I've been having a recurring issue where I lose the write permissions on my hard drive every few days. I usually get a message saying, 'You are not the owner, so you cannot change these permissions.' I've tried backing it up and formatting it to exFAT since I occasionally boot with Windows, but it only works temporarily. I can't keep formatting my HDD every couple of days. Is there a more permanent solution? Also, I'm not very familiar with using 'chmod' or 'chown', and when I tried following some guides, I got an 'Operation not permitted' error.
5 Answers
When you receive that message, it often relates to how you've mounted the drive. If you mount using 'sudo', only the root user has write access. Try using your file manager to mount it without those elevated permissions. It will make life a lot easier since you’ll have write access without any extra steps!
I've had similar issues back when I used to dual boot Windows 7. If both OSs share the same username and password, it might help. When I stopped using Windows and kept the NTFS drive for data, I had permission issues but managed to resolve them by taking ownership of the drive using 'sudo'. Maybe try that if you haven't already! Also, keep in mind that improper shutdowns can cause a dirty bit flag, which might lead to read-only mounts.
It could be that your SSD is just starting to fail, which would definitely cause issues like this. Keep an eye on it and possibly back up your data just in case.
Since exFAT isn't a Linux filesystem, you might want to consider formatting your drive using ext4 or btrfs if you primarily use Linux. That way, you will avoid these permission issues altogether. If you need to access the drive in Windows, there are drivers available that can read btrfs, so check those out!
I didn't realize Linux formats could be accessed in Windows with just a driver! That's really useful info!
It sounds like your hard drive might have some filesystem issues. If Linux detects any corruption, it may force the drive to mount as read-only. Instead of reformatting, try using Windows to scan and repair the filesystem. This usually helps fix errors that could cause the problem you're experiencing. Also, since you're using exFAT, remember that using 'chmod' or 'chown' won't apply because it doesn’t support those Linux-style permissions. If these issues persist, you could monitor the output of `sudo dmesg -w` in a terminal while using the drive—it might reveal more about what's causing the permissions loss.
I think my drive is failing too! I booted into Windows and got a notification saying, 'Disk error: Restart Windows.'
I usually mount through the file manager, but I avoid the terminal because I’ve had issues before!