Can't write to external disk drivers

Hi guys
I own a 2TB TC. I've connected two WD hard drivers through usb hub and they are all reformatted to FAT32. I can see them and I can have access to them as well but the problem is I can't write to them and I can't copy any thing to them. Can any one help?

Have you verified and if necessary, repaired the disk(s) using Disk Utility on your Mac?

Similar Messages

Can't write to external disk after cloning startup disk to it

After cloning my PowerBook Pro's startup disk to an external Thunderbolt drive, and temporarily using that drive to boot-up, the Thunderbolt drive is locked into Read Only mode. How do I enable it to write again? The INFO pane says the following: System privilege: "Read & Write"; wheel: "Read Only"; everyone: "Read Only". The basis for my cloning was to deal with a very full startup disk that I did a lot of video editing on (very processor intensive). The disk had become fragmented to the point that it couldn't access sectors fast enough for editing, so I cloned it over to a G-Tech Thunderbolt drive (using Carbon Copy Cloner), reformatted the MacBook startup disk, then reverse-cloned the copied files back over from the Thunderbolt, the idea being that they'd be re-written nice 'n neat in unfragmented order into their proper sectors. I then ceased booting-up from Thunderbolt, but now the system seems to think that Thunderbolt is still special in some way like a gossling bonded to a surrogate human mother, and it won't let me write to it. Can anybody help me with this?

Have you verified and if necessary, repaired the disk(s) using Disk Utility on your Mac?

Can't write to external hard drive set up by Windows

We have a 300gb Maxtor external hard drive. I had set it up using the Windows laptop I use for work.
The Mini that we have can read, but not write to, this external drive. I just went back and set the Security properties to allow Full Control for the Everyone group. That did not work; the drive is still read-only for the Mini.
Additionally, when it's hooked up to the Mini, the hard drive starts spinning for no apparent reason. When it's doing that, you cannot eject the hard drive. It will whir for several minutes; at times, we've had to reboot the Mini to get the thing to stop.
Is there a Mac OS setting somewhere that needs to be changed to allow the Mini to write to the drive?
Why is the drive spinning for no apparent reason? Is there something we can look at to find out what's happening with it?
Any other suggestions for fixing the problem? I'd like to avoid reformatting it, if possible....

We have a 300gb Maxtor external hard drive. I had set
it up using the Windows laptop I use for work.
The Mini that we have can read, but not write to,
this external drive. I just went back and set the
Security properties to allow Full Control for the
Everyone group. That did not work; the drive is still
read-only for the Mini.
Sounds like the drive is formatted in NTFS. Under OSX, your Mac will be able to read, but not write, to an NTFS formatted drive.
If you format as HFS or HFS+, the Mac will be able to readd/write to the disk, but the Windows box will not be able to recognize the disk.
Since it is a 300gb drive, FAT will not work (FAT does not recognize drives that large).
It must be formatted as FAT32.
It can be formatted as such on either the windows box or the Mac.
You can partition the disk, one HFS+, one FAT32, but the windows box still will not be able to recognize the HFS partition, and the Mac will be able to read/write both.
So...for maximum compatibility and cross-platform usage, format the drive as FAT32.
As for as the periodic drive spin, it's possible Spotlight is updating it's index.

Can't write to external hard drive. I have an NTFS driver.

I have a macbook pro running mavericks and an external hard drive that is NTFS and i can read but i can't write to it. I already have the paragon NTFS driver installed and i know the driver works cos i can use my other NTFS hard drive with no problems. In the "get info" pane under permissions it says i can "only read", but in disk utility under "write status" it says i can read/write. I tried to verify and repair the disk in disk utility and both completed normally with no errors detected.
Does anybody have any ideas on how to deal with this? i would rather not reformat the disk as it has roughly +500GB of work that i have no other place to store temporarily.

Jotsy wrote:
Does anybody have any ideas on how to deal with this?
Yes, HD are cheap as dirt, buy another HD and format it for your Mac (Mac OSX ext. Journaled)
OR for both PC and Mac in EXFAT format.
Jotsy wrote:
i would rather not reformat the disk as it has roughly +500GB of work that i have no other place to store temporarily.
Leave it as it is,
$65 for a 1TB HD, or $100 for a 2TB drive. you always need minimum 2 ext. HD for data redundancy protection anyway.

