My Ubuntu machine has set my external HDD to read only. The drive is a 2TB That I have configured to fat32 so that almost everything can read/write to it. I know that from using the search box on this site one fix is "sudo nautilus." I went to my hdd in the file manager, right clicked , properties. under permissions i tell it to allow read/write, but it says it is a read only file system... I know from some googleing that there is a chance in a fix by unmounting the drive, then forcing it to mount. I heard that this causes a loss in data though, and the content on the drive is important (which is why i just don't reformat the drive). If it helps I just reinstalled Ubuntu, so i don't know if my old profile is the "owner of the drive" under the permissions tab because i made it the same user name...I know that if i go to a windows computer i can tell it to take ownership, where i can then disable read only. is there no way to do this from Ubuntu?
gnomes@gnomes:~$ mount
/dev/sda1 on / type ext4 (rw,errors=remount-ro,commit=0)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
fusectl on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw)
none on /sys/kernel/debug type debugfs (rw)
none on /sys/kernel/security type securityfs (rw)
udev on /dev type devtmpfs (rw,mode=0755)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,noexec,nosuid,gid=5,mode=0620)
tmpfs on /run type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,size=10%,mode=0755)
none on /run/lock type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,size=5242880)
none on /run/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
binfmt_misc on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
gvfs-fuse-daemon on /home/gnomes/.gvfs type fuse.gvfs-fuse-daemon (rw,nosuid,nodev,user=gnomes)
/dev/sdb1 on /media/THIRSTY 2TR_ type vfat (rw,nosuid,nodev,uid=1000,gid=1000,shortname=mixed,dmask=0077,utf8=1,showexec,flush,uhelper=udisks)
/home/gnomes/.Private on /home/gnomes type ecryptfs (ecryptfs_check_dev_ruid,ecryptfs_cipher=aes,ecryptfs_key_bytes=16,ecryptfs_unlink_sigs,ecryptfs_sig=40584e1d6fa2a33e,ecryptfs_fnek_sig=83ad2a5a52a1069e)
gnomes@gnomes:~$
Fstab:
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a
# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices
# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc nodev,noexec,nosuid 0 0
# / was on /dev/sda1 during installation
UUID=839b800b-ce92-4d72-ad5b-0e84de7c74be / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1
# swap was on /dev/sda5 during installation
#UUID=e25b3b92-d693-4c93-8e08-2470aa0f5152 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/mapper/cryptswap1 none swap sw 0 0
I just found this on a possible sister site to this one https://superuser.com/questions/105769/external-hard-drive-is-read-only-how-to-change-owner-ubuntu I want need to know if this is the solution since my drive is in fat 32 not nfts, and if this will wipe any data on my external
edit- the drive is posted Its name is "THIRSTY 2TR"
I tried sudo mount -o remount,rw '/media/THIRSTY 2TR' and it did nothing... it makes an arrow like ^ but facing right after
me messing around i got this, which looks promising, but means nothing to a noob like me
gnomes@gnomes:~$ sudo mount -o remount,rw '/media/THIRSTY 2TR'
[sudo] password for gnomes:
gnomes@gnomes:~$ sudo mount -THIRSTY 2TR remount,rw '/media/THIRSTY 2TR'
mount: invalid option -- 'T'
Usage: mount -V : print version
mount -h : print this help
mount : list mounted filesystems
mount -l : idem, including volume labels
So far the informational part. Next the mounting.
The command is `mount [-t fstype] something somewhere'.
Details found in /etc/fstab may be omitted.
mount -a [-t|-O] ... : mount all stuff from /etc/fstab
mount device : mount device at the known place
mount directory : mount known device here
mount -t type dev dir : ordinary mount command
Note that one does not really mount a device, one mounts
a filesystem (of the given type) found on the device.
One can also mount an already visible directory tree elsewhere:
mount --bind olddir newdir
or move a subtree:
mount --move olddir newdir
One can change the type of mount containing the directory dir:
mount --make-shared dir
mount --make-slave dir
mount --make-private dir
mount --make-unbindable dir
One can change the type of all the mounts in a mount subtree
containing the directory dir:
mount --make-rshared dir
mount --make-rslave dir
mount --make-rprivate dir
mount --make-runbindable dir
A device can be given by name, say /dev/hda1 or /dev/cdrom,
or by label, using -L label or by uuid, using -U uuid .
Other options: [-nfFrsvw] [-o options] [-p passwdfd].
For many more details, say man 8 mount .
gnomes@gnomes:~$
I got this when i tried to do it anouther way
gnomes@gnomes:~$ sudo mount -o remount,rw '/dev/sdb1 on /media/THIRSTY 2TR'
[sudo] password for gnomes:
mount: can't find /dev/sdb1 on /media/THIRSTY 2TR in /etc/fstab or /etc/mtab
gnomes@gnomes:~$
I tried this today.
gnomes@gnomes:~$ sudo dosfsck -a /dev/THIRSTY 2TR
[sudo] password for gnomes:
usage: dosfsck [-aAflrtvVwy] [-d path -d ...] [-u path -u ...]
device
-a automatically repair the file system
-A toggle Atari file system format
-d path drop that file
-f salvage unused chains to files
-l list path names
-n no-op, check non-interactively without changing
-p same as -a, for compat with other *fsck
-r interactively repair the file system
-t test for bad clusters
-u path try to undelete that (non-directory) file
-v verbose mode
-V perform a verification pass
-w write changes to disk immediately
-y same as -a, for compat with other *fsck
I try using a suffix, with the command i entered but it just pops up this same list again
mount
and update your question with that outputsudo mount -o remount,rw '/media/DRIVENAME'
from here: askubuntu.com/questions/47538/… (possible duplicate)