Ubuntu
util-linux package

The destination is read-only?

Asked by Aysha Mahmood

I'm like totally new to ubuntu and as un-geek as ungeek can get :). So I will need detailed step by step instructions please.

I use a seagate hard disk 500 gb, which has been running perfectly fine with my Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, until two days back i was copying some movies on it and suddenly it turned to read only. Everytime I try to copy or compress movies on it, it shows "The destination is read-only.". I tried changing the permissions, but that is not working.

Can someone pls help?

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#1

Unmount the partition and fsck the partition, if its NTFS then use a windows OS. Make sure you SAFELY remove the drive rather than simply wrenching the device from the USB

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Aysha Mahmood (aisibi) said : 		#2

Thanks for trying to help, but what is fsck, NTFS? I'm totally lost...

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#3

NTFS is the windows format, if you formatted the partition originally then it will most likely be NTFS. fsck is a command for checking the health of Linux partitions. There are guides all over for it.

If you run:

sudo parted -l

You can see what filesystem the partition you cannot mount, uses.

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Allan Shand (ashand79) said : 		#4

fsck is like the dos program chkdsk which is used to check for errors in disks and repair them the wiki page is here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fsck

NTFS is similar to FAT32 both of which are formatting methods used by windows. When a hard drive, usb stick etc. is new it is an empty space what formating does is put some boxes in that space and numbers so that it is easier for the computer to find where it put your spreadsheet music collection etc.. NTFS and FAT32 are just different ways of arranging the boxes. Ubuntu uses EXT4 at the moment for reference.

ps there is an example of how to use fsck in the wiki page.

Hope this helps

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Aysha Mahmood (aisibi) said : 		#5

Hello, when I ran sudo parted -l, this is what came up

device-mapper: deps ioctl failed: No such device or address

You found a bug in GNU Parted! Here's what you have to do:

Don't panic! The bug has most likely not affected any of your data.
Help us to fix this bug by doing the following:

Check whether the bug has already been fixed by checking
the last version of GNU Parted that you can find at:

 http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/parted/

Please check this version prior to bug reporting.

If this has not been fixed yet or if you don't know how to check,
please visit the GNU Parted website:

 http://www.gnu.org/software/parted

for further information.

Your report should contain the version of this release (2.2)
along with the error message below, the output of

 parted DEVICE unit co print unit s print

and the following history of commands you entered.
Also include any additional information about your setup you
consider important.

Command History:
Segmentation fault

Which is what?

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delance (olivier-delance) said : 		#6

Raise a bug against "gparted".

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