OS X extern drive ownership/permissions and NFS exporting

- I have an external (250GB) firewire drive on OS X 10.4.9.
- I want to have it available to local users of this Mac but with ownership/permissions of created files/directories protected in the usual UNIX sense of unique UID/GID -- files/directories created by one user cannot be read/written by other users of this Mac except as allowed by standard UNIX permissions groups settings; eg., those set with 'chmod' command.
- I want to NFS-server this drive volume to a linux NFS client (eg., RHEL 4), again with files/directories protected in this same UID/GID UNIX sense. In our case, the users' UID/GIDs will be made to match, but regardless, I wish likewise for file/directory use on the linux client to be restricted as per UNIX permissions and the files/directories created by the Mac users have protections remain in place against linux user access, and visa versa, as above.
Is this feasable in Mac OS X (without OS X Server)?
How does one go about acheiving it?
I have basic Netinfo Manager skills for creating NFS exports and starting NFS daemon services, but am not expert on all available export options. I have average linux IT NFS server/client and user management skills.
Thanks,
-Neil

I don't know about networking with Linux, but I don know that for OS X users, enforcing permissions on an external drive without OS X Server is tricky.
First, log in to your admin account. Right-click the drive, Get Info, expand Ownership & Permissions, and uncheck "Ignore ownership on this volume". Then set permissions accordingly.
The problem is that any unprivileged user can log in to his own account, Get Info, recheck the box, and get ownership of the entire contents of the drive. This is possible even without the admin password.
There is a workaround that will remove the Ignore Ownership box from the Get Info panel so that there will be no box for them to check. First make sure that the box is unchecked and that the permissions are set how you want. Then enable ACLs on the volume by entering this command in a Terminal window:
sudo fsaclctl -p /Volumes/volumename -e
Then restart Finder. Now there's no box for the unprivileged user to check. But I don't know where this setting is stored; perhaps the unprivileged user can find some command-line way of getting the box re-checked and thus getting ownership of everything.
If there is some way you can get the data off of the external drive and onto the main boot drive you will have the best chance of keeping the data safe.

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Easy question I'm sure. imac hard full (500gb) mostly from iphoto. no capacity left. what are my options? I've thought of an external drive of 1tb and then a 2nd external drive of 3tb to back up both???? please help.

easy question I'm sure. imac hard full (500gb) mostly from iphoto. no capacity left. what are my options? I've thought of an external drive of 1tb and then a 2nd external drive of 3tb to back up both???? please help.

Those are the options - more space is more space.
Moving the iPhoto Library is simple:
Make sure the drive is formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
1. Quit iPhoto
2. Copy the iPhoto Library from your Pictures Folder to the External Disk.
3. Hold down the option (or alt) key while launching iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library' and navigate to the new location. From that point on this will be the default location of your library.
4. Test the library and when you're sure all is well, trash the one on your internal HD to free up space.
Regards
TD

I think I have blown out my USB ports. Plugged eternal drive to USB port; drive also had an AC plug which I plugged in. Screen went white; unplugged external drive (both USB and AC plug). Restarted MAC Pro. Everything came back except USB ports

I think I have blown out my USB ports. Plugged in an external drive to USB, but drive also had an AC connection which I connected. Whole screen went white; unplugged external drive (both AC and USB) and shut down MacPro. Restarted and everything came back except access to USB ports. Have tried to reset PRAM and SMC. No success. Have I blown out the electronic circuitry to my USB ports?

Thanks for the response, but ironically enough, I feel really stupid after posting that because a couple minutes after posting that my DELL mouse started working again, but I honestly don't know how long that'll last. After it started working again, I tried switch which port it's plugged into again, and the other one (the one closest to me) still isn't working. If it stops working again (which it probably will), I'll definitely take it to the Apple Store. But, for some reason almost every time I take a device to the Apple Store, it fixes the problem itself when I get there, and then stops working after I leave (like just now.)
That's happened a couple times, like when my computer was heating up alot, and when my phone's sound kept shutting off by itelf.
Anyways, I want to keep this discussion up just because I know it'll stop working soon. But, yeah, I was planning on taking it to the Apple Store anyways, but I think the earliest I can is probably Saturday or Sunday, so I'll do that then.
Thanks for the response!
Scott

My USB ports will not recognize any devices, iPhone or external drives. Keyboard and printer work, any suggestions?

