External drive mounts but is inaccessible

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My external firewire (Rocstor) hard drive is inaccessible, but it still "mounts"!!
I can see it in my disk utilities, I can even search the files that are on the drive! But when I select a file it is an alias that I can't access. I tried clicking "repair disk" and it said "No repairs necessary"
The computer sees it but I cannot, and there is no way to access it.
This problem started when I selected "no access" (in get info) on a folder while something was writing to it. Then it said "read and write" but it was greyed out. I'm not sure if that's exactly what happened, It was really just a slip of my finger and then when I restarted, it was gone.
PLEASE help! This will be absolutely devastating if I lose this data. Is there any kind of maintenence that I can do? I don't know about this stuff.
 

chscag

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I'm not sure what happened either. I suspect the permissions were changed on the drive and now you're locked out.

Try this: With the drive mounted, reboot your machine and log back on as the ROOT user. Follow the directions in this Apple KB article which explains how:
Link

Once logged on as ROOT user and with the system back up, try accessing the files on the external drive. If you still can't, right click on the drive, select get info, click on the small lock to open it if it's closed, and change permissions to read and write.

You should be able to access your files on the drive once more.

A note of caution while you're logged on as ROOT user - do not attempt to do anything else. After you're finished, reboot and log back on as yourself.

Regards.
 
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Just to clarify, I can't see the drive at all but the computer can. I can't access it (Cause I can't see it) but disk utility acknowledges that it is plugged in... it also says that it has zero files on it.
I logged in as the ROOT user and I see the drive perfectly fine, with all the files in tact. It has read and write access, but that doesn't help me. Logged in as a user I cannot access or see the drive, even though the computer recognizes it and the drive sounds normal.
 
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Fixed it! Someone recommended going back into the root, where I saw read and write and select details. There was a few more read and write windows, one of which said no access. Changing that fixed it. Thanks!
 

chscag

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Fixed it! Someone recommended going back into the root, where I saw read and write and select details. There was a few more read and write windows, one of which said no access. Changing that fixed it. Thanks!

Great. Glad to hear you got it fixed, ROOT user to the rescue! Just be careful using the ability to log on as ROOT. ;)

Regards.
 

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