locked external hard drive "custom" priviledges

I was unable to copy my files from my external hard drive to my laptop so I changed all the priviledges to read & write and apply to everythign inside both laptop & external and now external is LOCKED. Called apple twice, no help, found some threads about terminal commands, all looked good until the last command said ACL or whatever couldn't be verified..and now brand new laptop freezes on start up. freaking out in central america-if anyone can help I can provide lots more details thanks

This may be the first time I've recommended this in 3 years, but:

If you've gotten the system so messed up it won't even boot to your desktop and this is a brand new machine with no worry about losing data, I'd suggest you get out the install discs that came with the machine,

pop in the first disc,
reboot while holding down the 'C' key,
do a fresh install and start over again.

Then get some help with the single issue of copying files from your external.

thanks for being there-brand new since may! with over 200GB of stuff on there (and the external thats locked). trying the disk utility repairs...BTW didnt do any unix stuff on new laptop

Sounds like you will need to boot off of your install media and then run disk utility to do the repair permissions, if you can do it while logged into the system. If this does not work, you may have to do and achive install, this is for the internal drive.

What is the permissions set to on the external drive?

thanks I did do all that, repaired permissions (many) last lines said "Warning SUID file "usr/sbin/pppd" has been modified and will not be repaired (also "usr/sbin/rprd" However when I repair the disc it says its OK (like wise for external drive, only allowed to repair disk, not the permissions). I have not done the archive & install yet-this is my last most desparate option right?)The permissions on external are set to "custom" for all users & cant' change it. was in the file sharing part of systems preferences trying to fix all that when I lost the new-ish laptop. Priority is the external has all is on it and obvioulsly Ihave one working laptop