My USB ports will not recognize any devices, iPhone or external drives. Keyboard and printer work, any suggestions?

I'd start by looking in system profiler.
the blue Apple icon > About this Mac > More info...
goto the hardware section. Scroll down and click on USB
See what happens when you have the device plugged in & not plugged in.
Move keyboard & mouse around to verify that ports work. Plug device in a port that worked with keyboar or mouse. Keyboard usb ports are rather low power.
Perhaps device is taking too much power. Are devices power or unpowered? Try connecting devices to a usb hub.
Which mac do you have?
What iMac do you have?
Report system info
Blue apple > about this Mac
click on more info
click on hardware
do not copy your serial number

My startup disk is full?!?! This has been happening for a while and I have dumped 4500 jepegs from iPhoto onto an external drive to try and free up space. I am still recieving the "Startup disk full" message. What more can I do?!?!

My startup disk is full?!?! This has been happening for a while and I have dumped 4500 jepegs from iPhoto onto an external drive to try and free up space. I am still recieving the "Startup disk full" message. What more can I do?!?!

Did you empty the Trash?
What size hard drive & how much free space. You should always have a minimum of 10-15% or more free space?
 Cheers, Tom

Unable to repair External Drive disk permissions

I have an external harddrive which holds my itunes library. Today I have been getting permission errors and now my itunes won't access the files on the drive.
I have tried to fix the errors with disk utility but now when I try to repair it I get the error: Could not unmount the disk.
Now I can't even see the iTunes folder on the external drive (I can see others) but I know it is there as 150GB of data is unaccounted for.

I had the same problem with my Time Machine backup disk and was able to solve it without the serious computer calisthenics recommended by others on the web. I'm running Snow Leopard on an intel iMac and using an external Seagate drive. Here's how I got it fixed.
1. Unmounted the drive and unplugged it.
2. Plugged it back in after a decent interval to let the disk spin down.
3. Shut down the iMac and restarted it a few minutes later (hard reset).
4. THE DISK DID NOT SHOW UP IN FINDER. Because I had a lot of work to do, I postponed further systems programming.
5. After about 20 minutes, my Norton utilities found it and began to search it. It was back in finder with r/w permissions for me and everybody else.
Hope this helps.

Task or script to monitor file ownership, permissions and change as needed

I'm using a Mac OS X Tiger (10.4.9) computer as a file server for a group of people who are (1) individually non-administrative users and (2) members of Groups. The hard drive is partitioned into 2 volumes: Vol1 has no non-admin access, Vol2 has a Shared folder containing folders with files intended for either Public or Private access. I'm admin with UID=501 and trying not to be a danger. Each other user has a unique UID. Each Group has a unique GID. The folder that all users have access to is named Pub_shares. Every user allowed to access Pub_shares is a member of PubGroup (GID=505).
Now when a user accesses a file nested in Pub_shares, that file usually becomes owned by that user and the group membership may change from PubGroup and may undergo a change to "Read only" or "No Access." Since all members of PubGroup should have Read & Write access to files in Pub_shares, this is a problem. All files in Pub_shares, regardless of who last touched them, should remain:
Owner = chris / Access Read & Write
Group = PubGroup / Access Read & Write
Others = No Access
I've read some about Ownership & Permissions. I've seen it suggested that an admin set up an automated task, say to run every 3 minutes; that task checks file ownership and permissions and, if different, changes the values recursively to those shown above, such that:
Owner = 501 / Access = rwx
Group = 505 / Access = rwx
What do I need here? An Automator workflow? A shell script? AppleScript? Cron? launchd? How do I put this together? I don't know the syntax or the expressions to use. Any help is much much appreciated. [Note again: My "server" runs Tiger 10.4.9.] Thanks.

