Disable write access to external drives via USB & FW400/800

We have a Mac Pro on our AD network. We want to disable users from having write access to external HDD through USB or FireWire so that they cannot possibly copy data to a attached USB/firewire drives.
Is this possible?

Smith Micro has a product called Internet CleanUp that has the feature your looking for.
http://my.smithmicro.com/mac/cleanup/index.html

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Mac Formatted Time Capsule w/ PC Formatted External Drive Via USB?

I use a Mac-formatted Time Capsule to run Time Machine backups on my MacBook Pro. My wife backs up her PC laptop on a PC-formatted Western Digital "My Book" hard drive which is powered via A/C wall adapter. I connected the Western Digital PC drive to the Time Capsule via USB so it would be available on our home network and my wife could run her PC backups wirelessly, BUT the drive is not showing up on our network. Anybody have any idea what I'm doing wrong?
Thanks in advance!
---Tim

My questions continue below in red. Thank you for your patience.
LaPastenague wrote:
Tsac77 wrote:
Thanks for the in depth clarification. A few follow up questions:
1) Are you saying that even though I am only using the TC (in this instance) to make the windows drive available on the network, the drive still needs to be formatted in HFS+?
HFS+ or FAT32.. the later having severe issues with large disk and large files.
Great. I'll do HFS+
2) If I format the windows drive in HFS+, will the windows laptop be immediately able to write/read to it over the network? Or will I have to install some sort of program on the windows laptop that allows windows to read/write to HFS+ (which I've always undewrstood to be a mac only format)?
The format of the disk connected to a NAS is totally irrelevant.. if it offers windows networking file protocol.. ie SMB then it can store files on the hard disk.. it is just like sharing the disk in the Mac.. you can write to that directly from the PC. Try it.. The disk is controlled by the Mac. But it presents SMB to the Network.. On your Mac, go to system preferences.. sharing.. it should be in Internet and wireless.. but on Lion I have no idea. Open file sharing which should be ticked..there should be a public folder by default.. you can add others.. go to options, turn on SMB.. then from the windows computer you should see the disk available in networking. If not fix the names to SMB standard.. you will need to do this on the TC as well.. short, no spaces.. pure alphanumeric names. Copy some files from windows to your Mac.. you have now copied to a network drive.. with the drive format totally irrelevant to your windows computer.
I'm sorry, but I don't know what "windows networking file protocol" and "SMB" mean. Also, when you say "NAS" are you referring to the Time Capsule or another device? Can you please explain things like "The disk is controlled by the Mac but it presents SMB to the network" in a less advanced way. Pretend I'm a child. You won't be far off. It seems like this technique you're explaining is a way for the windows PC to write to the external drive via my MacBook. Is that even close to correct? The setup I must create needs to work regardless if macbook is on/off/out of the house.
3) Does plugging a USB drive into the TC never work properly or is this just a semi-common problem that happens sometimes? My odds of success will probably dictate whether I try this or not. I already own the windows USB drive and would like to avoid buying more hardware if possible.
It is problematic enough that I recommend you try it before committing to it. Even if you have to copy the files off to another location and then reformat the drive. Test it for a couple of days.. the issue happens especially when you are using Lion.. but will also happen with windows. Especially when the disk spins down it will not spin up again and become available to the network.
Got it.
4) What do you mean by files being in "native format"? And what does a dead TC have to do with whether or not they can be recovered to the windows laptop? If the TC dies, can't I just plug the windows USB drive directly into the windows laptop and it will be the same thing as connecting the drive and laptop via network? How does a dead TC make things more difficult?
Thanks for your continued help.
HFS+ is not windows native format... so files stored by the TC on the USB drive.. when the TC dies.. they all die eventually may be difficult to recover unless you plug it into another TC.. as the PC cannot natively read them. If you format FAT32 then the windows computer can read it.. just there are other issues. eg the disk can be slow.. very slow and it has far less protection. eg a power failure can corrupt the drive.. this was an issue before we moved in windows to NTFS.
Why do you say "files stored BY THE TC on the USB drive" Why is the TC storing files on the USB drive? Isn't plugging the USB into the TC just making the USB available on the network to my windows laptop? Why is the TC storing files?

MacBook Pro won't recognize external drive via usb, will recognize same drive by firewire.

