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How do I unlock my external hard drive?

This thread is back again! I missed you! :D

If you have an NTFS drive, you need MacFUSE and NTFS-3G. I don't think that's particularly technical. No mucking around in Terminal needed.
 
BlueRevolution said:
This thread is back again! I missed you! :D

If you have an NTFS drive, you need MacFUSE and NTFS-3G. I don't think that's particularly technical. No mucking around in Terminal needed.
Click to expand...

TO ANGELWATT: Sorry about the bold, first post, didn't realize

TO BLUEREVOLUTION: downloaded MacFUSE and NTFS-3G. ........ ???? nothings changed. Am I supposed to do something with them?
 
angelwatt said:
Bold text really isn't necessary. The command is LS, not IS (in lowercase).
Click to expand...

OK, typed in LS -go instead of IS and got this:

total 36525
drwxrwxr-x+ 35 1190 27 Feb 16:32 Applications
drwxrwxr-t+ 55 1870 27 Feb 18:48 Library
drwxr-xr-x@ 2 68 5 Oct 01:42 Network
drwxr-xr-x 4 136 20 Nov 00:45 System
lrwxr-xr-x 1 60 24 Feb 14:36 User Guides And Information -> /Library/Documentation/User Guides and Information.localized
drwxr-xr-x 6 204 25 Feb 12:14 Users
drwxrwxrwt@ 7 238 27 Feb 18:47 Volumes
drwxr-xr-x@ 39 1326 20 Nov 00:44 bin
drwxrwxr-t@ 2 68 5 Oct 01:42 cores
dr-xr-xr-x 3 4312 26 Feb 12:35 dev
lrwxr-xr-x@ 1 11 20 Nov 00:44 etc -> private/etc
dr-xr-xr-x 2 1 26 Feb 12:36 home
-rw-r--r--@ 1 18676624 4 Nov 03:10 mach_kernel
dr-xr-xr-x 2 1 26 Feb 12:36 net
drwxr-xr-x@ 6 204 20 Nov 00:46 private
drwxr-xr-x@ 64 2176 20 Nov 00:44 sbin
lrwxr-xr-x@ 1 11 20 Nov 00:44 tmp -> private/tmp
drwxr-xr-x@ 11 374 27 Feb 18:48 usr
lrwxr-xr-x@ 1 11 20 Nov 00:44 var -> private/var

what does all this mean?
 
heidistewart1 said:
OK, typed in LS -go instead of IS and got this:
...
what does all this mean?
Click to expand...

You forgot to do the first step before this, the cd /Volumes one.

  1. Open Terminal, then type,
  2. cd /Volumes
  3. ls -go
This gives the information about your volumes, the external hard drives. If more than one shows up, be sure to let us know the name of the drive so we can identify it in the output.
 
angelwatt said:
You forgot to do the first step before this, the cd /Volumes one.

  1. Open Terminal, then type,
  2. cd /Volumes
  3. ls -go
This gives the information about your volumes, the external hard drives. If more than one shows up, be sure to let us know the name of the drive so we can identify it in the output.
Click to expand...

this is what I got:

Heidi-Stewarts-iMac:~ heidistewart$ cd / Volumes
Heidi-Stewarts-iMac:/ heidistewart$ ls -go
total 36525
drwxrwxr-x+ 36 1224 27 Feb 21:07 Applications
drwxrwxr-t+ 55 1870 27 Feb 18:48 Library
drwxr-xr-x@ 2 68 5 Oct 01:42 Network
drwxr-xr-x 4 136 20 Nov 00:45 System
lrwxr-xr-x 1 60 24 Feb 14:36 User Guides And Information -> /Library/Documentation/User Guides and Information.localized
drwxr-xr-x 6 204 25 Feb 12:14 Users
drwxrwxrwt@ 8 272 27 Feb 21:07 Volumes
drwxr-xr-x@ 39 1326 20 Nov 00:44 bin
drwxrwxr-t@ 2 68 5 Oct 01:42 cores
dr-xr-xr-x 3 4401 26 Feb 12:35 dev
lrwxr-xr-x@ 1 11 20 Nov 00:44 etc -> private/etc
dr-xr-xr-x 2 1 26 Feb 12:36 home
-rw-r--r--@ 1 18676624 4 Nov 03:10 mach_kernel
dr-xr-xr-x 2 1 26 Feb 12:36 net
drwxr-xr-x@ 6 204 20 Nov 00:46 private
drwxr-xr-x@ 64 2176 20 Nov 00:44 sbin
lrwxr-xr-x@ 1 11 20 Nov 00:44 tmp -> private/tmp
drwxr-xr-x@ 11 374 27 Feb 18:48 usr
lrwxr-xr-x@ 1 11 20 Nov 00:44 var -> private/var
Heidi-Stewarts-iMac:/ heidistewart$

