Locked hard drive

An Apple remanufactured Mac Pro purchased two months ago has locked its hard drive (possibly with help from a cat that walked across the keys). It won't accept our administrator password. We never noticed whether filevault or firewalls were set by Apple before we received it, but messages on forums seem to point to that as a cause.
Unfortunately, we have not backed up the few new files added, but these are critical files that we need back. Nevertheless, all the Mac offers is wiping the drive, reformatting, and starting installation over with the recommendation that we back up as many files as possible before continuing. This is a catch 22 since it won't let us have access to anything on our drive but the disk utility, restore from Time Machine Backup, and reinstall. It gives us limited Safari to Apple.
It doesn't go into "safe mode" exactly. It instead gives a quick kernal panic notation and goes back to asking us what language we want to be in once the screen resolves. Disk utility initially said that the harddrive is locked. Now it says there is an error and it cannot be repaired, recommending reformatting and reinstalling after back up. How do we back up before I reinstall?

Thanks for the reminder. We discovered that we had 2 days left on the support line but opted for an appointment with Apple this Sunday instead. It seems as though someone in Apple should have a backdoor for this that might preserve data.
It's odd; it quit after the Maverick update during my daughter's university finals week, separating her from her study notes and take home drafts. The next week, my Macbook Pro 17 inch also quit working while I was preparing my student's course grades for the same university. Nothing opens. It just spins the little wheel forever, except in the limited environment of of SafeMode. If I can't figure this problem out, I'll have to take my computer in too. We can't back each other up and external drives are not recognized.

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Message when installing OS X Mavericks locked hard drive

Message when installing OS X Mavericks locked hard drive,copule you help me how to solve

Your drive is sometimes locked when it has unreapired damage.
Boot to Recovery_HD, launch Disk Utility, slect your Macintosh HD, and click (Repair Disk). Run again until it comes clean or gets stuck.

Macbook will not boot. Locked hard drive. Blue screen when booting

Hi, my little brother decided he wanted a few files off of my mac book, so he went to settings>sharing>file sharing and added my only hard drive to the list and tried removing everyone but his name and password thinking it would only effect people trying to log into my hard drive, not actually me on my computer alone trying to boot mac osx from it.
He came crying to me telling me he paniced because he saw a locked icon on my hard drive and couldn't do anything, so tried to restart the macbook and now i just get a blue screen and nothing happens when i try booting it.
Right now i'm thinking i gotta archive and reinstall from booting the osx disk, but i'm affraid it'll just apply the same settings again and keep me locked out. I need files off of my hard drive since i'm in school and have several assignments that i have not backed up at all.
Any help would be greatly appreciated

after searching the forums deeper i found the solution. it's now working. you may delete this thread.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2087835

Permission denied locked hard drives cannot access

I have an issue wher my external hard drives have becom locked and cannot unlock them. Syas I do not have sufficient priviledges.
My user/ also set as adim kept on being askes to authenticate even on the main HD if i went to move a file and some files I wasn't even able to rename even after authentication. So i went and I added the user in the get info permissions tab and applied to all enclosed items... BANg then the external became locked. I cannot get in and unlock them. My usre says custom access in the info tabs and when i try to change it it goes back to the custom access and still locked. I repaired permissions and still the same same thing.
Help getting back! and assigning read/write permissions and access.
Thanks in advance,
joe

