Cannot write to 2nd HDD, "you are not the owner"?

[germanix]

The drag and drop to this partion works. When I am in the file browser I cannot create a new file or new document on that partition. I need to create files there which I then want to symlink to my Home on the SSD. Under "properties - "permissions" the owner is still Root

[coffeecat]

The drag and drop to this partion works.

Then everything should be working as it should.

When I am in the file browser I cannot create a new file or new document on that partition.

Then you must be in the wrong place, or you are describing something else. If you can drag and drop to the partition, then you can create new files there. I don't really follow you. If you open the mounted partition from the launcher icon, you are in the file browser. Perhaps if you describe step by step what you are doing that prevents you from creating new files or documents, we will be able to see where the problem is.

I'll make one suggestion before we go any further. The blkid output that you posted earlier shows clearly that you have allocated the label "Data" to partition sda1. Since it is mounted to /media/jacques/9e97e491-92a2-452b-b1aa-17a8200d4544 you must have mounted it before you labelled the partition, otherwise the mount point would be /media/jacques/Data. It will make things a lot easier if it is mounted to /media/jacques/Data because then it will appear as "Data" in the left pane of the file browser and "Data" will appear when you hover the mouse over the launcher icon.

Either... right-click on the launcher icon and choose "Unmount". Then left-click on the icon to remount it.

Or... Reboot and click on the launcher icon to mount it.

[germanix]

I did what you suggested and it now works. previously I could create files there as the option to do so was greyed out. After I have now unmounted and then remounted it, all is fine. I am very gratefull to you for helping me solve this problem. Perhaps you would also be so kind to explain to me how I can to create symlinks. I wish to have the bulk of my home files like Docs, pictures, music etc. on this partion that now works but with symlinks to the "Home" partition on the SSD. Could I also move my "dropbox" file to the new partition?
Whatever you decide, you have been very kind and I thank you for all your help. Have a nice day.

[coffeecat]

Symlinks are a great way to achieve what you want, but there is one complication. For symlinks to work consistently, the sda1 partition must be mounted to the same mountpoint every time. Now that you have labelled sda1 as "Data", this will probably happen every time you click on the icon launcher, but another problem will be that if, after booting up, you open your home folder before you click on the launcher icon for Data (and therefore mount it) you will see a number of broken links. They will become unbroken once you mount sda1, but to get over this and to avoid the potential issue of sda1 being mounted to a different mountpoint, you need to add a line to /etc/fstab. I'll post back later with some suggestions for this, but first:

Symlinks. It's easy enough to do from the command line, but it's also easy in the GUI. Try this. Open the Data folder. Create a folder for whatever you want but for the moment avoid names of pre-existing folders in your home, such as Music, Pictures, etc. Let's say "Spreadsheets" for illustration - create a folder called Spreadsheets in Data. You can always delete it later if you don't want it. Once you have a folder called Spreadsheets in Data, right-click on it and choose "Make Link". It will create a link called "Link to Spreadsheets". Of course it's not much use yet as it's sitting in the same location as the target, but we're only half-done. Now open your home folder and drag and drop "Link to Spreadsheets" over to the home folder where it will be copied. You'll find, if you put some stuff in the Spreadsheets folder, that if you open Link to Spreadsheets in your home, it will open in Spreadsheets in Data. You can delete the Link folder in Data now and rename Link to Spreadsheets in home, perhaps to just Spreadsheets.

You can do the same with Music and Pictures and so on, but you'll need to delete the pre-existing folders in home if you want the links to be the same name. I don't know how to get the special icons that are on the home Music and Pictures folders onto the link folders.

I'll post again with some suggestions for /etc/fstab.

[oldfred]

I use symlinks a lot. From both my Linux formatted partition and my older NTFS formatted partition. I prefer /mnt/Data, so then mount does not show in Nautilus. If /media it will also show and can be confusing.

Splitting home directory discussion and details:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1811198
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1901437
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...hlight=%2Fdata

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1983336
Mount & edit fstab from Morbius1 - suggest using templates instead. Post #6

For ext4:
UUID=076426af-cbc5-4966-8cd4-af0f5c879646 /mnt/Data ext4 defaults,noatime 0 2

** To find the correct UUID for your partitions:
sudo blkid -c /dev/null -o list
** You will have to create the mount point yourself, for example:
sudo mkdir /mnt/Data
** Then add the template with the correct UUID and mount point to fstab:
sudo cp /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.backup
gksu gedit /etc/fstab

** And when you are done editing fstab and saving it run the following command to test for errors and mount the partitions without requiring a reboot. You will know before you reboot if something is amiss. Make sure you have partition unmounted if previously mounted:
sudo mount -a


If you have any data in existing folders be sure to back that up. If name already exists link will not work.

#from home so default location of link is in /home/fred
mv Music oldMusic
# Music is a folder in the partition mounted as /mnt/data
ln -s /mnt/Data/Music
#Or link all folders with one command:
for i in `echo /mnt/Data/*`;do ln -s $i; done

[germanix]

Thank you very much coffeecat and oldfred. You have been a great help. Surely appreciate all your help. Got it up and running now. You all have a nice day.