[Solved] Fixing Permissions on USB with FAT

[ms_meme]

I recently and accidentally discovered many of my Folder/Files did not have the correct permissions.  They have now been corrected.
(If needed to help solve the problem, I can give more detail about the files that had wrong permissions.)

I have a USB where I save my files.  I usually do a weekly save.
I realized that some the Folders/Files on the USB would have been saved there with the old permissions. So I planned to redo the USB by over riding the old files.

After reentering some files from the the hard drive to the USB, I decided to spot check the permissions and realized that the new permissions were not carrying over. I tried changing them on the USB, but that did not work.

I was told it was probably due to the USB being FAT.

The purpose of the USB is to save the Folders/Files in case I lose or delete something from hard drive.  Or if perhaps I reinstall and need to then transfer them to the new install. (I did do that once before.)

Now I am realizing that if I do that with the Folder/Files that are currently on the USB, the permissions will all be wrong.

So I need help correcting the permissions on the USB.

[Old-Polack]

I recently and accidentally discovered many of my Folder/Files did not have the correct permissions.  They have now been corrected.
(If needed to help solve the problem, I can give more detail about the files that had wrong permissions.)

I have a USB where I save my files.  I usually do a weekly save.
I realized that some the Folders/Files on the USB would have been saved there with the old permissions. So I planned to redo the USB by over riding the old files.

After reentering some files from the the hard drive to the USB, I decided to spot check the permissions and realized that the new permissions were not carrying over. I tried changing them on the USB, but that did not work.

I was told it was probably due to the USB being FAT.

The purpose of the USB is to save the Folders/Files in case I lose or delete something from hard drive.  Or if perhaps I reinstall and need to then transfer them to the new install. (I did do that once before.)

Now I am realizing that if I do that with the Folder/Files that are currently on the USB, the permissions will all be wrong.

So I need help correcting the permissions on the USB.

The FAT filesystems do not understand Linux permissions at all. If you want to use the USB stick as a backup for Linux files and directories it needs to be formatted with a Linux native filesystem. I would suggest ext3 as a good choice.

[TerryN]

I was told it was probably due to the USB being FAT.

That is correct.  FAT has no concept of permissions.  So either you need to format the stick as something other than FAT
or use an Archive (something like Ark or tar) rather than copying files directly to the stick.

Terry

[ms_meme]

The FAT filesystems do not understand Linux permissions at all. If you want to use the USB stick as a backup for Linux files and directories it needs to be formatted with a Linux native filesystem. I would suggest ext3 as a good choice.

Getting ready to reformat with ext3. Will mark solved when I finish. 

I was told it was probably due to the USB being FAT.

  FAT has no concept of permissions. 

Terry

Me neither. 

[Old-Polack]

The FAT filesystems do not understand Linux permissions at all. If you want to use the USB stick as a backup for Linux files and directories it needs to be formatted with a Linux native filesystem. I would suggest ext3 as a good choice.

Getting ready to reformat with ext3. Will mark solved when I finish. 

I was told it was probably due to the USB being FAT.

  FAT has no concept of permissions. 

Terry

Me neither. 

 


How about, "You have my permission to reformat your USB stick".

If your reaction is, "I don't need your permission to reformat my own USB stick" you really do understand permissions. 

[ms_meme]

I recently changed my USB to a FAT.  I don't understand all of it but accept on faith. 
I did have it set another way which let my Windows also see the things on the Drive.  Of course now it can not. I store my backup on the USB.

Also on my USB is a partition that holds several live OS.  I have KDE, LXDE and XFce.
I am able to reboot and bring up the LXDE and XFce but not KDE.  It has been concluded that I don't have enough memory to bring up KDE.

I posed this question to someone:  What if I got a new computer which had Windows on it..   and I wanted to transfer my stored Folders to Windows.  Or what if I wanted to transfer some of my Folders to a friend's computer running Windows?

As I understand the answer, I can plug in the USB in my (imaginary) new computer with Windows  OR into a friend's computer, reboot and bring up either LXDE of XFce Live OS.  There I would see the different partions of what ever computer I was on...including Windows and do a copy/paste and transfer any Folder/Files from the USB.


I have done this myself with my own computer.  Bring up the live OS, mount whatever partition I want including Windows and make the transfer. (But actually I did the transfer from the partition and not from the saved folders on USB....)

I have taken my USB to two friends each who run Windows.  When we plug in my USB and reboot, nothing happens.  The USB does not boot.  It does not even show as being there in any drive.

I am not sure what my question is, but there must be a question somewhere. 

[AS]

I have taken my USB to two friends each who run Windows.  When we plug in my USB and reboot, nothing happens.  The USB does not boot.  It does not even show as being there in any drive.

On each computer, usually there is a list of drive that will be sequentially evaluated at boot time, trying to find a 'bootable system'.
The list can include:

- Hard disks
- CD/DVD units
- USB devices
- Network
- others removable (i.e. Floppy, Zip drive)

It's up to the computer user to define the appropriate precedence for each device, you may want something like:

1st - CD/DVD
2nd - USB
3rd - Hard disk
4th ....
5th ....

This way:
if a bootable CD/ROM is inserted and it contains a bootable system it will be used to boot,
else if a USB device is plugged in and it contains a bootable system it will be used to boot,
else if a hard disk is present and it contains a bootable system it will be used to boot,
else ....

Some systems allow to temporarily change the boot sequence only for one boot, pressing F12 (or some other key),
and selecting the device to boot from, as opposed to change the sequence permanently in BIOS setup.

AS

[ms_meme]

OK, thanks, as.

[Just18]

I recently changed my USB to a FAT.  I don't understand all of it but accept on faith.   
I did have it set another way which let my Windows also see the things on the Drive.  Of course now it can not. I store my backup on the USB.

I would imagine that should read

I recently changed my USB to ext.  I don't understand all of it but accept on faith. 
I did have it set another way (probably FAT) which let my Windows also see the things on the Drive.  Of course now it can not. I store my backup on the USB.

[gseaman]

One way to back up to a fat usb flash drive is to compress it with tar first. Tar will save the file permission in the compressed file.

Galen