Won't boot up after 'Sharing & Permissions' change...

Peer · 03-21-2013, 09:41 AM

I'm probably an idiot -- I just set the 'Sharing & Permissions' for my disk to 'No Access' for 'everyone' (didn't touch anything else) ... and it instantly got into an endless spinning wheel. I rebooted but it stops at the gray apple -- just sitting there as if it can't find a startup disk. This is the only change I did. (It's a 17" MBP with Mountain Lion.)

As always, any help/pointers appreciated.

-- peer

agentx · 03-21-2013, 10:28 AM

Yes you should never "play" with permissions unless you know what you are doing !

Now to see how badly it is messed up did you use the "apply to enclosed items" ?
If you did you are screwed and will need to reinstall OS and completely correct everything on drive.

If you just changed the Everyone permissions on top level of drive then you can correct.

You will need to boot off Installer disk/Recovery Partition and correct using Terminal.

agentx · 03-21-2013, 10:30 AM

Boot off recovery Partition.

Open Terminal from top menu.

And run this command substituting the name of your hard disk in Quotes just in case you have a space in name of drive.

chmod 755 /Volumes/"Mac Hard disk Name"

reboot and finger crossed.

03-21-2013, 09:41 AM	#1
Peer Prospect Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 32	Won't boot up after 'Sharing & Permissions' change... I'm probably an idiot -- I just set the 'Sharing & Permissions' for my disk to 'No Access' for 'everyone' (didn't touch anything else) ... and it instantly got into an endless spinning wheel. I rebooted but it stops at the gray apple -- just sitting there as if it can't find a startup disk. This is the only change I did. (It's a 17" MBP with Mountain Lion.) As always, any help/pointers appreciated. -- peer

03-21-2013, 10:28 AM	#2
agentx Hall of Famer Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Brighton, UK Posts: 3,806	Yes you should never "play" with permissions unless you know what you are doing ! Now to see how badly it is messed up did you use the "apply to enclosed items" ? If you did you are screwed and will need to reinstall OS and completely correct everything on drive. If you just changed the Everyone permissions on top level of drive then you can correct. You will need to boot off Installer disk/Recovery Partition and correct using Terminal. Last edited by agentx; 03-21-2013 at 10:31 AM.

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03-21-2013, 10:30 AM	#3
agentx Hall of Famer Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Brighton, UK Posts: 3,806	Boot off recovery Partition. Open Terminal from top menu. And run this command substituting the name of your hard disk in Quotes just in case you have a space in name of drive. chmod 755 /Volumes/"Mac Hard disk Name" reboot and finger crossed.