /Volumes/SamsungHD
chown: /Volumes/SamsungHD: Operation not permitted
sh-3.2# chmod -R 775 /Volumes/SamsungHD
chmod: /Volumes/SamsungHD: Operation not permitted
sh-3.2# exit
exit
MacPro:~ root#

Yes, you have a mess of stuff that doesn't look correct, not only on the SamsungHD, but MyBook320 and TimeMachine as well. I hope you have backups.

I suggest you first repair permissions on your boot disk and then re-format/erase the other three drives. Don't do it as root, but do it as your user account.