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I am upgrading my desktop, and I transferred all my files to two hard drives. I installed Ubuntu 12.04 on a third drive, booted it up, and mounted the other two volumes. I try to access the files and it says I do not have permission and I think its because I was a different user on Ubuntu on the old computer. Pertinent information, music, and photos are on those drives and I need an answer an idiot could follow as I still do not understand terminal or command line.

/dev/sda: LABEL="storage volume 3" UUID="680aad74-1b4f-41aa-8cc1-55d5fa04f961" TYPE="ext4" 
/dev/sdb1: UUID="7b974307-86b3-4f3b-9f3a-d4ed922efbd2" TYPE="ext4" 
/dev/sdb5: UUID="4e845c4b-82a9-4191-9634-d58815d2f39a" TYPE="swap" 

Disk /dev/sda: 30.1 GB, 30060527616 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 3654 cylinders, total 58711968 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: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/sda doesn't contain a valid partition table

Disk /dev/sdb: 20.0 GB, 20003880960 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 2432 cylinders, total 39070080 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: 0x000f11a2

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1   *        2048    35010559    17504256   83  Linux
/dev/sdb2        35012606    39069695     2028545    5  Extended
/dev/sdb5        35012608    39069695     2028544   82  Linux swap / Solaris
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  • provide some more info like the filesystem of the 2 volumes and the complete error. open the terminal and key in the following highlighted commands sudo blkid and sudo fdisk -l. you may edit your question and post the outputs.
    – astrob0t
    Nov 6, 2014 at 22:10
  • i havent finished upgrading the hardware yet, but i am using a 20gb hdd of ubuntu 12.04 to try to load and copy all my data from two other hdd's to usb flash drive before i do my final build/install. the data on both hdd's were from a previous instal of the same ubuntu version but i believe it thinks im not the owner.
    – TimberWolf3821
    Nov 6, 2014 at 22:17
  • Your 20GB HDD has 3 partition which has linux installed. But your 30 GB HDD (/dev/sda) doesn't have a valid partition table. You need to have a partition in a HDD to mount and copy/save data. It's most probably corrupted.
    – astrob0t
    Nov 6, 2014 at 22:53

1 Answer 1

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You can change the ownership using the following command:

sudo chown newusername.newusername -R /path_to_folder

then you should be able to access your old files.

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  • am i supposed to type it exactly like that or do i have to substitute my drive/filename in that command?
    – TimberWolf3821
    Nov 6, 2014 at 22:18
  • Replace newusername with your current user name and /path_to_folder with the exact location of the folder. This is probably under /media/newusername if it is a portable drive.
    – Harris
    Nov 6, 2014 at 22:21
  • can you give more detailed instructions on how to find that and how to do it? it is an actual hdd too. the name of the drive is: storage volume 3
    – TimberWolf3821
    Nov 6, 2014 at 22:23
  • If you navigate with nautilus (file explorer) to the folder location that you couldn't access and then you can press Control+L to see the exact location. You can copy (Control+C) & paste it then to the terminal by right clicking and selecting paste in the terminal. You have to type the first bit of the command I mentioned above.
    – Harris
    Nov 6, 2014 at 22:32
  • @Harris , according to fdisk, /dev/sda doesn't have a valid partition table. how is nautilus going to mount it?
    – astrob0t
    Nov 6, 2014 at 22:49

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