Permission issue with external drive

[Fishrrman]

OP wrote:
"I don't see anything about ownership, just a warning that Startup Disk is trying to unlock System Settings which I can allow by entering my admin password."

Well, ok.
So... what happens if you ENTER your admin password...?

 

[Levina]

OP wrote:
"I don't see anything about ownership, just a warning that Startup Disk is trying to unlock System Settings which I can allow by entering my admin password."

Well, ok.
So... what happens if you ENTER your admin password...?

Then the external drive gets selected as startup disk, but I can switch it back to the internal SSD by just clicking on it.

I have not tried starting up from the external drive...

 

[Levina]

That's correct, you could delete the System member of that volume group and it would have no effect on the content of the Data volume. Likewise, you could delete the "System" folder from the Data volume (as well as a bunch of hidden system-related folders) without affecting your data. The bulk, or perhaps all of your data (based on your described use of the volume) is going to be in the Users folder on that volume.

View attachment 2529447

But again, I think the safest path forward to test out whether Canon DPP is having trouble with the volume group business on that volume would be to:

1. Select WDBlack4TB in Disk Utility's sidebar
2. Click "+" in the toolbar to add a new volume (name it something like "Photos" or "My Data", I suspect you could be more creative than me 🙂
3. Copy all of the relevant data from WDBlack4TB to the new Photos volume (i.e. "same data as the start up drive (downloads and desktop excluded). I regularly sync certain folders from the start-up drive with the same folders on the WDBlack4TB" – copy all of that content to "Photos")

So after adding a volume called Photos, I assume the WDBlack4TB will show up as two different volumes on the desktop? Where I can then manually copy files from the Data volume to the Photos volume? Just checking because this is all new to me.

1. Open your Canon DPP project from the new "Photos" volume and see if it has any trouble managing the files on that new volume

If Canon shows the same problem on the new Photos volume, then you can simply delete that new "Photos" volume and you're right back where you started.

Ah, okay, I was going to ask you about that. That's reassuring.

If Canon is happy with the new volume, then you can do some cleanup to keep things tidy. If you no longer have any original-source data on WDBlack4TB (because you moved all of it to "Photos"), then you could delete the WDBlack4TB volume group altogether.

Just to make sure I understand correctly. After copying everything to the new Photos volume I can delete the Data Volume and the System Volume? So only the Photos Volume would remain? Have I got that right?

Or, you could at least remove your data from that volume to avoid any ambiguity about what the original/production source for that data is, then retain the WDBlack4TB as only a utility startup volume.

Lastly, don't forget to update any backup tasks that back up WDBlack4TB – set the Photos volume as the source to those tasks.

Gotcha.

I'm going to add a Photos volume now, move one year of photos over to it and see what Canon DPP will do. I'll report back later.

Thank you so much!

 

[Levina]

Well, that was fast. It went very well. I added a volume called Photos WD4Data, copied the July folder of photos to it. And DPP deletes just fine.

So I should now just move all data over, delete the old Data Volume? Yes?

 

[DeltaMac]

Just a quick reminder, if you decide to try booting to that external drive, you want to make sure that you have allowed that external boot, using the Startup Security Utility. (You may have already set that, but just a note for others who may watch this thread.)

You asked about deleting the old Data volume... but--you also said that you moved a folder with photos from that Data volume. I'm guessing that's not all that was stored on that Data volume (?...?). If you DO use that external for a boot drive, the Data volume would still need to be available, as the system would still be using it.

 

[MayflyMaven]

Well, that was fast. It went very well. I added a volume called Photos WD4Data, copied the July folder of photos to it. And DPP deletes just fine.

Yay!

So I should now just move all data over, delete the old Data Volume? Yes?

Yes, precisely (assuming you no longer need the Ventura startup volume). Once you've migrated the remainder of the data that you were keeping on that volume to the new WD4Data volume, you can delete the "WDBlack4TB" volume group. Select "WDBlack4TB" in Disk Utility's sidebar, then click "-" in the toolbar and choose the "Delete Volume Group" option.

 

[Levina]

Just a quick reminder, if you decide to try booting to that external drive, you want to make sure that you have allowed that external boot, using the Startup Security Utility. (You may have already set that, but just a note for others who may watch this thread.)

Good point. Thanks!

You asked about deleting the old Data volume... but--you also said that you moved a folder with photos from that Data volume. I'm guessing that's not all that was stored on that Data volume (?...?).

No, there's more: Everything in the folders Pictures and Documents and two other major folders with data.

If you DO use that external for a boot drive, the Data volume would still need to be available, as the system would still be using it.

Understood. Thanks.

Yes, precisely (assuming you no longer need the Ventura startup volume). Once you've migrated the remainder of the data that you were keeping on that volume to the new WD4Data volume, you can delete the "WDBlack4TB" volume group. Select "WDBlack4TB" in Disk Utility's sidebar, then click "-" in the toolbar and choose the "Delete Volume Group" option.

Right. What I'll do for now is move all the data to the new WD4Data volume, delete it from the old Data volume and leave the now empty Data volume in place for the time being. I still want to purchase another 4TB ssd. As soon as I have that, I can move all the data from the WDBlack4TB to it, erase it, reformat it and use it as a SuperDuper clone. And with the 2 4TB spinning drives for storage/backups I would basically have the same set-up as I had on the Mac Pro except now with external drives.

Thank you very much for all your help and for your patience. I am truly very grateful. ❤️

 

[Levina]

Everybody thank you very much for coming to my rescue. What a great community MR is! ❤️