Title pretty much sums it up. I've had an external firewire 800 drive (Iomega eGo) for about 2 years now. I've got it partitioned and am using part as a time machine backup and the rest as a data storage/ data moving partition. A few days ago I realized that any data I put on either partition can't be copied off by either my computer or either of my two friend's MacBook Pros. The copy starts fine, but then always screeches to a halt around 5% (this is via firewire). This same drive also cannot be recognized via USB by any of our Macs (I plug it in, light comes on, but doesn't blink), but if I plug it into my Windows Desktop the USB recognition is immediate. I found this very strange. I could also copy files off of the drive via USB onto my desktop. If I let it sit long enough on a failed copy on our macbooks eventually it gives me an error code 36. I traced that to a likely hard drive failure on the part of the external. I found this odd because not even 3 days ago I was pulling iTunes songs off the drive onto my desktop with no trouble. Is there any way to fix this via software or the terminal or anything? Disk Utility says both partitions are 'OK'. I'd really like to not spend another chunk of change on an external, as I just spent $180 on a new HDD and SSD for my desktop.
Thanks in advance,
Jeremy

Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:
{ diskutil list; echo; diskutil cs list; } | open -ef
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C.
Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
Paste into the Terminal window by pressing the key combination command-V. I've tested these instructions only with the Safari web browser. If you use another browser, you may have to press the return key after pasting.
Wait for a new line ending in a dollar sign (“$”) to appear.
A TextEdit window will open with the output of the command. If the command produced no output, the window will be empty. Post the contents of the TextEdit window (not the Terminal window), if any — the text, please, not a screenshot. The title of the window doesn't matter, and you don't need to post that.
If any personal information appears in the output, anonymize before posting, but don’t remove the context.

Read/Write rights connecting NAS drive via USB

I made it. The AEBS is working with my external iomega hard drive, different users and an iTunes library with 130GB data. All files are shown correctly and I am having full access. Just one thing, which I can't handle actually: I connected the formatted harddrive to the AEBS, configured the users. I copied all files into the shared- and some into the user folder. When connecting the usb drive directly with the mac via usb, I don't have access to the folders (permission denied). Since I can't change the right when it's connected to the AEBS, how can I get access to my files with a direct connection? Just worried, in case that the AEBS makes problems, so that I can still access my files when connecting the hard drive directly to my mac.
Thanks for advice!

I haven't dealt with this yet, but my guess is you might have to plug the drive back into the AEB and remove the Users and Passwords. Once you plug that drive into the AEB and setup security on it, that information, I would assume is used like File Vault. It's setup on the actual drive, not the AEB.
Hope that helps,
AL

Issues With 2 TB External Drive via USB

I've had the Extreme sine August and everything about it has worked great. I had a Seagate 500 GB external drive connected to it and all of my devices could access it and use it.
Now, I upgraded to a 2 TB Seagate Free Agent and I can't get it to work with the Airport Extreme.
The 2 TB drive shows up in Airport Utility, works fine when connected directly to the computers, is brand new with 3.0 capabilities (although nothing in my setup is usb 3.0) and has been tested as both OS X Journaled and FAT32.
I've seen one publicly posted issue around this drive (unresolved), and have noticed a couple unresolved issues with drives this size not working via USB on the Extreme.
Is the Airport Extreme just not handling 2 TB drives?
Is there something I'm missing?
Is there anything somebody else has done to make a drive work that wasn't?
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated...
Thanks.

I bought two Seagate GoFlex 2TB drives from CostCo @ $99 each. I formatted both drives as Mac OS. One of the two showed up with NO Disk Need Repair error and worked great but I couldn't get the second one to work. After physically attaching both via USB to my MBP, I formatted the second one again as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) to no avail. Then I checked the first one and found the discrepency. The first one was formatted as Mac OS in the DISK and in the VOLUME. The second one was only formatted as Mac OS in the Volume. The "DISK" part was still in the original facotry format of MS-DOS (FAT). I had forgotten to format the "DISK". Once I re-formatted the "DISK" as Mac OS then hook up to the USB hub to the ABE, a sweet success!

