# External drive has become Read-Only ??
**URL:** https://dietpi.com/forum/t/external-drive-has-become-read-only/1513
**Category:** Troubleshooting
**Created:** [21 September 2017 15:01 UTC](https://dietpi.com/forum/t/external-drive-has-become-read-only/1513 "2017-09-21T15:01:36Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@brtravel](https://dietpi.com/forum/u/brtravel)
#### Post date: [21 September 2017 15:01 UTC](https://dietpi.com/forum/t/external-drive-has-become-read-only/1513/1 "2017-09-21T15:01:36Z")
Hello all, I’m quite enjoying my new ODROID C2 running DietPi, though I’m a total novice.
I have it set up running Plex Media Server, Kodi, and PiHole. I have a 2TB compact Seagate drive connected for media which worked perfectly for several days, but the last 2 days is saying Read-Only when I try to add files by FTP.
- The 2TB drive is powered by the C2 (it has no auxillary power input, the C2 is using the Odroid 2A power supply)
- The 2TB drive is formatted HFS+ unjournaled
- I am using ProFTP in the Dietpi configuration to make changes to the media
- I have moved the user data to the external media drive
- I have checked the dietpi-drive\_manager and it says the drive status “online and ready for use” and the Read only is “Disabled”
- When I FTP in and try to add a file (like was previously working) here is what I get (Filezilla2 for Mac):
```nohighlight
Status: Connecting to 192.168.2.49:21...
Status: Connection established, waiting for welcome message...
Status: Logged in
Status: Retrieving directory listing...
Status: Directory listing of "/" successful
Status: Retrieving directory listing of "/TV Shows"...
Status: Directory listing of "/TV Shows" successful
Status: Creating directory '/TV Shows/New directory'...
Command: MKD New directory
Response: 550 New directory: Read-only file system
```
A little help please? Any ideas?
---
### Author:  [@WarHawk](https://dietpi.com/forum/u/WarHawk)
#### Post date: [22 September 2017 07:50 UTC](https://dietpi.com/forum/t/external-drive-has-become-read-only/1513/2 "2017-09-22T07:50:22Z")
Are the directories and files in the PLEX directory under the user/group that PLEX is running as?
---
### Author:  [@brtravel](https://dietpi.com/forum/u/brtravel)
#### Post date: [22 September 2017 09:08 UTC](https://dietpi.com/forum/t/external-drive-has-become-read-only/1513/3 "2017-09-22T09:08:51Z")
> [@WarHawk](#):
>
> Are the directories and files in the PLEX directory under the user/group that PLEX is running as?
Did I mention that I’m a total novice 😮
I don’t understand all the parts of the question. I don’t think I have any user/groups set up, I still use the default login only for the device (root/dietpi), and within Plex I only have one user account.
I installed DietPi on the eMMC card, after getting DietPi installed I attached the external hard drive, in dietpi-drive\_manager I transferred the user files to the external hard drive. The Plex media is going to the external hard drive, and when I connect by FTP to the device I could (last week) add files from my computer into this media directory (confirmed in drive manager the disk usage shows the media is going to the external drive).
Without a GUI file manager I don’t know how to see where the files are in the bigger picture. When I login with FTP the directory has Movies, Pictures, Music, etc. folders that I did not create (can’t say I’m sure if it was Plex or Kodi), and I can’t go up any further in the drive hierarchy.
What’s so strange to me is this was working fine last week, I could add, change, and delete files to the media drive over FPT.
---
### Author:  [@brtravel](https://dietpi.com/forum/u/brtravel)
#### Post date: [25 September 2017 09:23 UTC](https://dietpi.com/forum/t/external-drive-has-become-read-only/1513/4 "2017-09-25T09:23:41Z")
Any more help out there?