Can't write to external hard drive

I have a MacMini G4 and and iBook G3 both running Tiger. I bought a Verbatim USB 2.0 500 GB external hard drive and reformatted it to HFS+. I can write files from the iBook without any problems. However, from the MacMini, the external drive mounts, I just can't write to it. When I try to change permissions in Get Info, I get error code 195. No luck with Disk Utility or Disk Warrior either. I have a suspicion that the problem lies in the fact that until very recently, the MacMini had only a networked account, now it has two local accounts (the iBook has only ever had 1 local account). How can I fix this without having to reinstall Tiger on the Mini, if at all? Thanks!

Resource Manager Errors (other than I/O)
-195 addRefFailed AddReference failed
So it appears to not be a read/write problem, but either Permissions problem or missing OS components.
Have you done these two lately...
Using Disk Utility in Mac OS X 10.4.3 or later to verify or repair disks...
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=302672
About Disk Utility's Repair Disk Permissions feature...
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25751
Reboot afterwards.

How can I unlock an external disk?

I have two external disks, one connected to my Intel iMac via usb and the other firewire. Since upgrading to 10.6.7 and trying (unsuccessfully so far) to recover files from the back-up disk, I can no longer access them. I get the message " ...you don't have permission to see its contents". Access privileges have been changed to Custom, and it won't let me change this. In Disk Utility the drives are listed but 'Verify / Repair Permissions' buttons are greyed out. The disk icons have a small padlock attached to them. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks. Garry

Have you tried to fix the permissions from the Terminal?
If you open a Terminal Window
     Applications > Utilities > Terminal
assuming that your problematic disk is mounted
and type
ls -l /Volumes
you should see a listing of your disks, the permissions and the owner.
[Eliza:~] dreschle% ls -l /Volumes/
total 16
lrwxr-xr-x   1 root      admin     1 15 Jul 06:03 Eliza_HD -> /
drwxrwxr-x@ 20 root      admin   748 13 Jul 15:56 Eliza_Media
drwxrwxrwx 11 dreschle staff   442 10 Jul 17:30 HDDElizaBackup
drwxrwxr-x 49 dreschle staff 1734 10 Jul 17:30 HDDMediaPartition
drwx------@ 18 dreschle staff   680 15 Jul 08:56 Tresor
drwx------ 18 dreschle staff   986 11 Jul 18:15 dreschler
lrwxr-xr-x   1 dreschle admin    18 15 Jul 06:13 iDisk -> /Volumes/dreschler
for all disks, where you are the owner (your user name or admin), the protections should be "drwxrwxr-x" , which means that the system and you have read/write/execute access, everybody else only read/execute.
If you don't see read/write/execute permission to your disk, or are not even the owner
try
sudo chmod a+rwx /Volumes/theNameOfYourDisk
This will give read/write/access to everybody, so be sure to set it back with "repair permissions", after you have access your disk.
If you are even not the owner of the disk try to fix that with the "chown" command.
see:
man chown

Can't write to pc disk

I tried to write to a friend's hard disk but the disk is indicated as read only. There is no problem reading from it. I cannot "ignore permission because there is no checkbox on my dialog box. Does this disk have to be changed from the original computer to allow me to write to it, or can I do something in my system to allow me to write to it?

"In his session at Macworld on OS X filesytems, Google's Amit Singh announced that he has ported Linux's FUSE module to OS X. The port is called MacFUSE and it is available in source form and as a pre-compiled kernel extension with associated tools. Many FUSE filesystems such as sshfs and ntfs-3g are reported to work."
This should allow you to write filess to the NTFS formated external disks as well.
Downloads and additional info at http://code.google.com/p/macfuse/

Can i get an external disk drive for my MacBook 5,1

My disk drive on my MacBook 5,1 (model #A1278) is bust. It will not accept a dvd/cd at all, it won't let it in...not an inch! seems like it's stuck in eject? as if there is a disk inside but as far as i know there is not. Nothing i have tried makes any difference. So i am wondering if i can buy an external disk drive, but this info is not obvious to me on the Apple Store website!