JCaravella wrote:
I have an issue wher my external hard drives have becom locked and cannot unlock them. Syas I do not have sufficient priviledges.
My user/ also set as adim kept on being askes to authenticate even on the main HD if i went to move a file and some files I wasn't even able to rename even after authentication. So i went and I added the user in the get info permissions tab and applied to all enclosed items... BANg then the external became locked.
bang indeed. by using "apply to enclosed items" on the whole startup hard drive you totally messed your system. you now have no choice but to reinstall snow leopard. so boot from the SL install DVd and reinstall. when the reinstall is finished log in and run the following terminal commands (copy and paste, please)
sudo chflags 0 /volumes/*
sudo chmod a+rx /volumes/*
you'll have to enter your admin password (which you won't see). that's normal. this should unlock your drives.
Also, NEVER EVER use "apply to enclosed items on ANY system created folders, your startup drive or the time machine drive. That includes folders like your Documents folder, your Desktop folder etc. use it only on folders you made yourself. system created folders often have hidden ACLs and using 'apply to enclosed items" on them will propagate those ACLs to everything inside and buy you a lot of trouble. and system folders outside your home directory should not be touched period. certainly don't go changing permissions on any of them.

LOCKED HARD DRIVE!!! HELP!!

Ok.. so here's the scoop. I am on my imac, but i have a macbook as well- my roomate asked to use my macbooks, so i assumed there was a way to password lock the hard drive so he couldn't access my files- i right clicked and clicked INFO and under privileges i clicked "nobody" for access, assuming that would exempt the person with the password. NOW.. i cannot do anything on that computer. I restarted it and when i login, it's just a blank blue screen. no keys will unlock it i can only move the mouse and turn the computer off. What do i do? HELP PLEASE!

Why didn't you just set up a new user account for him
to use? He wouldn't have had access to your files.
Anyway ... you might try rebooting from the install
CD, and running Disk Utility on the hard drive to
repair permissions.
Matt
Hey Matt...
Sometimes I don't think before I do, and I should have thought about that but I'm not too familiar with Macs yet, I've only had it a few months. BUT...
I inserted the install cd, but as I said it will not allow anything. It didn't pop up, there's no desktop or any icons of any sort. Just the blue screen and the mouse, that's all.
Maybe it's gonna be like that forever?

Locked Hard Drive / Can't Change Privileges or Permissions!

My non-bootup internal hard drive (a RAID array) is locked. I don't know how it happened for sure, but I can't view any of my files or change any of the disk's privileges or permissions.
Disk utility can't un-mount the disk, but says in the "Disk Check" that everything is okay. The option to repair permissions in Disk Utility is grayed out because OS X is not installed on this volume.
I have tried using terminal to CHOWN and CHMOD the volume, but for both commands it says "Operation not permitted." When I CMD-Click the mounted drive, this appears in the info pane:
Sharing & Permissions:
Name Privilege
(Me) Custom
admin Custom
(Me) Custom
admin Custom
everyone Custom
I can't change any of the "custom" settings, whether I unlock the padlock or not. All I can change is "Ignore ownership," which does nothing to help...
I already archived my OS and re-installed 10.5, then upgraded to 10.5.7 and still no luck. I'M TOTALLY STUMPED! Any ideas?

Okay, it looks like I've solved the problem. After LOTS of searching, I found a discussion that led to the solution... I first ran this command in terminal:
ls -alO /Volumes
This command revealed that the "user immutable flag" was set (the text "uchg" appeared with the problematic drive) and permissions looked odd. The following commands fixed both problems:
chflags nouchg '/Volumes/<drive name>'
sudo chmod 1775 '/Volumes/<drive name>'
For anyone else who needs help with this issue, here's the URL that helped me:
http://forums.macosxhints.com/showthread.php?t=90894
(Posts 4-10 were great!)

More on locked hard drives

If I buy new hard drives for this computer, Satellite X205-Sli4, will I be able to install the operating system I want on them, or will they also be "locked" and not able to accept any software except the restore disks that came with this laptop? (See my previous post, hard drives locked). If so, do I have to buy Toshiba hard drives, or can I buy any make I want for it? Also, is there a predetermined maximum size hard drive that this computer will accept?
Thanks,
Snyde

Your drive was not locked.
See my reply to your other message.
-Jerry

Exported Files Locking Hard Drives

I recently exported several Quicktime files out of FCP using Quicktime Conversion and onto an external hard drive. But when I try to move these files (or any other files on the external drive) off of the hard drive, I can't. I just get the "circle-with-a-line-through-it" logo.
I unlocked all of the files and granted read and write permissions. And I've tried exporting to multiple drives. All with the same result.
Anyone else have this problem? Better yet, anyone know the solution?

