How do i remove write-protection on my external hdd?
 

I have an external harddrive, that is read-only, how do i change that?
When i go to Volume Properties > Permissions and change Folder Access from "Access files" to "Create and delete files", i get this message:

> The permissions could not be changed.
> Couldn't change the permissions of "disk" because it is
> on a read-only disk.

Its an "Power EH-25SR" box, with a Toshiba MK6034GAX disk.

Any tips appreciated :)

well, first you need to know what type of partition is on the hd. if it is NTFS you'll probably have to follow some instruction (depending on our distro, some come with NTFS support out of the box, i don't know linpus). you should give a look to your /etc/fsatb to see if it all right there. i suggest you post your partition type, your /etc/fstab and perhaps the environment used. btw, have you tried mounting through the command line?

You use chmod, assuming it is linux.

Open a terminal as root (su or sudo or some such) and use the command "chmod". You might type "man chmod" first. I assume you can enter a terminal and switch to root privileges in linpus, but if not you might try to find out how to do that first.

Here is an explanation of the matter at hand.

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

Here is the standard standing admonition to the forwarding of better behavior.

http://www.linuxquestions.org/linux/...Ask_a_Question

It is NTFS.
No i have not tried mounting through the commandline. I dont know how to do that?
(im new to linux).

I can open my openoffice documents that is on this hdd, without problems. Does that mean my distro have NTFS support out of the box?

This is my /etc/fstab:

LABEL=linpus / ext3 defaults 1 1
none /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0
none /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
none /sys sysfs defaults 0 0
/dev/sr0 /media/cdrom udf,iso9660 pamconsole,exec,noauto,managed 0 0

Not sure what you mean by environment used?

chmod gives this result:
[root@localhost media]# ls
cdrom disk
[root@localhost media]# chmod a=rwx /media/disk
chmod: changing permissions of `/media/disk': Read-only file system
[root@localhost media]#

Thanks :)

This has been useful for many new to linux.

http://www.linux.org/lessons/beginner/toc.html

Let's see the output from "mounts" (no quotes) issued from a terminal.

maybe may not it depends on WHAT Limpus installed
If it is the VERY old "ntfs" plugin then it is READ ONLY
But if it is the new " ntfs-3g " then it is read AND wright

to find out run this in the terminal ( should work as a normal user but you might need to be root to do it )
my output for fedora 9 is " ntfs-3g-2009.2.1-2.fc9.i386"

if it is ntfs-3g let us know and we can help you make a change to your /ect/fstab file .

[Donati@localhost ~]$ mount
/dev/sda3 on / type ext3 (rw)
none on /proc type proc (rw)
none on /sys type sysfs (rw)
none on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,gid=5,mode=620)
none on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw)
none on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw)
/dev/sdb1 on /media/disk type ntfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=hal,umask=222)
[Donati@localhost ~]$

Does it look right to you?

Oops - shoulda been "mount" as you obviously figured. Sorry about that ...:o

Probably the in-kernel NTFS support - in which case I'd be loathe to try updates anyway.
ntfs-3g would be the answer, but I don't know anything about Linpus.

[Donati@localhost ~]$ rpm -qa | grep ntfs
[Donati@localhost ~]$

Does'nt give any output?

here is your problem .
edit your /ect/fstab file ( as root ) and remove " ,umask=222 " that part of the line ONLY ( no "" )

and if that line is not in there then there is a auto mount rule that will need changing .

It is not there, so i need to find out how to edit auto mount rules.
Any hints, what i could do? Im sorry, i dont even know wich program takes care of the auto mount service.

It's not automount, the problem is you don't have ntfs-3g installed. Does linpus have a package management system you can use to install it? Look for a menu item called add/remove software or something similar. If not, you can try following the instructions on the site above - looks like you'll need to compile from source.

Here is a post explaining how Linux handles permissions for NTFS filesystems, but it doesn't apply to you until your system has ntfs write support.

Linpus have Synaptics Package Manager, but im still to figure out how to use it ;)

I have downloaded ntfs-3g-2009.2.1.tgz, and installed it from terminal like so:
./configure
make
make install

I think it installed ok.. but "rpm -qa | grep ntfs" still does'nt give any output.

when you do a source install the rpm data base will know nothing about it UNLESS you turn it into a rpm to install

also Did you uninstall the ntfs rpm FIRST having both installed at the same time is NOT a good idea, and would in all likely hood kill BOTH .

from the GUI package manager find the ntfs program and uncheck it
that will uninstall it
then go back to the ntfs-3g-2009.2.1 folder .Open a terminal in that folder ( or cd to it )
and run .BUT before you do ANY OF THIS read the two files called " README " and " INSTALL "
and in that out put look to see where it installs .
most will want to install in " /usr/local"
this you DO NOT want . You want it to install in /usr . To do that you add -- prefix=/usr to the configure
like this
you must be root to run " make install "