External Drive is read-only

When I start up my external drive, which used to be my Time Machine drive (but hasn't been for 4 months) I get a message: "The disk "" was not repairable by the computer. It is being made available to you with limited functionality. You must back up your data and reformat the disk as soon as possible." Does this mean I have to get another external drive (I'm running low on cash - thanks, college!) back up all my files on this drive to the new one? I've tried DiskUtility, and this is what happens:
Invalid sibling link
The volume "" needs to be repaired.
*Error: Filesystem verify or repair failed.*
Help, please!!

kibbles1053 wrote:
I've tried DiskUtility, and this is what happens:
Invalid sibling link
The volume "" needs to be repaired.
*Error: Filesystem verify or repair failed.*
If you did a +*Verify DIsk,*+ do +*Repair Disk.+* There's a (small) chance it can fix it.
If that gets the same results, and you already have a heavy-duty 3rd-party disk repair app, such as +Disk Warrior+ (4.1.1 or later), it might be able to repair it.
If not, your only choice is to reformat the disk. This will, of course, erase it, so if you want to keep whatever's on it, you'll have to copy it elsewhere (if it can be copied), reformat, then copy back.
That may or may not work; if the disk itself is failing, there's nothing you can do to fix it.

Similar Messages

TS1550 OSX Upgrade (Mountain Lion) turned external drive to "read-only" and now I can not do back-ups on time machine. How do I fix this?

I recently upgraded to mountain lion, latest version OS and now my external drives are read-only. They are formatted Mac OS Extended and I have been using one of them for Time Machine. How do I fix?
Thanks

http://pondini.org/TM/C6.html

External drive is read only under mountain lion?

I have a firewire external drive which is used for Time Machine backups and my iPhoto + iTunes libraries.
Since installing Mountain Lion, the disc is now reported to be Read Only, meaning none of the three uses above work.
A quick google search shows that I am not the only one with this roblem.
Has anyone got any suggestions? Rebooting & remounting the drive both fail to help.
Looks like a ML bug....
Omar

I had the same problem. Right click on the drive and hit "Get Info". Under "Sharing and Permissions" make sure everone, especially "everyone" is labeled "read & write". I did this and it works now.
Spencer

External drive goes read only with error -50 after time

Running the special release of 10.8.2 for Mac Mini (2012) that was recently released. I have two external USB drives. The first contains my iTunes collection and the second is my time machine backup disk. The iTunes drive seems to go read only after it's been mounted awhile. I can read files off the drive, but I can't make any changes. I can't delete files nor edit them.
If I try to do anything with the disk including a repair permissions or disk on it, I get an error -50. The only way to get out of this state is to unmount the drive and remount it forcibly or reboot.
Anyone have ideas on what is going on or experienced a similar issue?

I did a little more research and there are quite a few people who've seen this error. I don't think it's the drive.
I suspect the controller in the enclosure, a jmicron 0x2336, is responsible for my problems. It looks like Linux and FreeBSD both had software updates to work around bugs in the controller. If OS X did not get updated, it would explain everything. The drive sleeps and then won't wake up fully and OS X marks it as in error and goes read only.
The enclosure is a Thermaltake Silver II USB + esata. It looks like a lot of people have had similar problems with them. I saw posts on macrumors, adobe's support forums, etc.

External drive now Read Only? Can't change after Lion installed.

I have several extenal drives attached. One has two partitions. One of the partitions is used as a SuperDuper Backup drive. SuperDuper couldln't find it now that I upgraded to Lion. I found that all my drives were changed to "Read Only" after the Lion update. I changed them back to "Read/Write" without a problem expect for the SD partition. It doesn't let me change from Read Only. Any ideas on correcting this? Thanks.

Select that partition. Press COMMAND-I to open the Get Info window. At the bottom see if there is a checkbox labeled, "Ignore permissions on this volume." If the box is checked then first uncheck the box. Open the Terminal application in the Utilities folder. Enter the following at the prompt:
sudo chown root:admin
Place a space after "admin" then drag the Desktop icon of the partition into the Terminal window. Press RETURN. Enter your admin password when prompted (it will not be echoed) and press RETURN again.

