Lost Permission to Important USB

Hey guys, hope you all had a good Turkey day.

 

I was mucking about in Windows 7 doing Updates, and had this USB in the pc at the time, well windows don't like that Linux "Infected" (kidding) USB in it's little ports lol...I guess.  Now I cannot Sync it to it's backup.  Once I noticed this... went into it and tried to Delete a File to see if it was something that was a problem, well it wasn't.  I then tried to Delete other files and could not, the "Delete" was not lit up, not Active for use.  I looked up gaining Permissions but it is over my pay scale and don't want to damage this important USB.  I do see that I still seem to have Permissions to it, but maybe need to "chown" into it to gain permissions again?  I know Al is good at this, so hopefully he comes around and takes a look.  These are the Permissions that I see for most of the files.

ls -l /media/chris/PURPLE32GB1
total 6912
drwx------  2 chris chris 16384 Jun 13 14:36 7zip

I also see this, which has the number "16" instead of "1" I did not include the files name because it is a linux client of mine, I'll add "JOE" to it for this purpose.

drwx------ 16 chris chris 16384 Oct 31 22:39 JOE

This is the one I tried to Delete first, but by the date it should not be an issue, I don't know what it is.

-rw-r--r--  1 chris chris  1374 Sep 13 17:01 BOOTEX.LOG

And this one

-rw-r--r--  1 chris chris  6449 Oct 19 08:52 Epson XP-310 Driver Install.docx

Otherwise all is basically the same, and looks normal to me.  I did notice one thing, and don't know if it matters...The USB was named "PURPLE32GB" and now it is "PURPLE32GB1"  I don't know when it changed, I did not change it, and if it was because I'm using Grsync or not.  I'm Syncing that USB to a file now called "PURPLE32GB" that was created by Grsync on another USB.

 

Thanks, Gobble gobble

 

Well...it seems my "Research" was not all that good, I think this is what is needed to be looked at instead.

ls -ld /media/chris/PURPLE32GB1
drwx------ 431 chris chris 49152 Dec 31  1969 /media/chris/PURPLE32GB1

Edited by pcpunk, 27 November 2016 - 08:46 PM.

Now this is interesting, I ran the above Command without the "1" and it returned something totally different.  Remember, this is what it was named from the beginning, and it was changed by some mechanism other than me.

ls -ld /media/chris/PURPLE32GB
drwx------ 2 root root 4096 Nov  8 15:52 /media/chris/PURPLE32GB

Crikey, Floridan friend, you get the good 'uns, lol.

 

Are there any details to be gleaned from those parts of the following commands' output which relate to your stick?:

sudo blkid

...

sudo fdisk -l

... and

lsusb

?

 

Also a GParted shot showing the details of the stick.

 

Cheers

 

Wiz

It looks like you have 2 partitions on the USB; one is called PURPLE32GB1 which is owned by you, and the other one is PURPLE32GB which is owned by root. With both partitions mounted, you should be able to list them:

ls -l /media/chris/

This command will make you the owner of PURPLE32GB, so you have full access to it as well:

sudo chown chris:chris /media/chris/PURPLE32GB

If you have files and/or directories on the partition which are also owned by root, use the recursive option instead:

sudo chown -R chris:chris /media/chris/PURPLE32GB

Edited by Al1000, 28 November 2016 - 04:50 AM.

Here ya go Wiz, don't show anything unusual to my knowledge.  I see Al has given me the solution I need...hopefully LOL.  This is the only thing listed for USB Wiz:

/dev/sdb1: LABEL="PURPLE32GB" UUID="7BB0-73F3" TYPE="vfat" PARTUUID="000d7204-01"

All looks normal here to:

Disk /dev/sdb: 29.8 GiB, 32019316736 bytes, 62537728 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x000d7204

Device     Boot Start      End  Sectors  Size Id Type
/dev/sdb1        2048 62537727 62535680 29.8G  b W95 FAT32

Here Al1000, looks normal right?  If there were two Partitions there would be Two lines like the one at the bottom right?:

ls -l /media/chris/
total 48
drwxr-xr-x 431 chris chris 49152 Dec 31  1969 PURPLE32GB

Again, all looks normal to me...and isn't labeled as PURPLE32GB1, which is the weird part?

 

 

Thanks so much guys!

Edited by pcpunk, 28 November 2016 - 08:29 PM.

