Can't copy files from external HD to Linux partition

[gumby]

When I try to copy files from my external HD to my Data Partition, which is mounted in Home, I get this error:

Error while copying "Current/
There was an error copying the file into /home/gumby/Data1.
Show more details:
Error opening file '/home/gumby/Data1/Current': Permission denied."

How do I get permission? Also, how can I get Linux to stop demanding passwords and permissions from me all the time? I am the only user of my computer and furthermore, all my important documents will be encrypted, so I don't know if I need this level of password/permission paranoia

Forgot to mention. There are padlock icons on my Data Partitions in Nautilus, if that's relevant.

[Fred]

gumby,

You just can't seem to win for loosing can you my friend.

OK... we will get rid of some of that foolishness. Open a terminal and type:

sudo chown -hR gumby:gumby /home/gumby

and

sudo chmod -hR 0755 /home/gumby

That should fix that problem for good.

Fred

[gumby]

Fred,

I entered the first command and got this:

sudo chown -hR gumby:gumby /home/gumby
chown: cannot access `/home/gumby/.gvfs': Permission denied

Didn't try to post your second command yet.

[Fred]

gumby,

As garda said in another thread, something is a bit strange about this install. Let's do it differently. In a terminal type:

sudo su

chown -R gumby:gumby /home/gumby

and

chmod -R 0755 /home/gumby

See if that works for you.

Fred

[gumby]

Fred,

I ran sudo su and
chown -R gumby:gumby /home/gumby, and the same thing happened as before. Same Permission Denied message.

So I decided to restart the computer. After restarting, the padlocks were gone from my Data folders, and even my bizarre new repeating keyboard problem (see my keyboard post) was gone.

Now I am able to copy to my data folders.

Should I still try to run your commands? What will they do for me?

Thanks again. Don't know what I'd do without you!

[Fred]

gumby,

Go ahead and run the last set of commands I gave you again. the ones that started with sudo su. Thats the permissions we want to be in place. If they already are then no harm done.

Fred

[gumby]

gumby,

As garda said in another thread, something is a bit strange about this install. Let's do it differently. In a terminal type:

sudo su

chown -R gumby:gumby /home/gumby

and

chmod -R 0755 /home/gumby

See if that works for you.

Fred

Fred,

I tried this again now and got the same result:

chown: cannot access `/home/gumby/.gvfs': Permission denied

chmod: cannot access `/home/gumby/.gvfs': Permission denied

The original problem -- the inability to copy to my data folders which had Lock icons on them -- is gone. But still, these commands don't seem to do what you want them to do.

Sorry to disappear for a few days. I realize now that a lot of the problems i was having with bizarre behavior of my system, especially the keyboard, was due to a faulty USB hub. I'm still trying to get everything working on my system.

Gumby