Write access to External Drives

I am a brand new Apple user and am having some problems with my external drives. It seems I only have read access to the drives when I plug in to my MacBook Pro. I have set myself up as Admin and have allowed myself to administer my computer, but I'm not sure why I can't write to the disk. Is there somewhere I need to set up this as a preference or change permissions? Or is it a problem with the drive being formatted for Windows (NTFS)? I don't think this is the case since I can read files from the drive with no problems. When I go to Disk Utility the option to view permissions is greyed out. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

If it is NTFS then you will only be able to read from it. You can check the drive in "Disk Utility" (In the "Utilities" folder) and see what the format and partition scheme for the drive is. Use the "information" button at the top after you've selected the volume (not the drive, but the volume underneath it) to see the format information. A simple reformat to "Mac OS Extended" format should make the drive usable in OS X.
Message was edited by: Topher Kessler

Read/write access on external drive set to none; can't see drive to change

I was learning about profiles and permissions and set the Read/write access on my external drive to none. I wanted to protect my guests from accidentally viewing private files. I thought I was doing it for that profile only, but now I can't see the drive to change it back. I have already tried using the disk utitility and re mounting the drive, but still cannot see the drive icon on the desktop or anywhere. I know the drive is okay because I can see it in disk utility but disk utility says the read/write access is none.
thanks for anyone that can advise me. I'm more of a PC expert, than a Mac expert.
Gary

Follow the instructions in this FAQ which are relevant to your situation; logging in as root is not needed.
(18945)

Can't connect two external drives via USB hub to the same port.

I have two external hard drives connected to my MacBook Air, along with other USB devices, using a powered USB hub. When I connect both external drives to the same port via the USB hub, one of them disconnects with an error message saying it was improperly disconnected. The same thing happens when I connect one of the hard drives and an external DVD drive via the USB hub. The two drives work fine when connected to separate ports. Other USB devices coexist with one of the drives quite happily. Can anyone explain why this is?

External drives may well require more power than a port can supply. Also, many USB hubs cannot be used for external drives. It's always best to connect an external drive directly to the USB port. If the drive enclosure has a second USB port on it, then you can daisy-chain a second drive to the first, sometimes.

Cannot access shared external drive on iMac from Windows 7

Used to be able to access this drive with no problem from any of my PC's. Sent iMac in for repair and system drive was wiped so I'm starting from clean install of Leopard. Did all the updates first including 10.6.4 which wasn't on before the system drive died.
Firewall is off
SMB is on
Everyone as well as main user has read write access to external drive
iMac is in the same workgroup as machine, although it wasn't before and it worked fine.
PC can ping the IP of the iMac and get a response, can see the iMac in list of networked computers
but cannot access anything on it.
Windows 7 network diagnostics says "file and print sharing resource (JMGIMAC) is online but isn't responding to connection attempts" "The remote computer isn't responding to connections on port 445
I've tried everything, any ideas
Josh

I am familiar with the instructions for sharing files and have followed them (several times I might add).
My problem is that the information that I place in the WINS tab ( in the Network Preference Pane) disappears when the iMac is re-started. This information (especially the Workgroup name) must appear when the computer re-boots. It doesn't and I have to re-enter the information in the iMac before I can access its files from a Windows PC.
I have searched the internet for days trying to find an answer to this question. Although the problem seems to be fairly common, no solutions have been found.

Problems accessing iTunes media folder on external drive via Mac

I have recently got a Mac Book Pro and assumed it would be easy to access my iTunes library - which I store on a Buffalo external drive and normally access via my Asus vivobook laptop running windows 8 - by simplying plugging the external drive into the Mac Book Pro, opening iTunes while pressing on the Option key (as I understand it is called) and then selecting the iTunes library .itl file when invited to choose a library. However, when I do this, I get a message saying that "the .tl file is locked, on a locked disc or I do not have write permission for this file".
If I click on the .itl file in the external drive via my Mac, it takes me straight into iTunes but, of course, without any of the content of my iTunes media folder.
I can access the media on the external drive when it is plugged into my Mac and am not aware of ever having introduced any restrictions on the library .itl file (I normally switch the external hard drive between my Dell desktop and my Asus laptop).
I have restarted my Mac Book Pro and quite iTunes etc. I also have the media folder correctly identified on the external hard drive in my iTunes preferences, Advanced Settings.
I would be most grateful for any ideas as to what could be the problem here.
Thank you (in anticipation).
Best,
Michael

