External Hard-drive Issues

Suzuks

Registered
Hi guys, I was just playing around with my external hard-drive - the "Ownership & Permissions" section of it's Info - and accidently changed it from "You may Read & Write" to "You have No Access" and while trying to change it back it somehow wouldn't work and then as I tried to open folders inside it, everything was missing inside the folders (presumedly not deleted since there was still 100GB of space used). So I restarted my computer as well as the hard-drive and now it won't even show up on the desktop. The odd thing is I still have it as an icon on my dock and when I click on it to open it, it just says "The application "(null)" cannot be launched. -5000".

If you need to know, I have an iMac Version 10.4.11

Does anyone know what is wrong and what I should do to get it all back to normal? Thanks in advance.
 
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You may do better putting this post in a general troubleshooting area, instead of on the Server board.

The icon in your dock very well could be there from previously adding it to the dock. Take a look in Applications -> Disk Utility -> Disk Utility. You may find the FireWire drive listed as a device, but not as mounted. You would be able to mount it from there. You could also repair the drive from inside Disk Utility, if need be.

Michael
 
Alright I'll post it there to. Thanks for the help but it already appears to be mounted, I tried repairing it too, but it didn't do anything. The strange thing is that when I plugged the hard-drive into my old mac (OS 9.1), it appeared as normal with everything inside but was still not working on my current computer.

Oh yeah and I know I put the icon in my dock perviously and that's why it is there, I just meant that while it doesn't appear anywhere else, it's still in my dock.
 
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Your drive isn't working on your present Mac, because you changed permissions to 'no access', so now you have the results, 'no access'. OS 9 ignores that, so the drive works for you under OS 9.
Someone more knowledgeable than I should respond with the method to get your permissions back. I would download BatCHmod, which should be an easy way to get your drive back.
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/12057
 
Or you could try booting from the OS X Install CD/DVD and doing a "Repair Permissions" from there -- that may or may not change the permissions for the whole drive, but it's worth a 2-minute shot.
 
Your drive isn't working on your present Mac, because you changed permissions to 'no access', so now you have the results, 'no access'. OS 9 ignores that, so the drive works for you under OS 9.
Someone more knowledgeable than I should respond with the method to get your permissions back. I would download BatCHmod, which should be an easy way to get your drive back.
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/12057

Thanks for the advice, BatCHmod looks good but when I go to search for the HD to change ownership permissions I still can't find it anywhere..

Or you could try booting from the OS X Install CD/DVD and doing a "Repair Permissions" from there -- that may or may not change the permissions for the whole drive, but it's worth a 2-minute shot.

I lost that ages ago lol, though that could work so I'll look for it.
 
I lost that ages ago lol, though that could work so I'll look for it.
Ack... I know I say this constantly, but your OS Install Disk is like the keys to your car... your computer is as useless without them as your car is without keys.

Look for those install disks with the furor and determination you would have looking for your lost car keys!
 
Ack... I know I say this constantly, but your OS Install Disk is like the keys to your car... your computer is as useless without them as your car is without keys.

Look for those install disks with the furor and determination you would have looking for your lost car keys!

lol alright then I shall. Any other options/suggestions though? I'm getting a new external hard-drive though, so when that comes I suppose I can just transfer all the data from my old to my new and just use the new one.
 
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