..."I have some Windows users (trying) to access shared files. Will the afp inheritance options stand up to a Windows user?"...
No the afp inherit settings won't apply to windows sharing, but I think there are equivalent settings that can be applied to smb.
..."I thought, too, I'd read somewhere that inheritance options use the topmost volume folder to set inheritance patterns."...
I am not able to double-check this for Tiger, but I don't think that is the case. As far as I know, with those settings enabled (and it doesn't work reliably if only one is enabled) permissions and ownership should be inherited from the folder that the items are added to.
..."My topmost folder on vol2 is "Shared" but it contains both Pub_shares (accessible by members of PubGroup) and a few Private_shares (folders accessible by members of various private groups)."...
Sorry I missed that point in your earlier post. The above would cause complications if a user were to move items from the private area to the public area. The inheritance only applies to when files are created, so something moved from the private area to the public area would retain its original permissions. To make it work, the public and private areas would have to be set up as separate shares, rather sharing the whole volume.

I can read but I can't write to an external drive - changing permissions

I can read but I can't write to an external drive.
How do I change permissions? None of the helps here on the discussions have helped.
Why would a computer company let me read files but not write? Hahaha. This is insane.
I have to write computer files for work. It's a project due this morning.
Man, I'm going to have to go back to PC.
Just need the compter to write files.

If it's formatted as NTFS, reformat it as MS-DOS, exFAT, or Mac OS Extended (Journaled) as desired.
If it's formatted as FAT32 or exFAT, use the Disk Utility's Repair Disk command on it.
If it's formatted as Mac OS Extended, click Authenticate and provide your administrator password, or change the permissions on that specific folder in its Get Info window.
(72460)

Shared external drive - user permissions setup

I've set a home LAN made of 3 iMac/eMac connected via Airport. I've recently added a 500 Gb firewire external drive connected to my iMac to manage backups. I divided it into 3 partitions (1 per user/xMac) and mounted them using sharepoints. It's all great; users can see, mount and use all partitions.
Here is the issue: I would like each user to only see and use his dedicated partition. I believe I must play with users and groups, but could not make it to work. I'm not very familiar with this and I'm afraid to make big mistake. Coud somebody help on this ?
iMac Mac OS X (10.4.9)

I should write one, but it's fairly simple once you get into it...
Click on the Groups tab, make a group name... say "PartitionA", click add group, repeat for 2 more groups... "PartitionB", "PartitionC".
Click on the Users & Public Tab, fill in for "Tom, "Dick", & "Harry".
Back to the Goups tab, higlight "PartitionA", then highlight "Tom", click the plus sign... repeat for the other two groups and users.
Now under "Normal Shares" tab, you can highlight a Share, then click on the Show File Properties button and assign a Group, and it's Permissions.

External drive turns off and on for no reason

Hello,
While I work on my computer I have been hearing lately my Lacie drive shut off and start up again and shut off... like it is trying to stay on... and if I select it on the desktop, the beach ball appears and will continue to twirl until I shut my computer and startup again. I was also having problems with QuarkXPress (desktop publisher program) quiting for no reason and thought that it was the external hardrive causing this problem. So, I have been starting the computer in the AM without plugging in the Lacie to see if Quark doesn't quit, but it does quit for no reason. I have also trashed the preferences for it with no luck. I am starting to think that maybe it is my computer itself having problems. I had the permissions repaired, used TechTool Pro to repair any problems. All had been fixed by these two approaches and I am still having the Lacie trying to quit and restart... and still having Quark quit...
Please help. Today I performed a PRAM to see if that will work. I'm not sure what it is for, but in the past it has helped other problems.
Any idea as to what is going on?
martazoila

martazoila:
Welcome to Apple Discussions.
Take a look at these FAQs by Dr. Smoke and see if any of his recommendations help:
Resolving Disk, Permission, and Cache Corruption
Multiple applications quit unexpectedly or fail to launch
The Spinning Beachball of Death
Please post back and let me know if anything worked for you, or with further questions or comments.
Good luck.
cornelius

How to format an external drive for mac AND pc use

i want to format my external drive so i can use it on my mac and on pc's as well. i've gathered that the MS-DOS format is the way to go. my question is this: would this create any problems for my mac then?
can i partion one part for ms-dos and part for macos extended?
cheers
-j-

MS-DOS format (or FAT32) will be fine for both Mac and PC. However there is a 4GB file size limit with FAT32.
You could use a dual partition, however the HFS+ partition would not be readable by the PC unless you installed the third party MacDrive.
Look at this page for more information on a dual partition drive for Mac and Windows.
http://macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20030613121738812
iFelix

