I am unable to set permisions on new hard drive.

Could you please copy/paste the output of the following commands typed in a terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal):

sudo df -h
sudo fdisk -l

Thanks,

Nicolas

bill@wburris:~$ sudo df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sdb5 221G 4.3G 206G 3% /
varrun 992M 100K 991M 1% /var/run
varlock 992M 0 992M 0% /var/lock
udev 992M 68K 992M 1% /dev
devshm 992M 12K 992M 1% /dev/shm
lrm 992M 43M 950M 5% /lib/modules/2.6.24-16-generic/volatile
/dev/sdc1 463G 199M 439G 1% /media/disk
/dev/sdd1 463G 199M 439G 1% /media/disk-1
bill@wburris:~$ sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xd11ed11e

   Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 30400 244187968+ 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdb: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xc198c198

   Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 604 30401 239352435 5 Extended
/dev/sdb5 604 29661 233408353+ 83 Linux
/dev/sdb6 29662 30401 5944018+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/sdc: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000779e1

   Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 1 60801 488384001 83 Linux

Disk /dev/sdd: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0000e5dd

   Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdd1 1 60801 488384001 83 Linux
bill@wburris:~$

Looking at the output you've shown above, it looks like everything is fine with the disks and that they're correctly mounted.

In order for you to be able to write to external devices, Ubuntu requires that you be a member of the plugdev group. This can be acheived by going to :

System->Administration->Users and Groups

Choosing the groups tab and selecting the plugdev group then clicking on properties and adding yourself to it.
Once this is done, you should be able to write to the newly added drives.

Cheers,

Nicolas

This did not solve the problem

Hello wburris,

Could you please copy/paste the output of the following commands typed in a terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal):

cat /etc/fstab
ls -ltr /media/disk
ls -ltr /media/disk-1

Aleks

Thanks, changing the permissions on /media/disk and /media/disk-1 solved the problem.

When I was looking at the permissions for the drive icons under Computer in Nautilus, it was not letting me set the permissions. Next time I have to remember to look at the underlying file system.

This is the fstab file & contents of the external drives after changing the permissions and writing a test file to each drive.

bill@wburris:~$ cat /etc/fstab
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
# /dev/sdb5
UUID=84050211-062d-44db-ae34-d4cfe599f7ea / ext3 relatime,errors=remount-ro 0 1
# /dev/sdb6
UUID=49126862-0f44-4ef6-9f19-2ed625a7c7a7 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0
/dev/fd0 /media/floppy0 auto rw,user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0
bill@wburris:~$ ls -ltr /media/disk
total 3536
drwxrwxrwx 2 root root 16384 2008-05-12 20:20 lost+found
-rw-r--r-- 1 bill bill 3598299 2008-05-17 12:25 img_8576.jpg
bill@wburris:~$ ls -ltr /media/disk-1
total 3536
drwxrwxrwx 2 root root 16384 2008-05-12 21:14 lost+found
-rw-r--r-- 1 bill bill 3598299 2008-05-17 12:25 img_8576.jpg
bill@wburris:~$

Thanks Aleks, that solved my question.