External HD no write access even for root

Apos · 2011-12-23 22:24:46

I've searched in the wiki and in the forum for a solution and I have found a lot of results, but I have not managed to get write access for my external hard drive.

I have added my user to the storage group.

# gpasswd -a apos storage
Adding user apos to group storage

I have tried to add my external drive to storage but I think that it fails:

# chgrp storage /media/WD\ 1TB\ Drive/
chgrp: changing group of `/media/WD 1TB Drive/': Read-only file system

and

# chmod 775 /media/WD\ 1TB\ Drive/
chmod: changing permissions of `/media/WD 1TB Drive/': Read-only file system

Since I couldn't have write access with the regular user, I decided to try with the root and I still couldn't write anything:

# touch /media/WD\ 1TB\ Drive/test
touch: cannot touch `/media/WD 1TB Drive/test': Read-only file system

Hopefully this makes sense. I know that this has been asked a lot before but I couldn't solve my problem so that's why I'm asking again.

Last edited by Apos (2011-12-23 22:26:30)

Mr.Elendig · 2011-12-23 22:35:34

install ntfs-3g and remount.

karol · 2011-12-23 22:36:09

If the filesystem on that drive is NTFS, you need ntfs-3g package. Read the wiki for details.

Apos · 2011-12-23 22:50:30

Since I have already read the other threads, I had already installed ntfs-3g but I didn't see any changes. Just to be sure, I have also rebooted the computer.

When I check the owner of the external hard drive, it claims it's owned by nobody and that it's in the group nobody.

How do I check for which file system is used?

karol · 2011-12-23 23:00:42

Apos wrote:

How do I check for which file system is used?

"How exactly do you mount it? Type 'mount' after it's mounted to get some info about the filesystem, mount options etc.

Apos · 2011-12-23 23:16:55

It seems to mount automatically when I browse the drive with nautilus.

When I type mount:

/dev/sdc1 on /media/WD 1TB Drive type hfsplus (ro,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=udisks)

karol · 2011-12-23 23:25:02

I have no idea how Apple's HFS+ works, but googling showed this: http://superuser.com/questions/84446/ho … read-write esp. http://superuser.com/questions/84446/ho … 870#348870
hfsprogs is in the AUR: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=6709

Last edited by karol (2011-12-23 23:27:22)

Mr.Elendig · 2011-12-24 14:11:26

Urgh hfs, you can pretty much forget write support on it. I would recomend backing up the data on it and then reformating to something more portable.

Arch Linux

#1 2011-12-23 22:24:46

External HD no write access even for root

#2 2011-12-23 22:35:34

Re: External HD no write access even for root

#3 2011-12-23 22:36:09

Re: External HD no write access even for root

#4 2011-12-23 22:50:30

Re: External HD no write access even for root

#5 2011-12-23 23:00:42

Re: External HD no write access even for root

#6 2011-12-23 23:16:55

Re: External HD no write access even for root

#7 2011-12-23 23:25:02

Re: External HD no write access even for root

#8 2011-12-24 14:11:26

Re: External HD no write access even for root

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