Permissions on sdb2
 

On my ThinkPad T60 I have an external HDD plugged into the USB.

fdisk -l reads;
Disk /dev/sda: 60.0 GB, 60011642880 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7296 cylinders, total 117210240 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x5ac22b0f

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 2048 23777279 11887616 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 23779326 117209087 46714881 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 23779328 113293311 44756992 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 113295360 117209087 1956864 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/sdb: 750.1 GB, 750127153152 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 91197 cylinders, total 1465092096 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0009c952

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 2048 246136831 123067392 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sdb2 246136832 1465092095 609477632 83 Linux

I try to cp or to drag and drop a file from sda1 to sdb2 and I do not have permission. I need to chown or to find another way to use the partition freely. The partition is ext4 and my OS is v. 11.10 Ubuntu. Everything I've found searching Google has failed. Any assist will be apporeciated.

How are you mounting /dev/sdb2, from Nautilus or from the CLI?

Is your Ubuntu system on sda?
If so, is sdb2 a data partitions?
Did you create a mount point for sdb2 in Ubuntu?
And as asked above, how are you trying to mount it?
Do you have an entry for sdb1 in your /etc/fstab file?

I plug it in and it's there.

Yes, sda is my Ubuntu drive and I did gksudo gedit /etc/fstab and no, there is no entry.

Got to the Ubuntu page below and scroll down to "Create a Mount Point" and follow the instructions making modifications to suit your needs.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/In...gANewHardDrive

It might be useful to go to the site below first to get a detailed explanation of what the fstab line entries mean.

http://www.tuxfiles.org/linuxhelp/fstab.html

Thank you, withy this and a chown everything is great!