Welcome to the forum,
How are you external HDs formatted? Mac OS Extended (mac) or FAT (pc)?
Have your run Disk Utillity/Repair Disk on the externals? How are they connected?
We need more info from you...make/model of computer software/hardware, connections, exact versions of OS/FCP/QT, formats you're working with...etc.
K

How do you change permissions on an external locked hard drive?

I have attached a drive from another computer but I can't access it because the permissions are locing me out. How can I aministratevily change that so I can get access?

See V.K.'s post in this thread. The link to Niel's guide isn't working.

HT1750 My I mac won't boot, I have gone to restore but the apple hard drive next to the main hard drive says the drive is "locked" ?????? What to do?

I have an IMac which won't boot up and when I tried the restore function the Hard Drive next to the Main Hard Drive says it is "locked" when I tried to use it to restore my system. I have Mountain Lion which was working fine until recently. Now I can sit LITERALLY for an hour waiting for the gear to stop spinning but not results for loading the program. HELP!!!

As of 10.8.4, the volume must be unlocked first.
Here’s how the unlock procedure works for Disk Utility:
Boot your Mac and hold down ⌘-R (Command –R) to boot from the Recovery HD partition.
Open Disk Utility.
Select your locked hard drive.
Under the File menu, select Unlock “Drive Name”
When prompted for a password, enter the password of the authorized account on the drive.
Once you unlock the disk, hold down the Option key on your keyboard and click on the File menu.
Under the File menu, select Turn Off Encryption… with the Option key held down, it is no longer grayed-out.
When prompted for a password, enter the password of the authorized account on the drive.
Disk Utility should display a progress window labeled Starting conversion to JHFS+
Your drive should now be unlocked.

I downloaded the iPhoto update and now it won't open the library on my external hard drive telling me it is locked (which it isn't) what do i do?

i downloaded the iPhoto update and now it won't open the library on my external hard drive telling me it is locked (which it isn't) what do i do?

What version of iPhoto?
What format is the disk?

External hard drive not recognized after time machine locked up

I was backing up to an external hard drive (300GB Western Digital) and time machine locked up. I had to shut down the computer and restart. Now the external hard drive does not show up on the desktop?
I can see it in disk utility but I am not able to mount or unmount the disk, I keep getting an error that the disk is in use. I tried to erase/reformat the disk and no luck.
Any suggestions?
Thanks for the help

KTM450rider wrote:
Do I need to boot from the install DVD?
this is often the easiest and eliminates any "busy drive" problems. what's wrong with booting from the install DVD? takes a couple of minutes.
My main hard drive is OK... the drive that I am having problems with is an external hard drive that I was using to back up my lap top. I just want to get the external drive reformatted, but disk utility will not erase it. I get an error that disk utility shut down, "please check the drive and make sure that the drive is not in use or programs are still running"
Is their a way to do a hard or forced reformatting of an external hard drive, I don't care about the information on the drive
I also tried disk warrior to recover the info on the disk and all it does is crash my mac pro????
Thanks again for the help

