Disk became read only

After the last update my backup disk has become read-only and the Permissions are grayed out so I cannot change the setting.
Any solutions?
Thanks

After doing a reboot it I waited a day but then I tried Time Machine for the heck of it and it worked.
I looked at my backup drive permissions and the lock is not grayed out anymore. The permissions are the same however. So maybe I didn't have to wait any time after the reboot to run time machine again. Hmmmm. Still no explanation for why this happens though but just because permissions are still the same doesn't mean Time Machine will still not work after the reboot. I don't know if the act of running Time Machine triggered the lock to be available for unlock or if I didn't notice it was unlockable after the reboot.

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Table became read-only

I have an Access interface to an Oracle 10g database so that our analyst can enter data in from spreadsheets. Recently, one of the tables that she's working with became read-only when she deleted the existing table in Access, and re-imported it from Oracle. She's done the same to other tables, and is still able to write to them. I went in and checked her rights in the OEM, and she has the same rights across all objects. I'm trying to log in under her userid in SQL*Plus, but when I try querying from any of the user tables that she uses, its telling me that the tables/views don't exist. But if I select table_name from all_tables, it does show the system tables and other tables as well - just none of the user tables. Is there anything else I can try to figure out what's going on here?

Access will only allow read-only on Oracle tables unless the primary key is identified in Access. 'Edit' the table and identify the primary key.

Hard disk becomming read-only ?

hi all,
I've been having a curious problem for about a year now. After a few days not so intensive usage, my iMac's hard disk becomes read-only. Most programs become unusable of course, some actually work as long as they don't try to write anything...
Symptoms:
system.log isn't written to anymore (so no system error reported);
terminal works I can "ls" here and there, but mkdir, touch, or anything like that fails.
And worst, I did a clean format re-install (going from tiger to leopard), and the problem still apears.
I'm assuming it's the disk, but I get no bad blocks error in the logs (well those can't be written too, okay
Anyones gone thrue that before I replace the hard drive with a new one ?

Hi ncksayer -
Greetings and welcome to the Apple boards.
I have not experienced your particular problem but it does sound like the drive can be an issue.
I have replaced the hard drive on an iMac of your series. If you are at all handy and not afraid to open it up it is quite easy.
Luck-
-DaddyPaycheck

TM drive became read-only, only to be fixed by Verify Disk ?!?!

Could one of you experts out there please explain this to me. My small brain can't wrap my mind around what happened -
Yesterday I had to restore my system from a TM backup. After this, I decided to erase the TM drive and start backing up fresh. I did this, and for the past 5 hours, Time Machine has been happily backing up to this newly-erased partition.
However, just a few minutes ago, I got an error message from TM. It said that the backup couldn't be completed because the volume was "read only". I couldn't believe this, so I checked out Get Info, and indeed it said that I only had read access to the volume that Time machine's been writing to for the past 5 hours! I found the KB article HT3275 that said to do a Repair on the TM drive. But Repair Disk was grayed out; only Verify Disk was lit.
I checked around further, and couldn't come up with what caused this change in permissions, so I decided to do the Verify Disk just to see if there were any HD errors, but the partition came up clean. But then I couldn't believe my eyes - the Repair Disk button was now active! I switched back to Finder and did a Get Info on the TM partition, and it was back to allowing me Read/Write access!
How could a Verify Disk operation cause the permissions to change from Read Only to Read/Write? The only system operation I did during those 5 hours of good TM backups was to change my Computer Name and uncheck "Use dynamic global hostname".
Please, one of you Time Machine/OS X/UNIX gurus explain to this feeble mind what occurred here. I really need to know so that this won't happen again.
Thanks.

I tried running
sudo fsck /dev/sdb1
and got the following error:
fsck from util-linux-ng 2.18
fsck: fsck.ntfs: not found
fsck: Error 2 while executing fsck.ntfs for /dev/sdb1

Hard Drive / Volume (DroboPro) has suddenly became read only!? I think its due to a permission issue and i cannot correct it