Probably pretty much any one would as long as it can be connected to your Macbook with USB or Firewire or what it has. Read the fine print when it refers to system requirements. In most cases that refers to bundled software which you probably don't need. Usually if there's OS limits for Macs it's something like you must be running OSX 10.2 or newer.
I would start looking on a site such as www.mac-sales.com which caters for Mac users so you can be assured their stuff is compatible. You can get something pre-assembled or you can buy an enclosure and a drive separately and assemble them yourself. My preference would be for one where the drive is powered independently, though that does tie you down to an outlet. On the other hand with an external drive you're not going to be walking around the room.
I guess one Mac compatibiltiy issue would be if the drive is bootable. Not all third party drives can boot your Mac should the need arise. I'm not so familiar with Macbooks that I am up to date on this and this might be one thing you could ask the vendor (and a reason for going with a vendor who knows Macs).

Can't see the external disk attached to the TC!!!

Just bought a TC 1TB today. I put a WD 500G external disk to the usb port of the TC. And i found it ways lost the connection to the WD when i see the two airpot disk in my finder. TC's internal disk is fine and never lost, but i sometimes i can not find my WD external disk unless i unplug the power and plug it back again....
Any one can help?

In Finder preferences, is the box checked that permits the drive to be seen?

[Solved] Usb premissions proble. Can't write do usb disk

Can you help me? I can't write to my usb disk.
[skoczo@localhost skoczo]$ pwd
/run/media/skoczo
[skoczo@localhost skoczo]$ ls -l
razem 8
drwx------ 1 skoczo users 8192 07-13 20:19 SkoczoHardDisk:)
sudo pacman -Ss udev
core/systemd 204-3 [zainstalowano]
system and service manager
extra/eeze 1.7.7-1
Manipulate devices using udev and sysfs
extra/gudev-sharp 0.1-2
Gudev mono bindings
community/python-pyudev 0.16.1-2
A pure Python 3.x binding to libudev
community/python2-pyudev 0.16.1-2
A pure Python 2.x binding to libudev
community/udevil 0.4.1-1
Mount and unmount without password
community/uudeview 0.5.20-10
UUDeview helps transmitting & recieving binary files using mail or
newsgroups. Includes library files.
Last edited by skoczo (2013-07-20 15:41:48)

I tried to copy in xfce.
This is output from console:
cp * /run/media/skoczo/SkoczoHardDisk\:\)/seriale/Falling\ Skies\ -\ Season\ 3/
cp: cannot create regular file '/run/media/skoczo/SkoczoHardDisk:)/seriale/Falling Skies - Season 3/Downloaded From PublicHD.SE.txt': Permission denied
cp: cannot create regular file '/run/media/skoczo/SkoczoHardDisk:)/seriale/Falling Skies - Season 3/Falling.Skies.S03E07.1080p.WEB-DL.DD5.1.H.264-Abjex.mkv': Permission denied
cp: cannot create regular file '/run/media/skoczo/SkoczoHardDisk:)/seriale/Falling Skies - Season 3/Falling.Skies.S03E07.1080p.WEB-DL.DD5.1.H.264-Abjex.txt': Permission denied
Filesystem is NTFS:
Disk /dev/sdb: 1000.2 GB, 1000204885504 bytes, 1953525167 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk label type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x059626a5
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 2048 1953521663 976759808 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
"Why is it mounted on /run/media/ and not just /media ?" - this is good question

Can't write to External HDD connected to AEBS

+This is a repost from the SL Discussion...hopefully someone here can help...+
I am logged in under my account, which is the Administrator Account. I am unable to write to Seagate 1 TB external HDD connected to AEBS base station.
Under "Get Info"->Sharing and Permissions it reads "You have custom Access" and then shows just one account, "everyone" and this is a "Read Only" account. The format of the External Drive is shown as "Appleshare" (actual drive is formatted as NTFS so my Dell PC can read/write, which is functioning perfectly).
I tried to change the "everyone" account to Read and Write but Mac 10.6.3 won't let me because "I don't have the necessary permissions".
So then I tried to add another account (clicking the "+" sign) but it again rejects me because the account "isn't a valid name" although I am using my account name.
I was able to read/write to this drive under Leopard but lost that function when I upgraded to 10.6.3. I can read the files on the drive and copy them to my iMac but I can't copy back to the drive. Is this a Finder problem?
How can I get the permissions changed on this external drive so I can read/write from my Admin account?