Unlocking external hard drive that was locked with time machine

I use a MBP Retina (Mid 2012) with OSX 10.9.4. I left the MBP at Apple for repair and they changed the mother card and reformatted my HD (SSD). Since I had a backup on a WD My Passport external drive I was not too worried to restore. I had clicked the option "password protected" on TM and therefore the external HD was password protected. I also copied pasted many files on the same external hard drive, in case TM would fail one day to operate I thought that I would still have my files ...
But I was very surprised that when I plugged in my external HD into my MBP it didn't recognize it at all. The external HD did not appear on the screen anymore. Nor in Finder. It appeared in Disk Utility but it could not be mounted. Basically it was impossible to access my data. After a while and talking with Apple Support on the phone we could reach a point where a window appeared asking me the password for the access to the HD. Unfortunately it didn't work. The . password was not recognized. Even though we had selected the right country with the icon upper right on the screen to make sure that we used the correct keyboard.
So finally I reinstalled completely the OSX (coming rom Lion all the way to the last OSX) on the MBP and finally I could restore it with my TM. I spent three days on this since it only worked with one OSX - don't remember honestly which one - and not the last one. Don't know why.
Anyway.
Today I have my MPB working but I miss all the files that are still on my external HD because I cannot access to it anymore. As I said the recovery happened all of a sudden with TM with a former OSX and not the 10.9.4. With this current OSX my HD does not appear on the desktop nor on finder. Nothing. It is locked by TM and I cannot even key in the password to unlock it. Useless to say that I have the password.
Any idea how to sort this out please ? Thanks

This might work. Courtesty of V.K.:
run the following terminal commands (copy and paste, please)
sudo chflags 0 /volumes/*
sudo chmod a+rx /volumes/*
you'll have to enter your admin password (which you won't see). that's normal. this should unlock your drives.

HT2674 I have an iMac purchased in May 2011. OSX Lion 10.7.3. I deleted backup file from the external hard drive. Now, the trash can will not empty some of the files deleted. File folder: "Core Services" contains a locked file: "boot.efi". It will not

I have an iMac purchased in May 2011. OSX Lion 10.7.3. I deleted backup file from the external hard drive which operates from Time Machine.
Now, the trash can will not empty some of the files deleted from the backup harddrive.
The trash contains-- File folder: "Core Services" which contains a locked file: "boot.efi".
It will not delete.
How do I get the trash can empty of these files?

Yes, the Old Master file has a folder for each year where I find all photos from that specific year. I am attaching a screen shot of the file.
In the meantime i have managed to download all photos (it did not download any video files though in mpg, avi, 3gp, m4v,mp4 and mov format) to a new iphoto library. Unfortunately the photos are quite mixed and often doubled up. I ma considering to purchase iphoto library which checks all duplicates in iphoto. this will save me a lot of time. What do you think?

I moved my iTunes to an external hard drive and now everytime I try to access it I get the error "folder iTunes is on a locked disc..."

Help. I moved my iTunes account (set up on a computer running on a school network) to an external drive, because I was out of network drive space. I changed my iTunes shortcut to point to my external drive. I am upable to pull music from a CD and copy it to the iTunes folder on the external drive. But when I try to open iTunes or use a previosuly set up device I get the following error message... "The folder iTunes is on a locked disc or you do not have write permissions for this folder." I have gone in and unchecked the read only on the folder and given my self all rights in my iTunes properties. Still I can't get in, and iTunes will only open to the folder on the external, it won't even open the iTunes page so I can see what I have. Help I need to be able to access those old files.

davidfrombillings wrote:
I thought I could just drag and drop my iTunes library to an external hard drive.
it'll work ... if done properly ☞
copy the entire iTunes folder (not just the iTunes music or media folder) from <MacintoshHD>/users/<yourname>/music on your Mac to the external, then launch iTunes while holding the option (⌥) key, click on choose library when prompted, and select the iTunes folder on the external.
if I already have my iTunes going to the incorrect files how is it going to find the correct files again.
you could try if this script helps:
iTunes Track CPR v1.3
This script attempts to locate the files of so-called "dead tracks"--iTunes tracks designated with (!)--that you assume are not actually missing but are still located in the iTunes Music folder in their "iTunes File Order" (Music -> Artist -> Album -> file.xxx)."
Eric Ross wrote:
When you moved the file back did you go back into iTunes in your preferences and select the advance tab and then selected the location again or where your files are
the iTunes media folder location in preferences > advanced tells iTunes where to put new additions to your library, not where your content currently is.

Locked hard drive

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