Bit concerned, my iMac seemed to crash yesterday... when i restarted the iMac .. i got the following message:
OS X can’t repair the disk “DroboPro.”
You can still open or copy files on the disk, but you can’t save changes to files on the disk. Back up the disk and reformat it as soon as you can
At the time the iMac crashed, i was downloading some files over the web... and at the same time importing a movie into iTunes. I believe it was iTunes that possibly crashed first... it seemed to be taking longer than normal to import a movie into iTunes, but left it running and went and ate dinner. when i returned, i couldn't wake the machine from the screen saver. it appeared to have locked up. I had no choice but to hard-reset the imac. when it rebooted, the external drive (drobopro) was in read only mode - i can read from it but can't write to it.
I have been initially trying to trouble shoot this as a DroboPro issue - but that drive seems fine. most of the reading i have done points to a permissions issue which is something in OS X that needs fixing.
I found these support articles on the drobo website
1) http://support.drobo.com/app/answers/det...d-only-and
2) http://support.drobo.com/app/answers/det...ld-i-do%3F
Per the first article, I tried using drobo dashboard app to shut down the drobopro, then restart my imac and then bring the drobopro back up again to clear the permissions issue. that didn't work. (I actually tried that twice)
When I go into disk utility on the imac, and click on the drobo disk... i cannot click on the repair permissions button, its greyed out. i can click on verify disk... when i readthe details that come up.. in red it says Invalid Node structure, The Volume DroboPro could not be verified completely, the File system check exit code is 8; Error: The disk needs to be repaired, click Repair disk.
i checked the tools in drobo dashboard and according to drobo dashboard the disk is healthy. its about 50% utilised; so definitely no space issues. i have 4 x 2TB disks in it and setup i a high redundancy mode so actual available space is about 5.4TB, and there is 2.62 TB available.
I then looked back at the first article again - and it says to get cocktail disk utility. i got that and went to PILOT tab as suggested, but the only option is to repair permissions on Mackintosh HD. so i went ahead and repaired the permissions on Mackintosh HD, but that hasn't fixed the issue either. The last options seems to be to do a super user move via the Apple Terminal, which i am a little apprehensive about doing - so i have avoided that.
Drobo support suggested i try DiskWarrier - i have downloaded that app and tried to repair permissions using that. again i can only run that on the imac disc, but that doesn't work either!?
I am stuck now, what shall i try? look forward to see if anyone can help.

Ok, so I have to apologise for that fact that a minute after making this post I managed to fix the problem...
Blew the dirt from the connector port. Really...? You ask...
This sure did fix my problem and after doing some more hard searching through the forums here looks like it fixed others too.
Dirt in the connector port meant the iPhone thought (for some reason) it was connected to a dock or such, thus removing the controls.
Anyway, cheers and hope this might help someone else.

Since hard drive restore, backup gives Disk Repair, Read-only errors

Hi all -
After a hard drive crash last week, I restored the new HD using my historically reliable wireless Time Capsule (TC) with Time Machine (TM). But ever since, backups have ceased to work. Now, TM spins for about an hour before returning the following errors in sequence:
(1) DISK REPAIR: "The disk 'Backup of [my name] Macbook' was not repairable by this computer. It is being made available to you with limited functionality. You must back up your data and reformat the disk as soon as possible."
(2) TIME MACHINE ERROR: The backup volume is read only. To select a different volume, open System Preferences and choose Time Machine."
I very much doubt there is an actual problem with the TC disk itself; my wife's iBook G4 continues to backup to it without any problem whatsoever. Related threads have suggested:
a) doing clever things with Preferences, such as deleting the com.apple.TimeMachine.plist file and re-booting. However, for some reason (perhaps related to the source of the problem?) I have no such file...
b) using Disk Utility to re-format and/or re-partition (these terms mean little to me) the TC disk. But my Disk Utility doesn't see the TC. (Perhaps related, I no longer actually see the little backup disk icon on the desktop.) And as I've said, I doubt very much it's the TC disk itself that it is the problem.
I have of course tried re-booting everything, as well as un-mounting and re-mounting the TC: Computer, heal thyself! No luck.
Any guidance is appreciated...
(PS If there's a log file I should post that might help with diagnostics, just let me know where to find it.)

I have suffered the same error messages, but without a hard disk crash before it.
I copied the backup-file from the TC to a separate drive, erased the TC, re-installed it, copied the backup-file to the TC en re-initiated TM only to be welcomed with the 'The backup volume is read only'-message again.
Beats me why this happened. Most frustrating part, however, is that I am not able to restore from the backup-file. Any suggestions are highly appreciated!

I cannot continue to use my external hard disk which I used with windows. OS 10.8 can read it but declares the disk as "read only". Is there a way to change this?

Hallo everyone,
I just tried my external disk on my Macbook air and I cannot save data to it any longer. This external disk was used with windows. Now i want to use it with macbookAir as I have changed my computer. It seems that OSX.10.8.5 can read the data on this external drive but when I try to save new data to it (pdf documents from the web for example) it refuses to save the data ans the message I get is that my drive is "read only". Please is there a way to change this or do I have to format the re-format the external drive?
Thanks for your help

You will have to reformat the drive for use with a Mac.
Mac only: Format as MacOS Extended (Journaled)
Mac and Windows: Format to MSDOS

Usb key suddenly became read only

Hi,
my usb key used to work fine between OS X and Windows XP. Now after it was removed from XP without unmounting it, it's read only on OS X.
It's formatted in MS-DOS FAT 16 and Disk Utility can't reformat it.
Any suggestion is welcome!

