How to fix external hard disk READ ONLY?

Try executing the following command in a terminal:

sudo mount -o remount,uid=1000,gid=1000,rw /dev/sdc1

Explanation:

• -o means "with these options".
• remount - remounts the drive over the same mount point with the same previous options.
• uid=1000 - this option makes the user with id 1000 the owner of the drive. This is probably your username's id if you only have one username. If you have more than one username on your system, run the command id and use the number after uid=.
• gid=1000 - this option makes the group with id 1000 the group owner of the drive. Same notes as previous point.
• rw - this option mounts the drive as read/write. It was probably read/write anyways, but this is just to double check.
• /dev/sdc1 is the name of the partition or device (can be checked in GParted in case you need to do the same with a different hardisk)

Since you've already tried this command and it didn't work, let's try manually mounting the drive. Follow the below:

1. sudo umount /dev/sdc1

• This unmounts the drive.

2. sudo mkdir toshibaHDD

• This will create a new mount point.

3. sudo mount -o rw,uid=1000,gid=1000,user,exec,umask=003,blksize=4096 /dev/sdc1 /media/toshibaHDD

• user - permits any user to mount the drive
• exec - allows for execution of binaries on this drive. You can remove this option if you want.
• umask=003 - this will give rwxrwxr-- permissions to everything (directories and files) inside the drive. Alternatively, you can use dmask and fmask instead of umask to give separate permissions to directories and files (respectively).
• /media/toshibaHDD - is the name of the hardisk (can be checked in GParted in case you need to do the same with a different hardisk)

Now check the permissions of your drive.

---

##Edit

Follow the steps to make it permanent:

1. Unplug your external hard disk.
2. cd /etc
3. sudo cp fstab fstab.bak

• This takes a backup of the file we're about to edit.

3. sudo nano fstab

• This opens up the fstab file in a text editor.

4. Move the blinking cursor to the end of the file, and paste the following two lines:

    # line for mounting the external drive
    UUID=D04A-0AE4   /media/toshibaHDD  exfat   rw,uid=1000,gid=1000,user,exec,umask=003,blksize=4096   0   0
   

5. Hit Ctrl+X, then Y, then Enter to save and close.

That's it. Now, when you plug your external hard disk in, it will always have those options.

i shall just mention this here but when I plug my external HDD which is in a caddie sometimes it produces the Read-only situation which means NO adding to it ... it seems sudo umount of said volume followed by sudo mount simply cures that for a while at least [may have to repeat]... no idea why that is but it simply does