---
### Author:  [@WarHawk](https://dietpi.com/forum/u/WarHawk)
#### Post date: [26 September 2017 07:49 UTC](https://dietpi.com/forum/t/external-drive-has-become-read-only/1513/5 "2017-09-26T07:49:34Z")
If you reboot your system does it go read/write again
I know on my external, I had to put a /etc/crontab entry to touch the harddrive every 30 min to prevent it going to sleep
In /etc/crontab I added
30 \* \* \* \* root /bin/touch /dev/sda1 &\>/dev/null
Command line in Linux is alot like DOS
cd = change directory
dir or ls = list directory
cd … goes back a directory
it’s a bit tricky and has a pretty hefty learning curve, but Linux is pretty straight forward
Have you tried to install webmin (GUI front end for alot of services on a Linux system, nice thing is you log in to [http://ip.of.your.OPI:10000](http://ip.of.your.OPI:10000))
also typing mount will show you the mounted partitions/drives, look for /dev/sdb or something like that, that should tell you were the mounted external drive is located
mine shows /dev/sda1 on /mnt/a bunch of numbers (that is where your personal files are)
---
### Author:  [@brtravel](https://dietpi.com/forum/u/brtravel)
#### Post date: [26 September 2017 08:46 UTC](https://dietpi.com/forum/t/external-drive-has-become-read-only/1513/6 "2017-09-26T08:46:44Z")
> [@WarHawk](#):
>
> If you reboot your system does it go read/write again
> I know on my external, I had to put a /etc/crontab entry to touch the harddrive every 30 min to prevent it going to sleep
> In /etc/crontab I added
> 30 \* \* \* \* root /bin/touch /dev/sda1 &\>/dev/null
>
> Command line in Linux is alot like DOS
>
> cd = change directory
> dir or ls = list directory
> cd … goes back a directory
>
> it’s a bit tricky and has a pretty hefty learning curve, but Linux is pretty straight forward
> Have you tried to install webmin (GUI front end for alot of services on a Linux system, nice thing is you log in to [http://ip.of.your.OPI:10000](http://ip.of.your.OPI:10000))
>
> also typing mount will show you the mounted partitions/drives, look for /dev/sdb or something like that, that should tell you were the mounted external drive is located
> mine shows /dev/sda1 on /mnt/a bunch of numbers (that is where your personal files are)
Thank you for the additional help.
When I reboot and try accessing the drive right away it still says read-only.
When I check ‘mount’ it gives me a long output, in two places I see the long drive name that I recognize for the 2TB external (recognize from seeing it in dietpi-drive\_manager)
```plaintext
...
systemd-1 on /mnt/2f9afb70-312c-35d2-9c73-5c7a1ae90777 type autofs (rw,relatime,fd=24,pgrp=1,timeout=300,minproto=5,maxproto=5,direct)
...
/dev/sda1 on /mnt/2f9afb70-312c-35d2-9c73-5c7a1ae90777 type hfsplus (ro,noatime,umask=22,uid=0,gid=0,nls=utf8)
...
```
The second occurence I assume that ‘ro’ means read-only? Hmm. Yet in drive manager it says “Read only: disabled”.
---
### Author:  [@Fourdee](https://dietpi.com/forum/u/Fourdee)
#### Post date: [26 September 2017 13:16 UTC](https://dietpi.com/forum/t/external-drive-has-become-read-only/1513/7 "2017-09-26T13:16:21Z")
> The second occurence I assume that ‘ro’ means read-only? Hmm. Yet in drive manager it says “Read only: disabled”.
Thanks, this appears to be a bug, we’ll get this fixed.
Most likely a failing drive or insufficient PSU causing filesystem corruptions over time.
What happens when you try to remount the drive in RW?
```plaintext
mount -v -o rw,remount /dev/sda1
```
And check dmesg for any errors
```plaintext
dmesg | grep sda1
```
---
### Author:  [@brtravel](https://dietpi.com/forum/u/brtravel)
#### Post date: [29 September 2017 05:11 UTC](https://dietpi.com/forum/t/external-drive-has-become-read-only/1513/8 "2017-09-29T05:11:43Z")
Thanks for the help, I ended up starting over from scratch with fresh DietPi on the eMMC, and this time formatted the 2TB external to ext4 from within the DietPi Drive Manager. Going on 2-3 days with no problem :crossingfingers: