Permissions problematic on external disk

I'm having problems with the permissions on an external harddisk which I use to put on my workfiles and my TimeMachine backups. Whenever I create a folder or file working on my iMac I can't use it on my MacBook and vice versa.
The external harddisk has both on my MacBook and my iMac my (admin-)useraccount as Read&Write enabled. There is NO "Ignore ownership on this volume" option...
Weirdest thing: when I look on the Info-panel of the newly made folder or file I see my main account, the account "staff" & "everyone" but strangely enough as well an account named "wheel" - which isn't any of my accounts and I didn't create that one either!
What is going on?!
External harddisk: Western Digital MyBook Studio Edition II 2TB

Note, I've done the same with a local folder. That works as expected. I can only see it when logged in as a registered user.

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External disk - repair permissions

It seems the permissions on my HD need to be repaired.
Unfortunately I have lost the Repair disk during an international move.
I still have the install disk - so I tried to install OS 10.6 onto an external drive. The intention was to boot from the external drive and repair permisions on the MacBook HD.
The installation kept showing the external disk as having not been ejected correctly, which is not correct. Anyway, I erased all partitions on this external disk, using Disk Utility, did a 7 pass erase, and then also ran the repair disk function too; Disk Utilityshowed that there were no issues with this external disk. However, I still got the same result from the OS installation program, that the external disk had not been ejected correctly. I went around in the circle a number of times before giving up.
Now I am at a loss how to make the external boot disk to repair permisions on the computer HD.
I know in the distant past it was possible to just copy the System folder to an external drive and it would boot; but I was told this no longer works.
Any get around this issue or a solution would be most welcome.
Thank you

It seems that there is a theory that you don't need to repair permissions anymore.
Correct. It is unnecessary and doen't repair your permissions anyway.
About Disk Utility's Repair Disk Permissions feature
When files loose their connection with the program that created them is one example why permisions need to be repaired.
No, that is an indication that Launch Services has got corrupted or confused and maybe it needs rebuilding. Repair permissions does nothing to the launch services data base.
The last time I had issues was 18 months ago and running repair disk permissions solved all the instability problems; I don't think I was dillusional about this; so as I have warnings to repair disk permissions and instability issues I what I want to repair the permissions; that is irrespective of any currrent thought that this isn't necessary.
You believe what you want. Read the link about repairing permissions and what it does.
The repair disk has a minimal system and disk utilities on it that allows you to boot from the DVD and repair the internal HD. In the early days you could just drag a minimal of certain files from the system onto a flopy or latter a CD together with disk repair and it would do the job. I lost my repair disk, so I want to create a system on an external drive which together with Disk Utility so I can repair the permissions. Or even make a DVD with a minimum system and disk utilities.
There is no such thing as a "repair disk". You have installer dvd's that came with your hardware or the recovery partition that is part of Lion. You boot it and run Disk Utility to verify/repair, and yes, if you insist, repair permissions. Or you boot from another bootable disk and use its Disk Utilities to repair/verify your drives from there. That is because you cannot repair the drive you are currently booted from.
You can't repair permissions from the HD that has issues, ("If necessary (which is seldom), permissions should be repaired from the selfsame disk.') well at least up to OS10.6, you need an external system to do this, i.e. external HD or DVD. Apple genius bars use external drives to do this; being in Spain there is only one of those some 3+ hours away; a final option if I can't get success.
I basically just said this immediately above.
As I mentioned when I tried to install OS10.6 onto an external drive I had issues doing this, as covered in my initial email.
First a 7-pass erase it a complete waste of time when a simple erase will do. Second I think the you are getting "disk ejected improperly" because you may have one of those enclosures that has a tendency to go off line on its own, which of course is indeed ejecting the disk incorrectly. I'm guessing on this last point of course but it seems reasonable to me.

How can I unlock an external disk?

I have two external disks, one connected to my Intel iMac via usb and the other firewire. Since upgrading to 10.6.7 and trying (unsuccessfully so far) to recover files from the back-up disk, I can no longer access them. I get the message " ...you don't have permission to see its contents". Access privileges have been changed to Custom, and it won't let me change this. In Disk Utility the drives are listed but 'Verify / Repair Permissions' buttons are greyed out. The disk icons have a small padlock attached to them. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks. Garry

