ARCHIVED: In Mac OS, why can't I change the name of a hard drive, folder, or volume?

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There are two likely reasons that you can't change the name of your hard disk, folder, or volume in Mac OS:

If you are using Mac OS X or Mac OS 9.x with multiple users, and you aren't logged in as an administrator or the owner, you won't have enough privileges to change the names of hard disks, volumes, and many folders.
In Mac OS 9.x and earlier, if you have File Sharing turned on, you can't rename shared hard drives, folders, or other volumes.

To solve these problems, read the instructions below:

If you are not logged in as an administrative user

In Mac OS X, you must log in as a user with administrative rights to change the names of disks, volumes, and folders.
In Mac OS 9 with multiple users turned on, you must log into the owner account to change the names of disks, volumes, and folders.

If you have File Sharing turned on

From the Apple menu, select Control Panels, then select File Sharing (Mac OS 8.0 through Mac OS 9.x) or Sharing Setup (Mac OS 7.6.1 and earlier).
Turn off File Sharing by clicking Stop.
Rename the volume.
To re-enable File Sharing, in the File Sharing or Sharing Setup window, click Start.

Note: Under special circumstances, an obscure bug in older versions of Mac OS prevents the renaming of volumes when File Sharing is not active. This happens when a Macintosh running a version of System 7.0 (prior to system 7.0.1) has been networked with another Macintosh running any version of System 6.0. If the connection between the computers is unexpectedly broken, the System 7.0 computer will "lock" the formerly shared items and will not allow them to be renamed. To address this problem, Apple created a utility called Rename Rescue.