Hello,

I am posting this out of desperation

Right, i have a Macbook; there has been an issue with the hard drive, which i've rectified by replacing the old HD with a new one. I did not have backups of my data, i tried to recover these via disk utility, however that did not work. I also placed the hard drive into one of those sata enclosure thingy, but the hard drive does not appear on my desktop. I do see it in disk utility, but i am unable to mount it

Now, onto ubunto,

I have the 11.04 version. I've followed the directions from this video to gain access to my files, however i am doing something wrong, somewhere.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMyR...9beLSQ&index=2

When i open terminal, i get the following message 'To run command administrator (user "root"), use "sudo <command>". See main sudo_root" for details. ????? What command should i use? I type gksudo nautilus, then click onto mackintosh HD, users, Elizabeth, then permissions. Owner 503 - user 503, click root, message appears ' Sorry, could not change the owner: Read only file system'. What am i doing wrong? I cannot drag the folder onto desktop either, as it is 'read only'. Help, this is so frustrating, i can see the contents of my folders, but i unable to save onto my external HD

I boot into ubunto via windows, the target HD is in an enclosure.

Hope all that makes sense xD


Thanks in advance,

Elizabeth

Welcome to the forums!

First of all, a word of caution.... anybody can make a Youtube video! There is no intelligence test to make a Youtube video, nor is there any test that the information is correct or relevant.

The video that you have posted is obsolete and irrelevant to what you are trying to do. Ubuntu 11.04 has been "end of life" since 2012! Please ignore this video and start your project over.

Here is my recommendation what I think you should do:

Copy (don't move) the files from your busted Mac hard drive (in the enclosure) to your backup drive.

It is not necessary to change permissions if you are copying the file. Permission would only be necessary to move the file (since moving would delete it from the old location) and you don't need to do that.

So, please ignore the topic of "permissions" entirely and go copy (not move) those files.

Good luck, let me know how it goes!

Hello,

Thank you.

This may sound stupid; how do i copy the files over?

This is really stressing me out, i was awake until 1.30am yesterday trying to figure it all out :/

Thanks

Hi, don't be afraid to ask beginner questions!

"Copy" and "Paste" are basic functions to duplicate info from one place to another (without destroying the original; that would be called "Cut"). You can copy/cut/paste text in a word document, for example, but you can also copy/cut/paste files from one disc to another. In most OS's (including Linux) you can get a menu of copy/paste options by right-clicking on something. (There are also keyboard shortcuts too.)

If you have any questions about any of these steps, please ask before you try them! Don't blindly follow random internet stranger advice, when you are working with your own data/system/computer you should be the boss in total control.

First you want to boot "try without installing" from your Ubuntu Live DVD or USB. (Newest version of Ubuntu is best because it supports the latest hardware and filesystems.)

Then you launch your filemanager (Nautilus in my example, but if you use a different filemanager, substitute its name) with full "root" or "sudo" privileges by opening a Terminal window and copy/pasting or typing the following command into the Terminal:

Hopefully now you see a filemanager window, and you should also hopefully see your various drives/partitions. Can you see your Mac drive (in the enclosure) on the list, browse to it, and verify that the files are all there?

Good. So now you can browse to a folder (let's say you want to copy your entire "Elizabeth" folder for example) and right-click on it to select Copy.

Now browse to the other drive (the backup/destination drive), right-click on whatever folder you want (a new folder called "March 2014 Mac Backup" for example?) and select Paste Into Folder.

Hope that works, good luck!

Thank you.

I followed the steps you provided. I do not have a mouse; i used file then copy, but i've been unable to paste to the external HD folder. I get this error message - 'Error while copying to '(Driver name) ' The destination is read only. The destination drive was formatted to mac os journaled. It's mounted?

Permissions in the destination drive is as follows:
Owner: Root
Folder access: Create and delete files
Group:80
Folder: Create and delete files
Others
Folder access: Access files

I am unable to change the settings; system changes them back :/

Thanks for helping me, this means alot

Elizabeth

Thanks for the additional information. I did not realize the external drive was Mac format. That complicates things.

If the hard drive is formatted to HFS+ with journaling then what I've read is that Ubuntu will mount it read-only by default unless you disable the journaling using a Mac. (The Youtube video you posted was a red herring and I encourage you to ignore/forget it.)

I personally have zero experience sharing data between Mac and Linux, so I unfortunately cannot help you. I used Google to easily find a couple of askbuntu articles that I hope will point you in the right direction:

http://askubuntu.com/questions/18243...d-as-read-only
http://askubuntu.com/questions/33231...t-access-to-os

My recommendation at this point is that you not get too sidetracked from your original goal, which (correct me if I'm wrong) is to rescue your data from the broken Mac drive. Learning Linux is a noble goal, but will take a long time, require you to do a lot of reading, and won't directly solve your problem of needing to back up your data. Therefore have you asked yourself if there is another way, like: a friend/family/co-worker with a Mac who can help you rescue this data? a local computer shop or Geek Squad? a Mac-based (non-Linux) tool for Mac data recovery? etc.

Omg, i can't stop smiling, it worked, it worked ))))))

So, i unplugged the target HD from my mac and plugged it into my windows usb port; i formatted the disk in windows. I then plugged the HD back into the mac, followed the initial steps provided by you, then dragged the file into the external HD, it worked, it worked. I now have all my files back Such a weight lifted off my shoulders :-) The moral of all this is to regularly back up your data. I will do this from now on.

You have been so helpful, if i could hug you, i would

Thanks,

Elizabeth

)))))))))))))))

Awesome! Now would be good time to learn few Linux tricks too just in case you need them again later on. Good job Elizabeth