[Boondoggle]

I've got an iPod that I'm also using as an external FW drive and I am unable to set up folders on the drive with permissions that will stick. Anyone who uses the drive is the "owner".

This is a problem because if I leave the drive attached, anyone who subsequently logs in is the "owner" of all the files on the drive and can screw things up.

Is this an iPod only problem? Will I have this problem if I buy another FW external drive?

Is there a workaround short of encryption?

thanks,

bd

[dfbills]

This is the way external drives work.

Originally posted by Boondoggle:
I've got an iPod that I'm also using as an external FW drive and I am unable to set up folders on the drive with permissions that will stick. Anyone who uses the drive is the "owner".

This is a problem because if I leave the drive attached, anyone who subsequently logs in is the "owner" of all the files on the drive and can screw things up.

Is this an iPod only problem? Will I have this problem if I buy another FW external drive?

Is there a workaround short of encryption?

thanks,

bd

[Art Vandelay]

You need to turn off "Ignore ownership on this volume" in the permissions section of the Get Info window for the drive. You might have to do this every time you reconnect it to the same computer, I'm not sure.

[hudson1]

Originally posted by Boondoggle:
This is a problem because if I leave the drive attached, anyone who subsequently logs in is the "owner" of all the files on the drive and can screw things up.

I really don't wish to be viewed as a smarta$$ but wouldn't it make more sense to first focus on someone taking the iPod itself instead of the files on the iPod?

[Boondoggle]

Art Vandelay:

You need to turn off "Ignore ownership on this volume" in the permissions section of the Get Info window for the drive. You might have to do this every time you reconnect it to the same computer, I'm not sure.

Although this appears to stick, it does not work. If I mount the drive and then log out and another user logs in, he/she becomes the owner of the entire drive. Whatever permissions I've set up become thiers. This may be hardcoded into the iPod due to it's primary function as a mp3 player, I don't know.

I really don't wish to be viewed as a smarta$$ but wouldn't it make more sense to first focus on someone taking the iPod itself instead of the files on the iPod?

the iPod is secure, nobody in my family will steal it. But there are files on it that are both private and valuable, and yes I do want those files on the iPod.


This is an anoying issue with the iPod, but I'm really interested in finding out if this is the way ALL firewire external drives work. I want to get one for all users on this computer to have separate, permission protected backup spaces. if a "regular" fw drive works like the iPod does, that will not work. I have not seen anything that suggests that OSX descriminates between internal and external drives in this manner before.

Thanks for all the comments.

[Tsilou B.]

Originally posted by Boondoggle:
Although this appears to stick, it does not work. If I mount the drive and then log out and another user logs in, he/she becomes the owner of the entire drive. Whatever permissions I've set up become thiers. This may be hardcoded into the iPod due to it's primary function as a mp3 player, I don't know.




the iPod is secure, nobody in my family will steal it. But there are files on it that are both private and valuable, and yes I do want those files on the iPod.


This is an anoying issue with the iPod, but I'm really interested in finding out if this is the way ALL firewire external drives work. I want to get one for all users on this computer to have separate, permission protected backup spaces. if a "regular" fw drive works like the iPod does, that will not work. I have not seen anything that suggests that OSX descriminates between internal and external drives in this manner before.

Thanks for all the comments.

I guess it would be best to create a password-protected encrypted disk image on the ipod with DiskCopy. Then you can simply mount it every time you need it, but others can't. And since the disk image would be encrypted, even Mac OS 9 users or people with a disk editor couldn't get access.