permissions entire volume

[frenetic]

Hi guys,

I have a question. A few days ago I was so stupid to change the permissions of my entire external back up firewire drive. I thought I had selected a specific folder but apparently I had selected the entire drive, the result being that the disk mounts, but the volume does not. In other words, even disk utility is not capable of accessing the volume anymore (see attached file for a screenshot).

I know that in the terminal you can change the permissions of files and folders through the chmod command... I do not know the syntax however... can any of you unix guru's out there help me out, please? I solemnly swear not to play with permissions again

Cheers,

 

[yellow]

sudo chown -R your_short_username:your_group /Volumes/250\ FW

sudo chmod -R ug+wrX /Volumes/250\ FW


The first makes you (and your group) the owner of all files/directories on the mounted drive "250 FW", the 2nd makes all files and directories readable, writable, and all directories executable (meaning openable) for the owner and group (you) o the mounted drive "250 FW".

I'm basing this on what looks like a space between 250 and FW, in the disk name, right?

 

[frenetic]

yellow, thank you very much, it works perfect again... thanks for helping me out!

 

[frenetic]

I'm basing this on what looks like a space between 250 and FW, in the disk name, right?

Yes indeed, there is a space in between the 250 and FW.

One question, though, out of sheer curiosity: wouldn't it suffice to simply use the last command, making the disk accessible and executable by everybody? Just curious...

 

[yellow]

Yes and no. As it is, no, because if you are not the "u" (owner), or part of the "g" (group), then you won't have any access to it. However, if you change it so it was:

sudo chmod o+wrX /Volumes/250\ FW

Where the "o" is others, then it wouldn't matter who owned the data, everyone would have read/write/directory_exec on the entire volume.

However, it's better to make sure you own all the data on there if it's your disk and then allow permissions from there on.

 

[frenetic]

ok, that's a very clear explanation, thanks again...