Have you tried to fix the permissions from the Terminal?
If you open a Terminal Window
     Applications > Utilities > Terminal
assuming that your problematic disk is mounted
and type
ls -l /Volumes
you should see a listing of your disks, the permissions and the owner.
[Eliza:~] dreschle% ls -l /Volumes/
total 16
lrwxr-xr-x   1 root      admin     1 15 Jul 06:03 Eliza_HD -> /
drwxrwxr-x@ 20 root      admin   748 13 Jul 15:56 Eliza_Media
drwxrwxrwx 11 dreschle staff   442 10 Jul 17:30 HDDElizaBackup
drwxrwxr-x 49 dreschle staff 1734 10 Jul 17:30 HDDMediaPartition
drwx------@ 18 dreschle staff   680 15 Jul 08:56 Tresor
drwx------ 18 dreschle staff   986 11 Jul 18:15 dreschler
lrwxr-xr-x   1 dreschle admin    18 15 Jul 06:13 iDisk -> /Volumes/dreschler
for all disks, where you are the owner (your user name or admin), the protections should be "drwxrwxr-x" , which means that the system and you have read/write/execute access, everybody else only read/execute.
If you don't see read/write/execute permission to your disk, or are not even the owner
try
sudo chmod a+rwx /Volumes/theNameOfYourDisk
This will give read/write/access to everybody, so be sure to set it back with "repair permissions", after you have access your disk.
If you are even not the owner of the disk try to fix that with the "chown" command.
see:
man chown

Lost ownership and permissions on an external hard drive

Hey,
I have a LaCie 500GB external HD that i connect to my MacBook via firewire.
I was checking the amount of space left of the external HD by clicking command-I on it. I accidentally changed the ownership & permissions and now my account has no access to it. I can't see the HD on my desktop but when I go into Disk Utility, i can see that it's there but I can't repair its permissions.
to see whether I could still have access to it, I created another user account and gave it admin status and am able to access the HD there.
Is there any way to restore the ownership and persmissions of my external HD on my primary account?
i feel stupid
many thanks

I was excited by a resolution to the same problem I have (I don't know what Ownership & Permissions I should have on my external -- bootable -- HD). Mistakenly I used Leopard to set them up rather than Mac OSX 10.4.11. Now I no longer had access to the HD nor would it show up on the desktop on Mac OSX 10.4.11 although the Disk Utitlity showed that it existed. I finally erased and cloned the disk but don't know what Permissions I should set it at. "Niel" supposedly answered this problem but his answer was "click here and follow the instructions" which does not show up on the forum. I can't find any other discussion of my specific problem nor an explanation of various permissions sets for Hard Disks internal nor external. If someone could help me I would be grateful. I am in Japan far from any Apple Stores or shops. Thank you.

External disk access privileges

I got some VERY bad advice on access privileges and I am now unable to access my external firewire disk. I added my user id to the root of my boot disk and did an apply to all subfolders. I was trying to protect my data, but the disk now disapeared from my desktop. I run the Disk program and it shows the external disk but it doesnt mount it so I can not access it to change the privileges. I get "you can't open the folder because you don't have sufficient access privileges.
Is there any way to fix this? I have done a repair permissions on my boot disk.
Thaank you
G5 Mac OS X (10.4.11)

It happens a very spooky thing, by trying for the N time to check the disk (with the disk program), it suddenly reapear at the desktop... i was very upset, dont know what have I done lastly, but allas, its now healled. I hope it will keep this way otherwise i'll be back here
Sorry to bother you guys, thank you so much for all the links and the patiente!
(Thanx God I dont have to deal with that DOSlike terminal). At least I learn a good lesson, rookies should never mess with volumes's privileges...
my best kind regards!

Can I install Snow Leopard with an external disk drive?

I have been trying to update my software to Snow Leopard but I am using an external disk drive and when I try to install the software I get the message "The application 'Install Mac OS X' cannot be used from this volume". Is there any way to fix this problem?

Are you booting your computer from an external drive? If so please say why? How are you trying to upgrade to Snow Leopard? Do you have the 10.6.3 retail Snow Leopard DVD? On what drive are you trying to install Snow Leopard? Are you doing this?
1. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
2. Install Snow Leopard
If the drive is OK then quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed with installing OS X. Note that the Snow Leopard installer will not erase your drive or disturb your files. After installing a fresh copy of OS X the installer will move your Home folder, third-party applications, support items, and network preferences into the newly installed system.
Download and install Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1. Then use Software Update to download and install any other needed updates for Snow Leopard.

My MacBook Pro won't go beyond a white screen, after I pushed the restart button. How can I get it to a login? I have routinely backed it up, but don't know how to bring that up, nor if I have a boot file on that external disk. Help!