Get info on the drive. Check the format. If it says NTFS it is a format that Macs cannot write to, only read, unless you install special software. It is a common issue with using Windows drives on Macs. "Locked" may mean iTunes cannot open it for full use since it needs to write to the library file as well as read it.
Your solution may be to reformat the drive to something a Mac can use fully too, such as FAT (beware file size limits with large video files). or trying to work with a NTFS driver for Mac.
NTFS drivers for Macs (there may be others):
Paragon NTFS - http://www.paragon-software.com/home/ntfs-mac/ - recommendation: https://discussions.apple.com/message/18708633
Tuxera NTFS 2012.3.2 - http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/33122/tuxera-ntfs
NTFS for Mac OS X 9.5.3 - http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/26288/ntfs-for-mac-os-x
http://macntfs-3g.blogspot.com/ and http://i.vishalagarwal.com/post/30387627819/ntfs-write-on-lion-or-mountain-lion

Daisy chain two external drives via Firewire, then connect one via USB to the TC?

Hi,
I have two external drives that have both Firewire and USB ports. My 1st generation 500 gb Time Capsule (maybe all of them?) only has USB ports so up til now, I have connected one or the other drive via USB. (I've tried to connect both to a powered USB hub but one drive has problems showing up. At this point I only use the one drive that shows up and connect it directly with no hub to the Time Capsue.)
My question is: Can I daisy chain the two drives via Firewire and then connect one of them (probably the one that has no problems connecting with USB) to the Time Capsule via USB?
Second, somewhat-related problem...
I don't know why one drive isn't connecting very well when directly connected to the Time Capsule. Both are Fantom drives. One is a 1TB, the one that has prblems connecting is a 250GB. I've tried connecting directly or through a powered hub. The 1B has no problems, the 250 gb won't show up most of the time and disconnects itself fairly quickly if it does connect. I've switched cables; that hasn't helped. The 1TB stays connected most of the time but sometimes it disconnects too. I suspect the Time Capsule just isn't able to deal with external drives so I don't puch it. It would be nice to be able to have both drives accessable through the TC though.
Thanks for any help.
Cheers,
John

Doing some experimentation, connecting the drives directly to the MBP:
- Neither of the two drives Firewire daisy-chained and going through the powered USB hub connected to the MBP mount. I was using old aliases on desktop.*They don't show up on network otherwise. (Each drive self-mounts with both Firewire and USB direct connections.)
*Even after making new aliases, neither drive will mount using their new aliases when directly connected (not through hub) with USB or Firewire (and Thunderbolt adapter.) That's weird.
- Both the 240 gb and the 1TB drives going through powered hub connected to MBP mount by themselves.
- Two drives daisy-chained via Firewire and one drive connected to the MBP via Firewire (and Thunderbolt adapter) self-mount. No surprise there but that doesn't help me as I want to have the drives further away from the MBP and connected to the Time Capsule, which doesn't have a Firewire port anyway...
- All of the USB and the Firewire cables work as does the Thunderbolt adapter. I tested them.
I wonder.... I have a Firewire to what appears to be an Ethernet connector. I wonder if that would be any good. I'm afraid to try it though...

IMac using an external hard drive via usb 2.0

I am currently using a brand new 20" iMac with 4GB of ram and since this computer only has one firewire 400 port I'm using that for the deck and plugging in the external hard drive via usb 2.0, but I do have the option of plugging in firewire 400 to the hard drive. I've recently been having trouble capturing footage. Anyone have any suggestions? Thanks.

You're experiencing the number one reason why not to use an iMac for video work: complete lack of expansion beyond a couple of firewire devises.
Yet, many folks will disagree with this assessment and their decisions are made solely on cost over functionality and reliability.
Go iMacs!

Is it possible that iMac corrupts connected external hdd-s drive via USB?