Copied files from external drive, now "read only" on Mac HDD

I recently moved a large amount of files from my old PC to my new Mac. I copied the files from WinXP to a USB hard drive, then connected the drive to my Mac. After I copied all the files to the Mac I noticed that the majority of them are set with permissions that say "You can only read this file". How do I take ownership of these files so I can delete/rename some of them?
Thanks!

Select your file and open the information panel. By owner and access, change the permission.

HT5172 my external drive shows read only

how do I change permissions to write to it???
not sure what the problem is here, I think it is a permissions problem !!! anyone have an idea what i should look at???
thanks
Ben

Click on it, choose Get Info from the File menu, and check the format.
If it's formatted as NTFS, reformat it as MS-DOS, exFAT, or Mac OS Extended (Journaled) as desired.
If it's formatted as FAT32 or exFAT, use the Disk Utility's Repair Disk command on it; this may also happen for a flash drive which is about to fail.
If it's formatted as Mac OS Extended, click Authenticate and provide your administrator password, or change the permissions on that specific folder in its Get Info window.
(94931)

My external hard drive is read only

Hey guys,
I'm just transferring stuff from a windows pc and i had all my music on my external hard drive. Well i set my default iTunes folder back to my external on my new mac but my hard drive is read only so it won't let me download anything after i buy it. How can i change it from read only?
Thanks

If the external drive is formatted NTFS, OSX can read but not write to it.
MacFUSE is supposed to add NTFS write support to OSX
<http://julipedia.blogspot.com/2007/03/ntfs-readwrite-support-for-mac-os-x.html> , but it may be safer to copy the data from the drive, the re-format it to Mac Extended (or FAT32 if you still want to use in on Windows). Re-formatting will erase the disk, so save the data first.

I am connecting an external USB HDD and I can see it on my Apple Macbook Air. BUT this drive is READ only. How can I write to it?

I am connecting an external USB HDD and I can see it on my Apple Macbook Air. BUT this drive is READ only. How can I write to it?

Drive Partition and Format
1.Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Security button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
Steps 4-6 are optional but should be used on a drive that has never been formatted before, if the format type is not Mac OS Extended, if the partition scheme has been changed, or if a different operating system (not OS X) has been installed on the drive.

Error says my External backup hard drive is read only

I have a WD External drive that I use for my Time Machine backup. I turned on the computer today and it says it cannot backup because the drive is read only. It appears on the desktop and in the Finder window. When I open Time Machine preferences, it's identified as the backup disk. But when I choose "backup now", I get that message (it's read only).
Do I have to partition this again using Disk Utility or is there a simpler solution? Thank you,

See #C6 in [Time Machine - Troubleshooting|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Troubleshooting.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).

External Hard Drive Becomes Read Only

I have a LaCie Hard Drive that Time Machine has been backing up to for about 4 days now. All of a sudden, the external hard drive is read only. When I go into Get Info for the hard drive, I can't even change the read/write permissions - it's all grayed out. This is the second time it's happened. The first time was on a Western Digital MyBook. TM fried that drive. At least this drive hasn't disappeared like the last time.
I've now changed the Time Machine backup to my second hard drive on my Mac Pro (which is screaming along, as opposed to the FW800 [!!] backup on my La Cie, whose file transfers are slo-o-o-w).
The idea behind backing up onto the external was so that if I ever needed to leave during a fire or earthquake, I could bring this with me and not worry if my computer was destroyed. Insurance would replace the computer, and I could replace my system.
If it weren't formatted properly, it wouldn't have been backing up for the last few days.
Can anyone help?
Message was edited by: Theresa Mesa

Thank you to everyone who has posted about this issue -- it just happened to me AGAIN this morning (this is my 3rd time), after I installed the 10.5.2 update. The first two times were right after I hooked up my external Iomega 500GB drive to use with Time Machine and I thought it was something I was doing. Then it seemed to work fine for a couple months so I thought the problem was over. Guess not! It is frustrating because I just lost about 2 months worth of backups. So finally I searched Apple's discussion forums and saw that I am not alone. However, no one was really posting a solution other than to say "reformat the drive".
So I did a Google search about this topic and encountered the following article. I have just gone through the steps he outlines and although I won't know for awhile if it works, I figure at this point it can't hurt to try. I hope this proves useful to others as well. (One note -- in his article, he says to skip the Erase tab and go right to the Partition tab. If you don't see the Partition tab, first erase your corrupt Time Machine backup disk and then follow his steps.)
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/apple/leopard-disk-utility-format-issue-screws-with-t ime-machine-but-theres-an-easy-fix-316573.php
Cheers ~
Message was edited by: sneebish