??? it's the same, what did I do wrong?
 
angelwatt said:
You forgot to do the first step before this, the cd /Volumes one.

  1. Open Terminal, then type,
  2. cd /Volumes
  3. ls -go
This gives the information about your volumes, the external hard drives. If more than one shows up, be sure to let us know the name of the drive so we can identify it in the output.
Click to expand...


HAHAHAHA GOT IT!

Heidi-Stewarts-iMac:/ heidistewart$ cd /Volumes
Heidi-Stewarts-iMac:Volumes heidistewart$ ls -go
total 8
drwxr-xr-x@ 7 238 15 Jan 20:10 Firefox
drwxr-xr-x 1 12288 22 Feb 14:51 LaCie
drwxr-xr-x@ 9 374 19 Dec 2008 MacFUSE 2.0
lrwxr-xr-x 1 1 26 Feb 12:36 Macintosh HD -> /
drwxrwxr-x 5 204 3 Aug 2007 Microsoft Messenger
drwxr-xr-x@ 12 476 21 Sep 18:43 Yahoo! Messenger
Heidi-Stewarts-iMac:Volumes heidistewart$

ok now what?
 
heidistewart1 said:
HAHAHAHA GOT IT!

Heidi-Stewarts-iMac:/ heidistewart$ cd /Volumes
Heidi-Stewarts-iMac:Volumes heidistewart$ ls -go
total 8
drwxr-xr-x@ 7 238 15 Jan 20:10 Firefox
drwxr-xr-x 1 12288 22 Feb 14:51 LaCie
drwxr-xr-x@ 9 374 19 Dec 2008 MacFUSE 2.0
lrwxr-xr-x 1 1 26 Feb 12:36 Macintosh HD -> /
drwxrwxr-x 5 204 3 Aug 2007 Microsoft Messenger
drwxr-xr-x@ 12 476 21 Sep 18:43 Yahoo! Messenger
Heidi-Stewarts-iMac:Volumes heidistewart$

ok now what?
Click to expand...

Seeing Firefox and the Yahoo and Microsoft Messenger volumes, it looks like you may not understand how to properly install applications on your Mac, unless you simply haven't unmounted those disk images yet. See this MR Guide for installing Mac applications.

I'll assume the LaCie volume listed above is the drive you're having issues with. First, to find out what file format the drive is,
  1. From Finder:
  2. In the sidebar, select the LaCie drive
  3. Then hit cmd+i to bring up the Get Info window (or pick it from the File menu)
  4. Look at "Format" near the top
  5. It should say FAT or NTFS, that's the file format
As for trying to fix the drive, post 36 gave some things to try. You didn't mention if you tried the other solutions in this thread, but seems like you only tried the first thing you saw. Anyways, from Terminal,
  • sudo chflags 0 /Volumes/LaCie
  • sudo chown 0:80 /Volumes/LaCie
  • sudo chmod 775 /Volumes/LaCie
  • sudo chmod -N /Volumes/LaCie
You may want to copy 'n' paste those lines into Terminal since you've been having issues typing them in correctly. Only do one line at a time. It will ask you for your password after the first line, but the others shouldn't, as it will remember for a while.
 
angelwatt said:
Seeing Firefox and the Yahoo and Microsoft Messenger volumes, it looks like you may not understand how to properly install applications on your Mac, unless you simply haven't unmounted those disk images yet. See this MR Guide for installing Mac applications.