Is it possible that iMac corrupts connected external hdd-s drive via USB? (two wd cav. green 2tb from different purchase went down in one day, both from the backside usb ports)
First one of my video storage hdd, full of files suddenly got extremely slow, and a few minutes later, it unmounted itself, but with the unmount error, but nobody even touched the cables, electricity etc. When I tried to mount it again, it did not respond, just give a periodical load light and ticking. First I thought it must be hardware failure, but since I bought a brand new drive today and it made the same problem as soon as I tried to format it. I got suspicious. The consol, said about these - i googled all but now solution so far. (WesternFresh is my drive)
Oct 23 17:10:58 xxxx fseventsd[47]: disk logger: failed to open output file /Volumes/WesternFresh/.fseventsd/636573acca1d6550 (No such file or directory). mount point /Volumes/WesternFresh/.fseventsd
Oct 24 10:55:42 xxxx com.apple.kextd[10]: Can't create kext cache under / - owner not root.
Oct 24 17:23:05 tmdc diskarbitrationd[16]: unable to probe /dev/disk1 (status code 0xFFFFFFFA).
and there was an I/O faliure not but it was on another mac - where i hoped itt will come back to live.
I think - if it is possible - that the OS maybe misunderstand something about these drives, and try to change - maybe permissions - all the time if a usb external connects...? (I am not really into it as you see )
Also about Disk Utility - it does not see any partition on the old hdd, but i shows the name of the product. If I connect the new hdd via the keyboard usb, the disk utility is able to see and format it, but the hdd will be still slow and tikking after it.
Also I tried Disk Warrior (freezd out) and Techtool Pro 6 thanks to some ol'frineds - which also not saw the old hdd, but did nothing useful with the new one.
About cav green: I have 3 of them and no error so far, and got 4 1tb cav green in 2 mybook studio II also without any problem.
Iam a bit scared, and try not to plug in any usb hdd-s now, but I have to continue work, so I need solutions.
I hope if it is not hardware failure, maybe some tricky terminal code will bring back the viability of my old hdd - and I won't have to spend a lot of money to recover data.
strange.
if anybody has a clue?
update 1:
i found this post also:
https://discussions.apple.com/message/15905481#15905481
I also made the mentioned steps - but it is a bit different sice it reproduce itself and I cant use DU.

It turned out that WD is the big bad guy in this game.
According the data rescue company where I asked for an inspection, both of the drives had their reader head loose. And in the one, which was my already-in-use disk its even damaged the platters... xxxxx
So its time to pay bunch of money to recover, and take a walk to wd service to bang on the desk.
Also note - it may be somehow related to intellispeed technology - since macs not really friendly with wd-s built-in solutions.
On the other hand, with WD GP 1Tb there is no problems at all for ages.
thanks guys, thread is closed

Accessing iphoto library on external drive via wireless

I'm running out of room on my macbook so I moved my iphoto library to an external drive (after reading other posts on how to accomplish this, copied to the external drive and connected without a problem). However, i'm accessing the external drive wirelessly from my airport extreme and now iphoto is painfully slow - it takes several seconds for each photo to resolve properly. Any suggestions for the best way to manage? Do i need to keep older photos in a library on the external drive and a library for more current ones i want to access regularly on my local? I don't think i want to have multiple libraries but the performance this way is driving me crazy.

Welcome to the Apple Discussions.
A strong warning: If you're trying to edit the Library (that is, make albums, move photos around, keyword, make books or slideshows etc.) or edit individual photos in it via Wireless be very careful. Dropouts are a common fact of wireless networking, and should one occur while the app is writing to the database then your Library will be damaged. Simply, I would not do this with my Libraries.
A wired connection is the best way to have your Library on an external.
Regards
TD

Lost network access to external drives

Hi, I'm using Leopard on my MacBook Pro and my iMac. My iMac has several external FW and USB drives connected. They use Mac OS Extended Filesystem (Journaled).
I have AFP and SMB sharing turned on in my System Preferences. The only folder that's listed as shared is my home folder.
It used to be on my MBP, I can browse to my iMac in Finder, and it would show my home folder plus all my external hard drives. I would be able to click on the drives and start using them like any network mounts.
All of a sudden these drives are no longer showing up when I browse. I only see my home folder listed.
However I plugged in another drive via USB on my iMac... this is a FAT32 drive. It automatically showed up in the list of shares I can connect to on the iMac, just like how my external drives used to be.
I haven't made changes to System Preferences or to the Sharing pane.
In the Sharing pane, I tried specifying one of my FW drives as shared, but that didn't work. I've made sure the share has read & write permission for my account, and read permission for everyone. On a separate note, I'm not able to set the permission for everyone to "No access". That option is greyed out. I can only choose Read or Read & Write.
However, even with that, I can't see this new share in the list of shares I can connect to from my MBP.
Does anyone know where I went wrong? Thank you!

I had the same problem. I repaired permissions and now all is well.

Disable write access to external drives via USB & FW400/800

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