Okay, it is formatted as FAT32.
I checked under Airport Utility and there are (2) accounts that have permitted access, Dad (Read/Write) and Mom (Read Only). The drive is not corrupted as I can read/write from the Dell PC without any issue and I can "Read" from my iMac.
When I right click on the drive, "Get Info" and then check "Sharing/Permissions", there is only one account shown "everyone" (all small letters) with "Read" access. This account does not show up under "Airport Utility" so it is an account that Finder assigned.
My other two accounts, that are correctly shown under Airport Utility, are not shown in Finder. It seems like this is a Finder Problem and Finder (under Snow Leopard) won't let me access the drive.
So how can I change the Permissions in Finder? Even if Finder lets me add another account that can read/write, I'll be happy. But it won't let me add any accounts, it simply says "Invalid Account Name".
I'll try the direct hookup to the iMac as a last resort but this drive has all of my photos backed up on it so I don't want to mess around too much with it. I have photos on other drives as well but it is a big pain to reload from the other drives...it is around 300 Gb of photos.

Can i use 1 external disk for TM with several Macs ?

Hi,
is it possible to use 1 external disk with TM for several macs ?
Would it result in something like that in this case:
Backups.backupdb -> Mac1
Backups.backupdb -> Mac2
or am i forced to have a single TM disk for each mac ?
best regards
fidel

Hi,
thank you both for the quick reply.
The partition idea is not that bad, but as i am not using TM to do a full-backup, nor do i run it daily the disk-usage is not that important for me.
Till now i have done about 15 backups on my mac pro and the data is < 30 gb
(based on the excludes)
basicly i want to use TM only for the case that i need to reinstall Leopard (cause of a broken hd or similar) as i assume that i can use the TM-data in this case.
the idea to setup TM for restoring deleted files is nice, but i dont really see a reason in my case
best regards
fidel

Can't write on external SD card after upgradation

I can't write on my external SD card of my HP slate7 after it was upgraded to KitKat version. It is saying as your Android os is changed you can no longer write on your external SD card. How can I solve this??

Perhaps this article can help explain how Google changed Android KitKat 4.4:
KitKat and SD cards — what's fixed, what's broken and what's misunderstood.
WyreNut
I am a Volunteer here, not employed by HP.
You too can become an HP Expert! Details HERE!
If my post has helped you, click the Kudos Thumbs up!
If it solved your issue, Click the "Accept as Solution" button so others can benefit from the question you asked!

Can Time Machine backup External Disk

Hi,
I have MacBook Air and have to use an external disk (Western Digital) to save my iPhoto Library and my iTunes Library (both libraries are approx 400GB). I am using a 3TB Time Capsule with Time Machine. Is it possible to backup the external WD disk with Time Machine? I would hate to loose the libraries if something happens to the external disk.
Any help or suggestion will be appreciated!
Thanks

Thank you! Sometimes you miss the obvious while thinking you have to look at something more complex

Can't write to external hard drive, kills MacBook Pro

I got a SimpleTech SimpleDrive 1TB for an external drive. It's formatted for PC but I was able to format it for Mac with no problem and read and write small files to/from it. But data that is larger than 80-90MB will not work—at that point the progress bar ceases and will not close. I can force-quit Finder but Finder will not reboot and at that point I can only kill the power. The Finder has also hung when opening a folder on this drive. After reboot the drive does not mount and I have to turn its power off and on for it to appear.
I did try to zero out the drive but aborted that after 3 hours. I figured that would have zeroed out anything on the drive but it changed nothing. What should I try next?
Jeremy

Yes, I formatted it as OS Extended (Journaled).
Overnight I let Disk Utility run and zero out the entire drive. It took 10 hours and at the end it then prepared to erase but had another error: Input/Output Error. It now appears the drive has reverted to the factory defaults (MS-DOS (FAT) format, Master Boot Record) and is unusable. I am going to return it.
Jeremy

Can't write to external disk drivers

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for