My MacBook Pro won't go beyond a white screen, after I pushed the restart button. How can I get it to a login? I have routinely backed it up, but don't know how to bring that up, nor if I have a boot file on that external disk. Help!

Take each of these steps that you haven't already tried. Stop when the problem is resolved.
To restart an unresponsive computer, press and hold the power button for a few seconds until the power shuts off, then release, wait a few more seconds, and press it again briefly.
Step 1
The first step in dealing with a startup failure is to secure the data. If you want to preserve the contents of the startup drive, and you don't already have at least one current backup, you must try to back up now, before you do anything else. It may or may not be possible. If you don't care about the data that has changed since the last backup, you can skip this step.
There are several ways to back up a Mac that is unable to start. You need an external hard drive to hold the backup data.
a. Start up from the Recovery partition, or from a local Time Machine backup volume (option key at startup.) When the OS X Utilities screen appears, launch Disk Utility and follow the instructions in this support article, under “Instructions for backing up to an external hard disk via Disk Utility.” The article refers to starting up from a DVD, but the procedure in Recovery mode is the same. You don't need a DVD if you're running OS X 10.7 or later.
b. If Step 1a fails because of disk errors, and no other Mac is available, then you may be able to salvage some of your files by copying them in the Finder. If you already have an external drive with OS X installed, start up from it. Otherwise, if you have Internet access, follow the instructions on this page to prepare the external drive and install OS X on it. You'll use the Recovery installer, rather than downloading it from the App Store.
c. If you have access to a working Mac, and both it and the non-working Mac have FireWire or Thunderbolt ports, start the non-working Mac in target disk mode. Use the working Mac to copy the data to another drive. This technique won't work with USB, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth.
d. If the internal drive of the non-working Mac is user-replaceable, remove it and mount it in an external enclosure or drive dock. Use another Mac to copy the data.
Step 2
If the startup process stops at a blank gray screen with no Apple logo or spinning "daisy wheel," then the startup volume may be full. If you had previously seen warnings of low disk space, this is almost certainly the case. You might be able to start up in safe mode even though you can't start up normally. Otherwise, start up from an external drive, or else use the technique in Step 1b, 1c, or 1d to mount the internal drive and delete some files. According to Apple documentation, you need at least 9 GB of available space on the startup volume (as shown in the Finder Info window) for normal operation.
Step 3
Sometimes a startup failure can be resolved by resetting the NVRAM.
Step 4
If a desktop Mac hangs at a plain gray screen with a movable cursor, the keyboard may not be recognized. Press and hold the button on the side of an Apple wireless keyboard to make it discoverable. If need be, replace or recharge the batteries. If you're using a USB keyboard connected to a hub, connect it to a built-in port.
Step 5
If there's a built-in optical drive, a disc may be stuck in it. Follow these instructions to eject it.
Step 6
Press and hold the power button until the power shuts off. Disconnect all wired peripherals except those needed to start up, and remove all aftermarket expansion cards. Use a different keyboard and/or mouse, if those devices are wired. If you can start up now, one of the devices you disconnected, or a combination of them, is causing the problem. Finding out which one is a process of elimination.
Step 7
If you've started from an external storage device, make sure that the internal startup volume is selected in the Startup Disk pane of System Preferences.
Start up in safe mode. Note: If FileVault is enabled in OS X 10.9 or earlier, or if a firmware password is set, or if the startup volume is a software RAID, you can’t do this. Post for further instructions.
Safe mode is much slower to start and run than normal, and some things won’t work at all, including wireless networking on certain Macs.
The login screen appears even if you usually log in automatically. You must know the login password in order to log in. If you’ve forgotten the password, you will need to reset it before you begin.
When you start up in safe mode, it's normal to see a dark gray progress bar on a light gray background. If the progress bar gets stuck for more than a few minutes, or if the system shuts down automatically while the progress bar is displayed, the startup volume is corrupt and the drive is probably malfunctioning. In that case, go to Step 11. If you ever have another problem with the drive, replace it immediately.
If you can start and log in in safe mode, empty the Trash, and then open the Finder Info window on the startup volume ("Macintosh HD," unless you gave it a different name.) Check that you have at least 9 GB of available space, as shown in the window. If you don't, copy as many files as necessary to another volume (not another folder on the same volume) and delete the originals. Deletion isn't complete until you empty the Trash again. Do this until the available space is more than 9 GB. Then restart as usual (i.e., not in safe mode.)
If the startup process hangs again, the problem is likely caused by a third-party system modification that you installed. Post for further instructions.
Step 8
Launch Disk Utility in Recovery mode (see Step 1.) Select the startup volume, then run Repair Disk. If any problems are found, repeat until clear. If Disk Utility reports that the volume can't be repaired, the drive has malfunctioned and should be replaced. You might choose to tolerate one such malfunction in the life of the drive. In that case, erase the volume and restore from a backup. If the same thing ever happens again, replace the drive immediately.
This is one of the rare situations in which you should also run Repair Permissions, ignoring the false warnings it may produce. Look for the line "Permissions repair complete" at the end of the output. Then restart as usual.
Step 9
If the startup device is an aftermarket SSD, it may need a firmware update and/or a forced "garbage collection." Instructions for doing this with a Crucial-branded SSD were posted here. Some of those instructions may apply to other brands of SSD, but you should check with the vendor's tech support.
Step 10
Reinstall the OS. If the Mac was upgraded from an older version of OS X, you’ll need the Apple ID and password you used to upgrade.
Step 11
Do as in Step 9, but this time erase the startup volume in Disk Utility before installing. The system should automatically restart into the Setup Assistant. Follow the prompts to transfer the data from a Time Machine or other backup.
Step 12
This step applies only to models that have a logic-board ("PRAM") battery: all Mac Pro's and some others (not current models.) Both desktop and portable Macs used to have such a battery. The logic-board battery, if there is one, is separate from the main battery of a portable. A dead logic-board battery can cause a startup failure. Typically the failure will be preceded by loss of the settings for the startup disk and system clock. See the user manual for replacement instructions. You may have to take the machine to a service provider to have the battery replaced.
Step 13
If you get this far, you're probably dealing with a hardware fault. Make a "Genius" appointment at an Apple Store, or go to another authorized service provider.

