Page 1 of 1

[solved]Can not access external hard drive

PostPosted: Dec 21st, '14, 01:28
by Number3124
So, got a new external hard drive to back up all of my data before moving on to 4.1. After reformatting to ext4 with GParted however it seems that I accidentally changed ownership from myself to root. I've also been unable to figure out how to give myself back ownership. I've attempted to use the hardware configuration tool (while the drive was attached but the partition unmounted) to allow any user to access the drive in read-write mode, but that didn't take. I've also attempted:

Code: Select all
chown -R user.user /dev/sdb/


which returns no errors, but also fails to accomplish anything.

However,

Code: Select all
chown -R user.user /dev/sdb/backup_drive


rerturns:

Code: Select all
chown: cannot access ‘/dev/sdb/backup_drive’: Not a directory


Not sure what I'm doing wrong here. Any help is appreciated.

Re: Can not access external hard drive

PostPosted: Dec 21st, '14, 01:40
by benmc
when you plug it in , the "device notifier applet " pops up?
you have named the drive " backup_drive"?
which desktop do you use?

Re: Can not access external hard drive

PostPosted: Dec 21st, '14, 01:59
by Number3124
benmc wrote:when you plug it in , the "device notifier applet " pops up?


No. A Caja window pops up for the drive. The only thing I changed in the code blocks I pasted was my username and group.

you have named the drive " backup_drive"?
'

Yes.

which desktop do you use?


Mate.

Re: Can not access external hard drive

PostPosted: Dec 21st, '14, 03:24
by doktor5000
Number3124 wrote:I've also attempted:

Code: Select all
chown -R user.user /dev/sdb/


which returns no errors, but also fails to accomplish anything.

For one, the syntax is chown -R user:group - that's a colon in the middle. And the other thing is, you want to run this on the mounted filesystem ( probably /run/media/username/backup ) and not on the device as you tried.

Re: Can not access external hard drive

PostPosted: Dec 21st, '14, 04:18
by Number3124
doktor5000 wrote:
Number3124 wrote:I've also attempted:

Code: Select all
chown -R user.user /dev/sdb/


which returns no errors, but also fails to accomplish anything.

For one, the syntax is chown -R user:group - that's a colon in the middle. And the other thing is, you want to run this on the mounted filesystem ( probably /run/media/username/backup ) and not on the device as you tried.


Thank you. Worked perfectly.