Arch Linux

mattjd86

Member

Registered: 2021-10-19

Posts: 3

Problem changing permissions for secondary HDD [SOLVED]

Currently my backup HDD is defaulted to root as owner.  I cannot add delete or copy files to or from it nor can I change the permissions or owner of said HDD.  I have tried to chown it to my username both as my user with sudo and as root user. Both return errors saying "operation not permitted".  I have no doubt this is a painfully simple fix but I have not been able to find an answer.  Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Last edited by mattjd86 (2021-10-20 00:40:12)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 21,740

Re: Problem changing permissions for secondary HDD [SOLVED]

What's the file system on the other HDD? If anything Microsoft they normally don't support the unix permissions and you need to specify which user should be able to access it on mount, usually with relevant uid and gid parameters. Since you mention a "backup HDD" note that this would not be useful to contain permission sensitive data as is as you wouldn't be able to directly restore that.

mattjd86

Member

Registered: 2021-10-19

Posts: 3

Re: Problem changing permissions for secondary HDD [SOLVED]

you are spot on, its the hdd out of of my old windows laptop.  I'll do some digging into remounting it with the appropriate parameters.  Thank you so much for pointing me in the right direction. as an aside, 'backup' was a poor choice of words.  I'm using it mainly to hold anything that I don't need fast access to.  Documents, backups of oddball drivers, old pictures, ect..

Last edited by mattjd86 (2021-10-19 11:10:20)

mattjd86

Member

Registered: 2021-10-19

Posts: 3

Re: Problem changing permissions for secondary HDD [SOLVED]

V1del, I wanted to thank you again for your help this morning.  I just got home, was able to find exactly what I needed now that I knew what to search for on the ArchWiki.  Problem solved!