======= [written Sept.20.2011 by JCPMA]
This Spring I purchased Seagate's© portable Free Agent© GoFlex© USB 3.0 External 500 GB hard drive.
Straight out of the "box", it is a "Plug-n-Play" device and seemed to work well. However, when I tried to write a file to the root drive, or alter a root file's attribute, say ... to Read-Only, I was denied this action, or I was asked to confirm that I had permission to do so. Well this seemed strange, as my other hard drives never showed this behavior.
I was free to create and fill as many folders as I wanted, so, my work-around was to create files inside the folders and subfolders and then copy the particular file I wanted to the root of the drive. I don't have or even need many files in the root drive so this has never been an issue, ... until today.
Those of you who are familiar with the Truecrypt© application will know that it is a program to create and mount encrypted data containers/volumes. In other words it creates virtual hard-drives. I have used Truecrypt to create containers at the root of my Western Digital© digital external hard drive. I have never had a problem doing so. Truecrypt however, refused to create a container in the root of the GoFlex© drive, saying I did not have permission to do so. I could have tried to create the volume inside of a folder but I wanted the volume at the root. This is how I overcame this issue.1. I took (virtual) ownership of the GoFlex device (hard drive).
2. I changed User's permissions to "Full control".
After this, Truecrypt© was able to create a virtual container at the root.
Now I'm far from having the skills needed to be an "IT guy" and I have never changed the permissions for anything. The accompanying picture will help show the details of this puzzle.
Straight from the factory, the GoFlex hard drive is configured with at least 3 user groups. They are :
-Everyone;
-Creator Owner;
-System.
Of these, user group "System" has full permissions.
On first connection to your computer, the GoFlex Drive, must apparently, create 2 more user groups:
-Administrators (JaneDoe\Administrators);
-Users (JaneDoe\Users)
Administrators is now listed under Properties>Security... as having full permissions. So far so good. Users is listed as only having partial permissions. This is where I think the problem lies. GoFlex calls you the User, even though you are also the Administrator. Writing files to the drive's root or altering root file's attributes are met with disdain.
Windows' help-file suggests that the most important thing to do when changing permissions is to take ownership of the drive. So, under Advanced Security Settings, I changed the current owner to "my name" (ie. Users(my name\Users)).
After doing this Truecrypt still refused to cooperate.
Next, I did something even simpler, I clicked on the Edit button of the main Security tab and changed permissions of "Users (my name\Users)" by checking the permissions box "Full control". This causes all the other boxes below to automatically fill up with checkmarks. When this is done, the hard drive for the next 30-60 seconds marks the meta-data in all your existing GoFlex hard drive files giving you permission over them. At least, this is what I think happenes. Anyway, it took about a minute. As a result, Truecrypt is able to create a container at the root of the hard drive.
This is the best I can do, being a lay-person. I'm left wondering though, if taking ownership of the root drive was necessary in the first place.
[entry Sept.30.2011]
I use Windows 7's Backup and Restore program to save a system-image and personal data to a non GoFlex hard drive, another brand of external hard drive. I open the resulting files in the external hard drive to see what they look like. And, I am met with prompts telling me I don't have permission to access the folder or the file(s).
Maybe the problem isn't with the GoFlex hard drive as I stated above, but this issue maybe due to Windows 7!
Anyway, if you click on the folder the proper way, eventually you do get to view it. Permissions are a frustrating feature for the average home computer user (me). Unless you know what you are doing, changing permissions requires what seems to be layers upon layers of navigation.
Summary of what I think is the important points of this article:
1.) fiddle with the hard drive, (or folder's) properties/security/permission settings until you get ownership linked to your username.
2.) Play with the permission settings so that your username has the checkbox(es) marked to "Full Control".
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