

- #Cant find documents on mac after os upgrade upgrade#
- #Cant find documents on mac after os upgrade full#
Setting the system to ignore permissions on the external drive will allow full access to all files on the drive. This pairing of a user account and its files is done by special User ID codes associated with the account, so even if the current username is the same as the old one, if these codes are different, the system will deny access to the files. OS X governs how user accounts access files and folders through user and group permissions settings, and unlike many shared resources such as those in the global library and system folders, user account files are restricted for all except the owner of that account. This behavior on the old drive indicates that the system recognizes permissions restrictions on the drive and is enforcing them. Instead of being able to browse all files on the drive, the drive will contain folders with a red prohibitory symbol, and opening or copying these files will give you a permissions-denied error.

Instead, by simply attaching the drive to the Mac using a USB or FireWire drive enclosure or adaptor, they can mount the old drive on the system and copy files from it however, upon doing so might find their files inaccessible. While Time Machine and other backup solutions offer convenient ways to locate and restore files (and is recommended to use as a backup option before upgrading any drive) sometimes people might not have resources to do this or might not wish to use automatic restoration options for getting their files to the new system. However, users might still wish to access their old drive in order to read a configuration file or two, or manually copy files they might need to the new system. While Apple offers options to migrate user files, accounts, and settings to the new drive either from the old drive directly or from a backup, people upgrading their hard drives might take the opportunity to start fresh and create a new account and system setup to avoid any system clutter and quirks that may have accumulated over time on their old drive. The replacement of the hardware can be relatively straightforward, but sometimes you might run into hurdles when accessing files in user accounts and other locations on the older drive.
#Cant find documents on mac after os upgrade upgrade#
The hard drive on most Mac systems is one of the user-serviceable components of the system, so you can follow instructions such as these provided by Apple to access and replace the drive to upgrade it, or swap a broken one out for a working one.