Many USB keys have a small lock switch that will make them read only. Check to make sure that hasn't slipped accidently to the lock position.

Secure Shared Disks: With a disk password - read only?

I would like my roommates to be able to access my hard-drive, but only read-only. I know I can set the allow guests setting on, and let them read-only that way, but I would also like for them to have to enter a password, so I am surprised I can't do both. Any ideas?

Thomas Rossin wrote:
When the computer goes to make a backup I get the dialogue box which states that it cannot back up because the disk is a read only disk. It is 1T size and has plenty of room backing up most but not all of a 500 GB drive. Is there a way to move the files to a new 1.5T drive I have and have Time Machine recognize the new drive with all the saved data? If I simply drag the file from Time Machine to the new formatted Time Machine Drive (Extended - Journaled) it says the drive is not the correct format for a backup drive. Frustration abounds!
If I clone the drive using Disk Utility will I not also clone the problem which exists?
Whoa! Slow down. Try a +*Repair Disk+* on the existing drive, per #A5 of the Time Machine - Troubleshooting *User Tip* at the top of this forum.

Time Machine - disk appears "read-only"

After shorting my hard drive on the body of my MacBook Pro while plugging in the USB connector (one drawback of the aluminium body, although an uncommon one), Time Machine now reports the error, "Files can't be copied onto the backup disk because it appears to be read-only." The drive appears to be working normally (eg. no strange sounds of platters failing etc). I can access my previous Time Machine backups no problem.
I've run Disk Utility to check for problems, but it cannot find any. My guess is that Time Machine must have activated as I shorted the hard drive, corrupting it somehow. I think it is only really a case of resetting various permissions through Terminal, but I am reticent to just start fumbling around.
Does anybody have any suggestions?
I'm running 10.8.5.
Many thanks. James.

Start with C6 in the 1st linked article.
Time Machine Troubleshooting
Time Machine Troubleshooting Problems

Time Machine Disk now Read-Only

Help, Help, Help! I am at my wits end. I have a Drobo set up for my time machine backups and it has been working flawlessly for almost 15 months. However, last week, upon hooking my laptop up again after a trip, I kept getting an error that the disk is now read-only. I've scoured the internet to find a solution as to why this changed all of a sudden and have tried all suggestions to no avail. I can read the backups but I can't even copy them to another disk to carry out the dreaded reformat. It is over 15 months of backups that as I see it can not be recovered at this point. This is so frustrating because I can see them, read them but can't move them, copy them, compress them, ...........
If anyone has any suggestions at all as to how to recover them and/or return to the disk to the status it had for months and months as a read and write disk I would be so, so grateful. As is, time machine made things worse! I depended on it and my Drobo which has a protection scheme in case of a disk error for my backups. Now, nothing.
Please help!
Joe

Joseph Noel wrote:
. However, last week, upon hooking my laptop up again after a trip, I kept getting an error that the disk is now read-only.
That usually means the backups are corrupted/damaged.
See #C6 in [Time Machine - Troubleshooting|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Troubleshooting.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).

My external USB drive became read-only

I migrated from a Macbook (black) to a new Macbook Pro (late 2008 model) a week ago. Everything seemed to work fine except that I can't write to an external USB drive (worked fine with the Macbook) from my new Macbook Pro. Disk utility indicated I only have read-only access and didn't give me a way to change the permissions. The drive still works normally (read-write) with the old Macbook.
The drive was formatted as Mac OS extended (journaled.) Both computers are running 10.5.5 when this happened. I have since upgraded my Macbook Pro to 10.5.6 but won't have an opportunity to test it with my drive till January.
I know I can re-format the drive with Macbook pro but I don't want to lose the data. I have no other storage to temporary hold the data (about 450G worth.) I tend to change computers every 6 months or so. This will continue to be a problem for me. I am looking for a nice permanent solution.
Thanks.

