Mx21 -- copy files to external hdd

[rdotex]

I must be getting old! I'm only 78, but I can't copy files to my hdd anymore! Any help for this 'old fart'?

[Eadwine Rose]

Please provide your quick system info (the whole thing), then we can see your system, might give a clue.

Mind.. 78 is still young!

[rdotex]

OK. I forgot it, so here it is now:

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System:    Kernel: 5.10.0-20-amd64 [5.10.158-2] x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 10.2.1 
           parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.10.0-20-amd64 
           root=UUID=<filter> ro quiet splash 
           Desktop: Xfce 4.16.0 tk: Gtk 3.24.24 info: xfce4-panel wm: xfwm 4.16.1 vt: 7 
           dm: LightDM 1.26.0 Distro: MX-21.2.1_x64 Wildflower October 20  2021 
           base: Debian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye) 
Machine:   Type: Desktop System: Dell product: OptiPlex 790 v: 01 serial: <filter> Chassis: 
           type: 6 serial: <filter> 
           Mobo: Dell model: 0HY9JP v: A01 serial: <filter> BIOS: Dell v: A22 date: 07/03/2018 
CPU:       Info: Quad Core model: Intel Core i5-2400 bits: 64 type: MCP arch: Sandy Bridge 
           family: 6 model-id: 2A (42) stepping: 7 microcode: 2F cache: L2: 6 MiB 
           flags: avx lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 24742 
           Speed: 2916 MHz min/max: 1600/3400 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 2916 2: 2963 3: 2829 
           4: 2800 
           Vulnerabilities: Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: VMX disabled 
           Type: l1tf mitigation: PTE Inversion; VMX: conditional cache flushes, SMT disabled 
           Type: mds mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT disabled 
           Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI 
           Type: mmio_stale_data status: Unknown: No mitigations 
           Type: retbleed status: Not affected 
           Type: spec_store_bypass 
           mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl and seccomp 
           Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization 
           Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Retpolines, IBPB: conditional, IBRS_FW, STIBP: disabled, 
           RSB filling, PBRSB-eIBRS: Not affected 
           Type: srbds status: Not affected 
           Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected 
Graphics:  Device-1: Intel 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics vendor: Dell 
           driver: i915 v: kernel bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:0102 class-ID: 0300 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.11 compositor: xfwm4 v: 4.16.1 driver: loaded: intel 
           display-ID: :0.0 screens: 1 
           Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1280x1024 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 338x270mm (13.3x10.6") 
           s-diag: 433mm (17") 
           Monitor-1: VGA1 res: 1280x1024 hz: 60 dpi: 96 size: 340x270mm (13.4x10.6") 
           diag: 434mm (17.1") 
           OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel HD Graphics 2000 (SNB GT1) v: 3.3 Mesa 20.3.5 
           compat-v: 3.0 direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: Intel 6 Series/C200 Series Family High Definition Audio vendor: Dell 
           driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1b.0 chip-ID: 8086:1c20 class-ID: 0403 
           Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.10.0-20-amd64 running: yes 
           Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 14.2 running: yes 
Network:   Device-1: Intel 82579LM Gigabit Network vendor: Dell driver: e1000e v: kernel 
           port: 3080 bus-ID: 00:19.0 chip-ID: 8086:1502 class-ID: 0200 
           IF: eth0 state: up speed: 10 Mbps duplex: half mac: <filter> 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 1.82 TiB used: 212.32 GiB (11.4%) 
           SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required. 
           ID-1: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Seagate model: ST1500DL003-9VT16L size: 1.36 TiB 
           block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s type: HDD rpm: 5900 
           serial: <filter> rev: CC32 scheme: MBR 
           ID-2: /dev/sdb maj-min: 8:16 type: USB vendor: Seagate model: ST350063 0AS 
           size: 465.76 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B type: N/A serial: <filter> 
           rev: E 
Partition: ID-1: / raw-size: 41.59 GiB size: 40.64 GiB (97.72%) used: 9.78 GiB (24.1%) fs: ext4 
           dev: /dev/sda1 maj-min: 8:1 
           ID-2: /home raw-size: 1.32 TiB size: 1.3 TiB (98.35%) used: 47.99 GiB (3.6%) fs: ext4 
           dev: /dev/sda3 maj-min: 8:3 
Swap:      Kernel: swappiness: 15 (default 60) cache-pressure: 100 (default) 
           ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 3.62 GiB used: 193.1 MiB (5.2%) priority: -2 
           dev: /dev/sda2 maj-min: 8:2 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 34.0 C mobo: N/A 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Repos:     Packages: note: see --pkg apt: 2050 lib: 1003 flatpak: 0 
           No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list 
           1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye-updates main contrib non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list 
           1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye main contrib non-free
           2: deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security bullseye-security main contrib non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-chrome.list 
           1: deb [arch=amd64] https://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list 
           1: deb http://mirrors.rit.edu/mxlinux/mx-packages/mx/repo/ bullseye main non-free
Info:      Processes: 244 Uptime: 8h 24m wakeups: 1 Memory: 3.72 GiB used: 2.08 GiB (55.9%) 
           Init: SysVinit v: 2.96 runlevel: 5 default: 5 tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 10.2.1 
           alt: 10 Client: shell wrapper v: 5.1.4-release inxi: 3.3.06 
Boot Mode: BIOS (legacy, CSM, MBR)