Backup error- no write permission on external disk

Time Machine has been working fine until yesterday when I got the above error. I had write permission but root did not. Rebooting did not solve this problem. But ejecting my external disk and re-inserting it, did work and now everything is fine. Any idea what could have messed up permissions? I am posting this in case the same thing happens to another user-just eject your disk and re-insert it.

What filesystem is on that drive?

Macintosh HD is a volume within an external disk

Hi. Apologies in advance for the lack of detail here, but it's a post on behalf of a friend.
He has recently performed a Leopard erase and install, and is finding that when waking from sleep performance is extremely slow. When repairing permissions he noticed another disk listed in disk utility, and I suspect that this is the external usb disk that he had temporarily used for backup (and is now no longer connected). The really weird thing is that he says that his Macintosh HD seems to be a volume under the external disk.
He says that he left the external disk connected during the erase and install. Is there any way that he can have made the internal hd a volume of the external disk? Is does seem to make sense that the performance problems may be caused by leopard looking for a disk that is no longer there.
If this is what has happened, is another erase and install the only way to recover? He can't unmount the external disk, without deleting all volumes on it, including Macintosh HD.

Hello Tom,
Macintosh HD seems to be a volume under the external disk.
If you open your Disk Utility and look at your Macintosh HD, it will appear as a volume underneath (indented from) the existing Hard Disk.
The name of that Hard Disk will be written. Have your friend do the same and then plug in the external usb disk. Is it the same name as his internal disk? No? Then this is not the culprit, and it would be rather bizarre if it was.
So if you could do a bit more checking and post more detail, we may find that there are other considerations to contemplate regarding his machine's slow performance.

I want to share External disk to windows

Hi there,
I have a Lacie external disk and am trying to share it to my windows network (not a domain - just a workgroup).
I have edited my /etc/smb.conf to add the [Lacie] share following this guide: http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/mac/2003/03/18/samba.html and it shows up on my network but when I click on it from a Windows machine, it says
\\macmini\Lacie is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this network resource. Contact the administrator of this server to find out if you have access permissions.
What else do I need to do to enable me to read and write to the share from Windows.
Thanks!
keymoo

Use SharePoints from hornware.com

Where are time Machine Backups Located on External Disk?

I was wondering where time machine backups are located on the external disk , and what permissions you have to have to view them. I recently had to delete an account that time machine was set up on and i am only allowed to see backups in the shared folder on the volume. This is on OSX Server and several computers backup their images to the server
Thanks in Advance

On my TM drive, there is a folder called Backups.backupdb at the top level. Inside that folder is a folder named the name of my Mac (as set up for Sharing). Inside there are folders named with a date/time stamp of the backup. Inside there are folders named with my Mac's disk names. And in there are the contents of the disk in the same folder hierarchy, but only the files that changed.