Welcome to Apple Discussions:
You probably do not have write access to the drive, if it came from a Mac with another account.
In a terminal run the command
ls -al /volumes
and see what permissions the drive has.
You should see something like
drwxrwxrwx 1 nero nero 16384 Dec 18 13:02 TravelDrive
Where "nero" is the name of the user who has access to the drive. Notice that on my drive, everyone has read, write, execute privileges on the drive.
Message was edited by: nerowolfe

Time Machine just stopped working, Disk Repair & Read Only errors

So my TM backups have been running fine for at least six months now.
Today I started to get this error:
"Disk Repair
The disk "xxxxxx" was not repairable by this computer. It is being made available to you with limited functionality. You must back up your data and reformat the disk as soon as possible."
followed by
"Time Machine Error
The backup volume is read only.
To select a different volume, open System Preferences and choose Time Machine"
I've searched high and low for a solution to no avail.
Here's what I've tried so far.
Attached disk to iMac, repaired the disk. It now verifies with no errors.
Changed permissions on the disk to 644 through terminal as per an Apple article.
Rebooted iMac several times, zapped PRAM.
Anyone have any ideas as to why this is suddenly happening? I would really hate to have to reformat the disk and start from scratch. This is very frustrating, I've changed nothing.
Here's the log from Time Machine Buddy:
Starting standard backup
Disk image /Volumes/FreeAgent Drive/Thomas Torrillo’s iMac_002332917af9.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Backup of Thomas Torrillo’s iMac
Backing up to: /Volumes/Backup of Thomas Torrillo’s iMac/Backups.backupdb
The target volume is read-only.
Backup failed with error: The target volume is read-only.
Ejected Time Machine disk image.
Message was edited by: Tom Torrillo (added log info)

See if this helps:
What to do if Time Machine reports you don't have permission
This was posted in the Apple Discussions by V.K. I have only modified it slightly to be more generic.
The problem seems to be that 10.5.6 changes permissions on a file so that even the root user doesn't have write peivileges. I have no idea why they did this. The workaround suggested in [an]other post will probably work, too, but i did something less drastic. Instead of deleting the file I changed permissions on it, and it worked just fine. An added benefit is that the permission change seems to stick, so you don't have to delete the file every time you change a drive.
[Open the Terminal application in your Utilities folder. At the prompt [enter] the following command:
sudo chmod 644 /volumes/"TM drive name"/.xxxxxxxxxxxx
The name of the file .xxxxxxxxxxxx is based on the MAC address of your computer and will be different for every computer. Put the name of the TM drive in the above and keep the quotes.
You'll have to enter your admin password (which you won't see) which is normal.
This was edited by Kappy just for cleanup.
Enable Finder to Show Invisible Files and Folders
Open the Terminal application in your Utilities folder. At the prompt enter or paste the following command line then press RETURN.
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
To turn off the display of invisible files and folders enter or paste the following command line and press RETURN.
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE
Alternatively you can use one of the numerous third-party utilities such as TinkerTool or ShowHideInvisibleFiles - VersionTracker or MacUpdate.

External Hard Drive became read-only [SOLVED]

I have a seagate external hard drive formated to ntfs. I have been using it successfully with arch until recently. Now when I try to add files to it it refuses. I tried changing the permission back with
sudo chmod ugo+rwx -R /media/FreeAgent\ Drive
But, it returned a "Read-Only file system" error for every file. I'm not sure what caused this, any suggestions? Thanks in advance for the help.
Last edited by briff (2010-09-06 18:46:48)

I tried running
sudo fsck /dev/sdb1
and got the following error:
fsck from util-linux-ng 2.18
fsck: fsck.ntfs: not found
fsck: Error 2 while executing fsck.ntfs for /dev/sdb1

My Time Machine will no longer back up to my external disk for unknown reasons. It would not accept my password and said the disk is read-only and damaged. How can I copy my files to my Mac so I can repair it?

My Time Machine will no longer back up to my external drive for unknown reasons. It began after a series of power outages (my equipment is protected by a surge protector with battery backup), and was shut down correctly. Then it began by not recognizing my disk and my Time Machine password, although I am positive it was correct. I tried NUMEROUS times to get into it. It says the disk is damaged and needs to be erased and started over. How can I back up my files on my Mac so I can do that? I have no other disk to back up to. I found the files in a folder called "Backups.backupdb", and tried to copy them into a folder, but get the message "The volume has the wrong case sensitivity for a backup." The "lost+found" folder did copy for me. Will I just have to lose 4 years of backups?

Hi there,
I have the same issue. Usually hangs after 10K od sometimes after 18MB of backup file.
Config: iTunes 10.4., Win 7 64bit, iPhone 4 with iOS 4.3.3
I tried all of these without success:
- deleted backups via iTunes / Preferences
- deleted backups from sync folder
- created a new admin user and tried to sync
- reinstalled iTunes
- ran all Windows updates, restarted, reinstalled iTunes
- ran iTunes / Diagnostics (says everything okay, only info which is strange: diag says I am not a admin user, which is not correct)
Nothing helped. Who can help. I hope someone from Apple can take care, as I seem not to be the only one. Actually iTunes is the worst part about iPhone. Hope with iOS 5 and Cloud sync to get rid of iTunes.
Any hints welcome,
Cheers,
Miguel-KA

Disk became read only

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