[pbear]

inxi says the drive is attached but no partitions are mounted. Do you see the partition(s) in the left pane of File Manager? Does clicking one of them mount it? A screenshot would be helpful.

[davidy]

How old are they? Check your cables (blow the dust off) and gparted too.

[rdotex]

inxi says the drive is attached but no partitions are mounted. Do you see the partition(s) in the left pane of File Manager? Does clicking one of them mount it? A screenshot would be helpful.

Yes, the partitions show, and the ;contents of each do also. Also, I can click on oll of them and see the contents, which are available for all purposes. I use the ext hdd to simply copy my documents, etc, as a backup.

I also was able to create a folder for this 'backup', with no difficulty. BUT, I cannot paste even one file into that folder.

[Huckleberry Finn]

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sudo chown -R yourusername:yourusername /media/yourusername/*

(wherever it is mounted.. this one assumes it was under /media/...)

i.e.

sudo chown -R huck:huck /media/huck/*

You can also first make sure what your user id is (generally it's 1000 for the 1st created user)

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id

Then do it with that number, say :

sudo chown -R 1000:1000 /media/huck/*

[m_pav]

What partition type does the external drive have? If it's a Windows type, then it may have some minor inconsistencies which is enough to cause the partition to become read-only. Debian Stable does not have full NTFS, ExFAT, or even FAT32 support, so our ability to rectify issues with these filesystems is limited. It's one of the very few reasons I leave a copy of Windows on a handful of my machines.

Keep a mind of what @Huckleberry Finn said, but make 1 change which I'll show below, which is especially useful for writes to the root of the drive/partition. HF's method changes all existing content on the drive/partition to you, but there is a better way to achieve RW access to any existing or new partition, that is to change the ownership of the dot file at the root of the partition. The dot file is a single full stop type of dot " . ", not the word as we read it, and it cannot be seen through a regular file browser like Thunar, though we invoke it when we run a command from the terminal, and if it's owned by you, then the whole partition is yours to do with as you please.

When first introducing a native format external drive, Instead of doing

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sudo chown -R yourusername:yourusername /media/drivename/*

change the asterisk to a dot

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sudo chown -R yourusername:yourusername /media/drivename/.

and the drive will be yours forever, no more fuss with changing ownership of mass folders and files, and it can be done an any internal or external drive/partition, whether it's fresh or already used, though, if it's already used, you'll have to do the command twice, once with the dot and another the asterisk .

[Huckleberry Finn]

@m_pav thank you for that, very nice trick :)

[rdotex]

I'm sorry, I posted a reply yesterday that doesn't show here, so I guess this Old-fart did something wrong again. So, I'll try again now:

While waiting, I was fiddling around and found a way to paste into the folder on the ext hdd: right click on the folder, and then click on "Open Root Thunar here", and then I can paste into the folder.

Thanks to all the helpers!