Al, I ran "sudo chown chris:chris /media/chris/PURPLE32GB" but it did not fix it.  I wonder if I should try the next one?

sudo chown chris:chris /media/chris/PURPLE32GB
[sudo] password for chris: 
chown: changing ownership of '/media/chris/PURPLE32GB': Read-only file system

When I Open a document I get a warning saying "This document is opened in read only mode" with a little button to the Right saying "Edit Document"  I also could not "Save" As or "Save a Copy"

 

Isn't this the issue, the PURPLE32GB is owned by root?  Wouldn't I need to use "su" to be "root" to change from root back to "chris chris"  

Maybe that is what Al is saying to do with: "sudo chown -R chris:chris /media/chris/PURPLE32GB"  I think I will try this.

ls -ld /media/chris/PURPLE32GB
drwx------ 2 root root 4096 Nov  8 15:52 /media/chris/PURPLE32GB

Edited by pcpunk, 28 November 2016 - 08:36 PM.

After running: sudo chown -R chris:chris /media/chris/PURPLE32GB I got this at the last line.

chown: changing ownership of '/media/chris/PURPLE32GB': Read-only file system

And some other stuff that don't look good, like this:  

chown: cannot access '/media/chris/PURPLE32GB/HP Pavillion dv7 Performance/Z'$'\025''o'$'\004\b''^íⁿ.¬∩a': Input/output error

Can't believe I did this again with a USB? Grrr

Edited by pcpunk, 28 November 2016 - 08:51 PM.

Boot the computer without the USB plugged in, and check that your /media/chris/ directory is empty. If it contains a directory called PURPLE32GB, check that it is empty. A directory with something in it being used as a mountpoint would be reason for the filesystem to be mounted read-only, but the I/O error indicates that the USB might have expired.

Also, there were definitely two partitions there yesterday, /media/chris/PURPLE32GB and /media/chris/PURPLE32GB1, according to what you posted. Your system could not list details of a partition that doesn't exist.

1. That sounds interesting Al, I'll check that on the only pc that I saw that "PURPLE32GB1" on, it was the one that I'd been using to Grsync the usb to another usb.

 

2. I wouldn't argue with you on the second point, but I had done nothing to the USB but what I posted , so there were no other processes carried out that would have re-partitioned or otherwise.  I think it is just a technical glitch created when the usb was damaged.

 

I think the whole problem is that it got pulled out of the Port prematurally.  No furthure assistance needed until I look at Al's suggestions.

 

Thanks very much to all, Pcpunk

Hey guys, sorry it took so long, been a little busy.  Finally got USB fixed by going into Windows 7, plugging USB in, and when windows suggested a "fix" I agreed (can you believe I agreed to that lol) last time I did this it took an hour to fix, and there was nothing wrong with USB that time.  This time it did not take very long.  

 

I'm coming in with not much info because I seem to have lost it, and forgot to follow up with Al's suggestion correctly.  I will try Al's suggestion tonight again, but do have ONE piece of info I will post because I just shut down the offending pc, which is the only pc that the USB is named Incorrectly in File Manager and gparted.

 

I just noticed the only pc this USB is named incorrectly is the one I usually Grsync on, and more importantly, the first one plugged into after it was damaged!  Hopefully this info will help straighten it out.  It works fine now as far as I can tell, need to Back it up really soon to another USB, with Grsync, so as not to loose more work.  I will do this on a pc that it is named correctly hoping for the best.  

 

This is the correct name:  /media/chris/PURPLE32GB

 

This in the offending pc:   /media/chris/PURPLE32GB1  ( 1 ) Being the Incorrect part.

 

Thanks again to all, this is my Main USB.  It is backed up, but just want to work through the issue on the one pc, so that it don't cause me any further issues.

 

EDIT: Grsync Successful, now on to Offending pc to try Al's suggestion.

Edited by pcpunk, 04 December 2016 - 06:57 PM.

Finally, here is what I see.  I hope it will be an easy fix, tempted to just try and Delete the darn thing but will wait for our Scottish Brother Al to come along.  No hurry...I have many distro's to use laying around lol.  This was done as asked without the USB plugged in.  Indeed Al was right, there is a PURPLE32GB Directory.  When I tried to open it got a warning, the last screenshot.

 

 

 

 

Edited by pcpunk, 04 December 2016 - 08:28 PM.

Sounds like good progress being made ... well done, bro'

 

Wiz

I think the whole problem is that it got pulled out of the Port prematurally.

I just noticed the only pc this USB is named incorrectly is the one I usually Grsync on, and more importantly, the first one plugged into after it was damaged!

What I now think is happening is that this computer is mounting the USB in a mount point called /media/chris/PURPLE32GB1, because there already is a directory called /media/chris/PURPLE32GB.

So yes, with the USB unplugged, I would go ahead and delete the /media/chris/PURPLE32GB directory and any contents: (sudo rm -R /media/chris/PURPLE32GB).

Then plug the USB in, and it should mount to a new directory /media/chris/PURPLE32GB.

Thanks Al...will do that ASAP!