I'll assume the LaCie volume listed above is the drive you're having issues with. First, to find out what file format the drive is,
  1. From Finder:
  2. In the sidebar, select the LaCie drive
  3. Then hit cmd+i to bring up the Get Info window (or pick it from the File menu)
  4. Look at "Format" near the top
  5. It should say FAT or NTFS, that's the file format
As for trying to fix the drive, post 36 gave some things to try. You didn't mention if you tried the other solutions in this thread, but seems like you only tried the first thing you saw. Anyways, from Terminal,
  • sudo chflags 0 /Volumes/LaCie
  • sudo chown 0:80 /Volumes/LaCie
  • sudo chmod 775 /Volumes/LaCie
  • sudo chmod -N /Volumes/LaCie
You may want to copy 'n' paste those lines into Terminal since you've been having issues typing them in correctly. Only do one line at a time. It will ask you for your password after the first line, but the others shouldn't, as it will remember for a while.
Click to expand...


Ok, I did the Terminal thing like you asked. This is what it said:
Heidi-Stewarts-iMac:~ heidistewart$ sudo chflags 0 /Volumes/LaCie

WARNING: Improper use of the sudo command could lead to data loss
or the deletion of important system files. Please double-check your
typing when using sudo. Type "man sudo" for more information.

To proceed, enter your password, or type Ctrl-C to abort.

Password:
chflags: /Volumes/LaCie: Read-only file system
Heidi-Stewarts-iMac:~ heidistewart$ sudo chown 0:80 /Volumes/LaCie
chown: /Volumes/LaCie: Read-only file system
Heidi-Stewarts-iMac:~ heidistewart$ sudo chmod 775 /Volumes/LaCie
chmod: Unable to change file mode on /Volumes/LaCie: Read-only file system
Heidi-Stewarts-iMac:~ heidistewart$ sudo chmod -N /Volumes/LaCie
chmod: Failed to clear ACL on file /Volumes/LaCie: Read-only file system
Heidi-Stewarts-iMac:~ heidistewart$


As for the first thing, about unmounting or whatever, you might be right. I have barely scratched the surface of how this thing works. I read the link you sent, still trying to understand it all.
 
heidistewart1 said:
Ok, I did the Terminal thing like you asked.
Click to expand...

It sounds like the drive is NTFS formatted since it keeps saying it's a read-only volume. You'll need one of the 3rd party apps to get your Mac able to write to NTFS drives. I use NTFS-3G, but don't actually have any NTFS drives that I use regularly.
 
angelwatt said:
It sounds like the drive is NTFS formatted since it keeps saying it's a read-only volume. You'll need one of the 3rd party apps to get your Mac able to write to NTFS drives. I use NTFS-3G, but don't actually have any NTFS drives that I use regularly.
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure the 'mount' command's output will say what format a disk has. Just as a check that there isn't some other reason for mounting read-only.
 
Hi thanks for this post ....... I hope to somebody help me .... My HD is locked ....this is the information ......
HD :
Mount Point : /Volumes/Time Machine Backup Capacity : 499.76 GB
Format :Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled) Available : 126.7 GB
Owners Enabled :No Used : 373.06 GB

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Last login: Sat Mar 20 20:08:42 on ttys001
Apples-MacBook-Pro:~ apple$ cd /Volumes
Apples-MacBook-Pro:Volumes apple$ ls -go
total 8
drw-rw-r-T@ 21 918 19 Mar 12:09 Time Machine Backup
lrwxr-xr-x 1 1 20 Mar 19:50 chrisort mac -> /

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'd try this but did not work .....

1. cd /Volume
2. sudo chmod w+g ( and etc.........)