How to format external drive for mac AND pc use

hi
i want to format my external drive so i can use it on my mac and on pc's as well. i've gathered that the MS-DOS format is the way to go. my question is this: would this create any problems for my mac then?
can i partion one part for ms-dos and part for macos extended?
cheers
-j-

There are a couple of disadvantages with formatting a
disk as FAT32. Firstly, there is a limit on the file
size for FAT32. I think it like 2 GB so if you
capturing video the results will probably not fit
into this file limit. Secondly FAT32 will not be
bootable. I alway clone my system to a backup disk as
bootable. That way if anything goes wrong with my
system, I can just boot from my backup disk and fix
it.
The problem with doing this though is that the drive will not be usable with Windows (which was in the original posting) unless you use the third party MacDrive software on the PC.
iFelix

Format external drive for Mac and PC?

Can I format an external Drive to have 1 partition for OS X and another for my wife to use with her PC?
thanks!
ray

Yes, just use Disk Utility under OS X to create two volumes on it, one Mac OS Ext, the other FAT. Use a Master Boot Record partition scheme (also known as “fdisk”).

Booting two Macs from one external drive: 10.8 and App Store?

I boot two Macs from one external harddrive. Does this mean that when 10.8 is sold exclusively via the App Store and thereby linked to a unique hardware identifier, I am going to have issues with activation/authentification each time I switch machines? I have avoided the App Store since I discovered that an app I bought there, and which I really needed to open automatically on log-in, had to be manually re-activated with my Apple ID after every switch (so that I eventually deleted it and reverted to an earlier, non-App Store version).

Welcome to the forum!
There are a couple of "solutions" to your problem. The easiest, and possibly the best for you (although it is a bit slower) is to copy your catalog onto the external drive as well.
Then when you plug in the drive, you will always have your latest catalog for access.
The other way is to keep a local copy of your catalog, and copy it onto the local drive as a way to transfer it from one computer to the other.
This has the problem of possibly not being in sync, that is, you forgot to copy it over once and did some editing. Then you would end up with essentually two different catalogs, instead of one in two places.
You can copy the catalog either with your OS, or you can "export as catalog" and specify the external drive as the destination. Then, on your other computer, "import from catalog" and only take the meta-data settings (it's on the import dialog box).
Personally, when I'm traveling, I have my catalog on my external drive as well. It just makes life easier, and I don't have to worry about it being out of sync, or losing it (and not the images).
So, I would go with the first method, at least to start. To get your catalog over there, you can either export as catalog or copy it, either one will work.
You can find the location of your catalog file (if you don't know where it is) in the catalog settings menu prompt. Both the location and the name will be displayed.
Cheers!

Can I partition an external drive into MSDO and MACOS extended and use under bootcamp ?

I am interested in using Windows 8 alongside my OSX MAVERICK with the Bootcamp 5 solution.
However, I am trying to save the space on my internal SSD . Can I partition my 4TB WD external drive into 3 parts like this :
1.5 TB dedicated for Time Machine in MAC OS Extended Format
1,5 TB MAC for general purpose in MAC OS Extended Format
1.0 TB Windows for my PC games and other stuff in exFAT for files larger than 4GB
Is this possible at all or what would be better ?
Thanks

To resize the drive do the following:
1. Open Disk Utility and click on the Continue button. Select the hard drive's main entry then click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
2. You should see the graphical sizing window showing the existing partitions. A portion may appear as a blue rectangle representing the used space on a partition.
3. In the lower right corner of the sizing rectangle for each partition is a resizing gadget. Select it with the mouse and move the bottom of the rectangle upwards until you have reduced the existing partition enough to create the desired new volume's size. The space below the resized partition will appear gray. Click on the Apply button and wait until the process has completed. (Note: You can only make a partition smaller in order to create new free space.)
4. Click on the [+] button below the sizing window to add a new partition in the gray space you freed up. Give the new volume a name, if you wish, then click on the Apply button. Wait until the process has completed.
You should now have a new volume on the drive.
It would be wise to have a backup of your current system as resizing is not necessarily free of risk for data loss. Your drive must have sufficient contiguous free space for this process to work.

OS X extern drive ownership/permissions and NFS exporting

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