For reasons too long to be detailed at this time, I have to format my laptop. In order to save some data before, I tried to access to my hard disc using a Live CD. I was able to copy some files to an external flash memory, but I couldn't copy many other because according to Ubuntu I'm not the owner of those files and I don't have enough permissions. How can I be able to copy those files? Thanks
1 Answer
You can become owner of a file very easily. Simply do
sudo chown (user) /directory/path/to/file
Note that (user) is probably going to be Ubuntu since you are on a live CD, and that /directory/path/to/file should obviously be replaced with the file's directory path.
Chown standing for Change-Owner, this will make the Ubuntu live CD the owner of the file. Once you have your new installation you can obviously reverse this with
sudo chown (new_username) /directory/path/to/file
So that your new user can access the files.