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Cant' delete files off iMac Internal HDD


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Cant' delete files off iMac Internal HDD
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kieran
@kk@pennytucker.social
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
 
2020-10-16, 19:38

I have an iMac that I run booted off on an external SSD. I use the internal HDD for storage.

However, sometime in the last month or so, the permissions changed on the internal disk.

I open up info on it, but when I go to change the privileges, even though it says I have Read & Write privileges, I get the following error:

"The operation cannot be completed because you don't have the necessary permission."

I've tried to do the Disk Utility first aid stuff that I know about, but nothing has worked.

What do I need to do? There is stuff there that I'd like to delete, but can't seem to be able to.

EDIT: This is on Mac OS 11.0 Big Sur Beta

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kscherer
Which way is up?
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Boyzeee
 
2020-10-16, 21:08

Quote:
Originally Posted by kieran View Post
EDIT: This is on Mac OS 11.0 Big Sur Beta
Well, there's your problem!

Try booting into an older OS.
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kieran
@kk@pennytucker.social
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
 
2020-10-17, 17:48

I don't have any other Ones installed anywhere. Just the beta at this point.
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turtle
Lord of the Rant.
Formerly turtle2472
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Upstate South Carolina
 
2020-10-17, 18:24

Have you tried using command line and sudo? You can use Terminal to attempt to manually delete the files or even change the permissions on the files so you can use Finder instead.

Can you move the files into a common folder? If so that would make deleting them easier.

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Brad
Selfish Heathen
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Zone of Pain
 
2020-10-17, 19:15

Are all files on that drive denying you write access? Or only specific ones?

Have you been able to change these files at all since installing Big Sur? Was the last time you touched them before you upgraded?

Since a few major macOS versions ago, the new System Integrity Protection feature prevents you from editing certain system files even if you have admin/sudo/root-level permissions. If it's only specific files, I wonder if this is a recent change to SIP in Big Sur. It's a pain in the ass, but you could try disabling it temporarily to see if that helps.

Meanwhile, to get more info about the drive, open up a terminal window and use this command to get a list of all attached disks:

Code:
diskutil list
Find the "IDENTIFIER" for the problematic drive/partition, and use this command, swapping "disk1s1" with yours

Code:
diskutil info /dev/disk1s1
What does that give you? Does it have any "Read-Only Media" values with "Yes"?

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kieran
@kk@pennytucker.social
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
 
2020-10-17, 20:40

This is what I get after running those commands.

Code:
kierankelly@iMac ~ % diskutil info /dev/disk1 Device Identifier: disk1 Device Node: /dev/disk1 Whole: Yes Part of Whole: disk1 Device / Media Name: APPLE HDD HTS541010A9E632 Volume Name: Not applicable (no file system) Mounted: Not applicable (no file system) File System: None Content (IOContent): EF57347C-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC OS Can Be Installed: No Media Type: Generic Protocol: SATA SMART Status: Verified Disk / Partition UUID: C5B53D92-60D4-432F-B5FC-50A88047341B

I believe I was able to delete things using the summer, but I'm not entirely sure. it's basically just holding things for Plex at the moment. Not really anything important.

I can drag things off of the disk and drag things into there and Plex recognizes it and I can play it, but I jsut can't delete things off of there once they're there. I don't even have an option to move items to the trash from the context menu, nor can I drag them to the trash.

In the Sharing and Permissions section in "Get Info", it says "You can only read" even though my name is there and says "Read & Write"

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Brad
Selfish Heathen
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Zone of Pain
 
2020-10-17, 20:54

For even more info, try `diskutil info /dev/disk1s1` for whatever s# the `diskutil list` gave you that matches the drive's partition name or the "APFS Volume" with the main name. It could have multiple partitions besides the main one (such as for an EFI or recovery partition)

The quality of this board depends on the quality of the posts. The only way to guarantee thoughtful, informative discussion is to write thoughtful, informative posts. AppleNova is not a real-time chat forum. You have time to compose messages and edit them before and after posting.
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kieran
@kk@pennytucker.social
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
 
2022-04-07, 07:17

I can't even remember if I ever solved this problem, but I got rid of that iMac last year, so I guess the problem was solved regardless...
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