I'm a recent pilgrim in the land of the Mac. It seems rocky and arid here.
Problem class: <b>permissions</b>.
Specifics: <b>unable to delete</b> certain files from the trash, or <b>unable to write</b> to a new external hard drive.
How I've tried to resolve it:
1. Help: says
<i>To check your permissions for an item:
Select the item and choose File > Get Info.</i> <b>OK, done that</b>
<i>In the item’s Info box, click the triangle next to Sharing & Permissions to expand the section.</i> <b>done that, too</b>
<i>Open the pop-up menu next to your user name</i> <b>I don't see my user name anywhere and can't find any pop-up menus</b>
<i>... to see the permission settings. You may need to click the lock icon</i> <b>What lock icon? There isn't one that I can see</b>
<i>... and type your password.</i>
2. Hunted high and low on various Mac fora on the internet. Nobody else seems to have this problem.
3. Discovered <b>Terminal</b> in the course of my wanderings and delved (after heavy sighing) into Unix. Tried to find how Unix does what DOS does with the command <b>d:</b> (i.e. changes from whatever drive you are on to drive d
and found that Linux doesn't use drive names. So what <u>does</u> it use? I have a Packard Bell drive that calls itself "Data" in Finder, but have no idea how to find out what permissions it thinks I have, except in File Info, where it blandly tells me I have read permission. Great.
Question: How do I get round the fact that I can't follow the Help instructions because I can't see my user name or the lock icon?
Question: how do I change permissions on the drive so that I can actually use it?