Result :

Last login: Sat Mar 20 21:05:22 on ttys000
Apples-MacBook-Pro:~ apple$ cd /Volumes
Apples-MacBook-Pro:Volumes apple$ sudo chmod g+w/Volumes/Time\ Machine\ Backup
Password:
usage: chmod [-fhv] [-R [-H | -L | -P]] [-a | +a | =a [# [ n]]] mode|entry file ...
chmod [-fhv] [-R [-H | -L | -P]] [-E | -C | -N | -i | -I] file ...
Apples-MacBook-Pro:Volumes apple$

____________________________________________________________


I don't know what to do......... I need to help please.....Thanks
:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(
 
Yikes, what did I do?

I am having the same problem described in this thread. After upgrading to Leopard (10.5.8), on my Powerbook G4, the external HD that has my retrospect backup on it is locked. I tried the

sudo chflags -R nouc /Volumes/Volumename

and it seemed to have no effect. Everything was still locked.

Then I tried

sudo chflags 0 /Volumes/Volumename
sudo chown 0:80 /Volumes/Volumename
sudo chmod 775 /Volumes/Volumename
sudo chmod -N /Volumes/Volumename

and after restart got the message that the HD was damaged, I had limited access to it, and I needed to back it up and reformat.

I don't want to lose what is on that drive, so I shut it down. Is it doomed? Is my only option at this point to buy a new drive and try to copy all the data from the old one?
 
chrisort said:
Result :

Last login: Sat Mar 20 21:05:22 on ttys000
Apples-MacBook-Pro:~ apple$ cd /Volumes
Apples-MacBook-Pro:Volumes apple$ sudo chmod g+w/Volumes/Time\ Machine\ Backup
Password:
usage: chmod [-fhv] [-R [-H | -L | -P]] [-a | +a | =a [# [ n]]] mode|entry file ...
chmod [-fhv] [-R [-H | -L | -P]] [-E | -C | -N | -i | -I] file ...
Apples-MacBook-Pro:Volumes apple$
Click to expand...


You forgot to put a space after the g+w portion.

sewingbee said:
sudo chflags -R nouc /Volumes/Volumename
Click to expand...
It's nouchg, not nouc.
 
thanks

I did it ..... Thanks a lot to angelwatt This worked for me..... and thanks too BlueRevolucion for u att......
 
BlueRevolution: What filesystem is the drive using?
Click to expand...

Umm, how do I find out? I never needed to know this before.

angelwatt said:
It's nouchg, not nouc.
Click to expand...

I cut and pasted the commands from this thread to terminal -- I don't know if I messed up in terminal or just when I cut and pasted again in my message.

But I did discover that I probably need to update the firmware from Western Digital to be compatible with Leopard.

That brings up a new question. I use this HD to back up several computers, 2 are still running Tiger. The drive works fine this morning when plugged into the Tiger computer. Can I use one HD with both versions of the OSX, or should I get a separate drive for the Leopard mac?
 
sewingbee said:
Umm, how do I find out? I never needed to know this before.
Click to expand...

Select the drive in Finder and go to File -> Get Info.

sewingbee said:
But I did discover that I probably need to update the firmware from Western Digital to be compatible with Leopard.
Click to expand...

Where did you find this information?

sewingbee said:
That brings up a new question. I use this HD to back up several computers, 2 are still running Tiger. The drive works fine this morning when plugged into the Tiger computer. Can I use one HD with both versions of the OSX, or should I get a separate drive for the Leopard mac?
Click to expand...

No. Tiger and Leopard use the same filesystem, Mac OS Extended.
 
BlueRevolution:

Format is Mac OS extended (Journaled)

Info about firmware came from a discussion re locked external drives with 10.5 on www.sportsshooter.com (which I found while googling "10.5 external locked")

"... some Western Digital drives must have their firmware updated to operate properly with Leopard."

I looked on the Western Digital site, and there is an update for my drive (My Book Home) dated Jan 2009. I haven't downloaded it yet, because I am concerned about messing up the compatibility with the macs running tiger.

Thanks for your help so far. I appreciate the quick responses.
 
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