Permissions on TM backup disk

Hi,
I have trouble with my external disk which I'm using as TM drive, so I brought it to work. The issue seems to be a stupid power adapter issue and I got my drive working now. Mounting that drive on my work Mac it shows up as a normal external drive and not as a TM drive. Owners are not enabled and I can access any file in the backup. Is that normal or missed I anything during configuration of TM? The TM drive I'm using at work mounts as TM drive and has permissions enabled, so I can't access other user's files. Have to check again at home, but it looks like the permissions on a TM drive are working only on the Mac that is backup'ed. Is that true? Guess I should keep the TM drive at a safe place then...
Thanks,
Thomas

Hi,
I have trouble with my external disk which I'm using as TM drive, so I brought it to work. The issue seems to be a stupid power adapter issue and I got my drive working now. Mounting that drive on my work Mac it shows up as a normal external drive and not as a TM drive. Owners are not enabled and I can access any file in the backup. Is that normal or missed I anything during configuration of TM? The TM drive I'm using at work mounts as TM drive and has permissions enabled, so I can't access other user's files. Have to check again at home, but it looks like the permissions on a TM drive are working only on the Mac that is backup'ed. Is that true? Guess I should keep the TM drive at a safe place then...
Thanks,
Thomas

Mounting External Disks[freeagent]

Hi everyone.
I have the following setup.
--> 5 Macpros with 1 external disk[freeagent] each
--> 5 users share Files using LAN
--> In each Macpros, there are 2 users, 1 admin and 1 standard user
I noticed that when an Admin user is logged, all disks mounted which includes the external disks, are seen in the network but when a Standard user is logged on, the disks mounted are not seen.
How do I fix this? I am not familiar on how to setup the permissions/rights for this.. Using windows I can fix this.
I don't want the users to log in as Admin. They should be using the standard account and be able to share whatever disks they have mounted and be seen in the local network.
Your inputs are appreciated.
Thanks all!

Hi, the easiest wayt o set up External, or any Shares, Groups, Users, Privilges is to get Get Sharepoints...
http://www.hornware.com/sharepoints/

External Disk Connected to Time Machine is giving Errors

I have an external disk that I have used with Time Machine for a couple of years, at least as long as leopard was out. Recently I got the new 13" Macbook Pro and configured time machine + Airport Extreme + External USB drive. After using it for a few months, I discovered Time Machine had errors backing up and would arbitrarily stop. I decided to plug in the USB drive directly to the macbook pro and ran disk Utility. Upon 'Verify' - the following showed up
Incorrect number of Access Control Lists
(It should be 0 instead of 714)
I hit 'Repair' next. Problem solved.
Except a few days later, I decided to 'verify' the disk again, it gave me the same ACL problem with a different number - it should be 0 instead of xyz. My questions are -
1. How can one solve this problem?
2. Is my external disk having bad sectors and I need to buy a new one?
It concerns me that since this external disk is my only backup solution, if it fails on me - I might be in trouble. Currently, I have borrowed a friends disk and made a clone of my entire HD - which I repeat every week - not the most efficient use of time. I am hoping time machine can take over this task successfully without Access Control Issues!!!
Thanks in advance for your help.

ACLs have nothing to do with disk errors. Furthermore you cannot repair permissions on a non-system volume. You can try the following to reset ACLs:
Open the Terminal application in the Utilities folder and enter the following at the prompt:
sudo chmod -a# 0 /Volumes/volname
Provide the external volume's volname. Press RETURN.

External Disk Permission issues

I share my laptop with a colleague using 10.6.8
Tonight I had to do some shuffling of files on external disks. I kept getting asked to put in her password. The external disks were "read only" and only read/write under my log in, not hers.
I know how to "Find Info" and set the "Ignore permissions" check box so I can fix that... but I've wondered if that means there is some underlying installation error.
What causes external disks to suddenly become read only?
Random facts:
I've repaired permissions in her log in.
She has administrator privileges.
Thanks for any insight.

Is the disk that you are writing to also a bootable disk? In other words, is this the disk she uses to startup the mac from?
If so, you can't write to that disk without messing up the permissions. The general rule of thumb with any bootable disk is only ever copy from it when you're not booted into it. Changing the permissions from your end does not get around this. If you write into another bootable disk from 'outside' of it, you'll just corrupt the permissions for that user when they start up from it.
If you want to make things available to her from your disk, put them in your 'shared' or public folder, or even easier is use Dropbox or Skydrive.

Permissions problematic on external disk

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