Verify permissions, is it wise?

Last time I used Verify Permissions to resolve a problem on MacHD (SSD), it completely sh*gged my system big time. The Mac treated me a new user and I lost every single email and every application went into demo mode and needed the serial keying in.

I need to use VP again because I have some hierarchical folders in my Trash after a Data Rescue 3 session to recover some deleted stuff from an external SSD. The Trash won’t empty under any circumstances (I don’t have permission), including Secure empty and Terminal use. The folders sitting within one another are: Recovered movies / Recovered files / Scan / Scan2 / /v%9Esv%[F1%AD%FA<M]%E3R%F4t This last folder’s name starts with a /

I can’t remove the folders to desktop it merely copies itself and can’t rename that last folder. So it looks like VP is the only way. My real question to anyone who understands this well enough is looking at the screenshot link of Disk Utility VP suggestions is will this remove me as a user again or are its suggestions fairly innocuous?

Thanks guys.

http://hfdesign.net/images/VPscreen.png


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Can you mount this disk on another Mac, maybe using Target Disk Mode? The key is to use the Ignore Permissions on this Volume option (only available if the disk is not the startup device). If you have another external disk, and you put a bootable system on that, that will also work. Once you do this, you should be able to delete the errant files and then reboot under the original disk and all will be well.

Walter


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Thank you Walt, I had thought of target mode but didn’t think the trash would show up. I’ll try that with my MBPro connected.

The errant drive is the main boot drive.


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The trash is just a folder. It’s normally invisible, but if you use the Terminal, you can see it and remove everything from it.

Start up your Mac with the T key down, then connect it to your laptop with a FireWire cable. It should appear on the desktop as a drive. Click once on the disk icon, and choose Get Info from the File menu. In the inspector that appears, check the Ignore ownership on this volume check box at the bottom. Then use Terminal.app to navigate into the disk. Type the following, each line followed by a return:

cd /Volumes
ls
(you should see a list of attached disks, copy the one you need)
cd [paste disk name here]
ls -a

The -a flag means show everything – even invisible files. You should see a folder named .Trashes listed. CD into that, and you should see your trash. (The first user on the Mac – the owner – will have the Trash named 501 – that’s the user account number. Other users will have different numbers. It is perfectly safe to delete the entire contents of this folder.)

(you're at /Volumes/yourDiskName/.Trashes/)
rm -Rf *

That last command is rm (remove) -R (recursive) -f (force) * (everything in the current folder). It’s the ultra-delete. Hope your Time Machine is up to date. Only issue this command if you are sure you are inside the folder where your bad content is. Once you do this, drag the FireWire icon to the trash to unmount your Mac, and restart it. You should have a nice new clean trash folder inside the .Trashes folder.

Walter

On Feb 11, 2015, at 1:43 PM, Kryten email@hidden wrote:

Thank you Walt, I had thought of target mode but didn’t think the trash would show up. I’ll try that with my MBPro connected.

The errant drive is the main boot drive.


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I’d never have worked all that out Walt, thank you. Fingers crossed.


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Ah, just worked out why Target disk mode doesn’t work. I have something installed (whose name I forget - Open Firmware Password is it?) that when I boot with the option key down another password field pops up in a grey screen. After that, I get all available drives to boot from. I presume that’s causing it. Not sure how to disable it until I can work out what the app is.


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Interestingly, starting with Command + R to turn of EFI firmware password doesn’t work either. Whatever this (Option key) grey boot screen is also has a padlock over the password field.


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