External hard drive becomes "read only" and won't let Time Machine back up

I have an external hard drive for back up, and it has been working fine until recently.
There is a version of 10.6.6 loaded on it also.
The back up will fail every few days. When I do some checking, the back up drive is "read only" but I am not able to switch it to read/write. I cannot repair it with Disk Utility as the repair buttons are grayed out.
I can run DiskWarrior and it will fix it, but it runs super slow and takes all the memory to do it. I can barely use my e mail while it's running.
Anyone know what's going on?

System log says:
3/27/11 8:01:19 AM com.apple.backupd-auto[1559] Not starting scheduled Time Machine backup - time machine destination not resolvable.
It's read only because:
A: I cannot do repairs under Disk Utility, the buttons are grayed out.
B: I right click and "Get Info" and if I click on the lock icon, nothing happens.
C: The disk is not listed in the Time Machine backups.
I will try to take better notes the next time it happens and give you the exact messages.
There is another drive daisy chained to this external drive which holds my music. The music drive does not have a Mac OS installed on it and is only for storage. It works properly.

Help. After updating my software my external disc is "read" only. How do I change this back to read and write?, help. After updating my software my external disc is "read" only. How do I change this back to read and write?

Help. After updating my software my external disc is "read" only. How do I change it back to Read and Write?
Thanks

Have you formatted it for Mac using Disk Utility?
If not, open Disk Utility (Applications>Utilities folder) and select the drive to the left. Make sure that you select "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" and then the erase button.
If you have already formatted the drive, call back...
Clinton

How do I change permissions on my seagate expansion drive from read only to read and write? Thank you!

I don't seem to be able to change the permissions on my Seagate 1TB Expansion Drive from read only to read and write.
Are there expansion drives compatible with both Windows and Mac as I have a Windows computer at work and use my Mac at home?
Thanks

It is a question of formats. That drive probably is formatted for Windows. You will have to reformat it to ExFAT on the PC, then it will work both on the Mac and the PC.
REFORMATTING ERASES ALL DATA ON A DISK!
There is a software option which will allow you to write to the HDD with reformatting:
http://www.paragon-software.com/home/ntfs-mac/
Ciao.

Time Machine once worked, now external hard drive is "read only"

I have a 2005 iMac G5, running OS X 10.5. Had some power issues, and reinstalled (and archived) my OS a couple of time.
Recently purchased Western Digital 1TB external hard drive for back up. It worked once or twice, but now shows "read only" status.
Disk Utility won't do anything, because it's read only (can't repair, erase, partition or convert).
Hard drive works on PC running Windows 7, and newer Mac with Snow Leopard, just not the one computer I need it for. Any suggestions?

This may help:
What to do if Time Machine reports you don't have permission
This was posted in the Apple Discussions by V.K. I have only modified it slightly to be more generic.
The problem seems to be that 10.5.6 changes permissions on a file so that even the root user doesn't have write peivileges. I have no idea why they did this. The workaround suggested in [an]other post will probably work, too, but i did something less drastic. Instead of deleting the file I changed permissions on it, and it worked just fine. An added benefit is that the permission change seems to stick, so you don't have to delete the file every time you change a drive.
[Open the Terminal application in your Utilities folder. At the prompt [enter] the following command:
sudo chmod 644 /volumes/"TM drive name"/.xxxxxxxxxxxx
The name of the file .xxxxxxxxxxxx is based on the MAC address of your computer and will be different for every computer. Put the name of the TM drive in the above and keep the quotes.
You'll have to enter your admin password (which you won't see) which is normal.
This was edited by Kappy just for cleanup.
Enable Finder to Show Invisible Files and Folders
Open the Terminal application in your Utilities folder. At the prompt enter or paste the following command line then press RETURN.
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
To turn off the display of invisible files and folders enter or paste the following command line and press RETURN.
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE
Alternatively you can use one of the numerous third-party utilities such as TinkerTool or ShowHideInvisibleFiles - VersionTracker or MacUpdate.
Also visit the User Tips found at the top of this forum's Topics list: Time Machine User Tips.

External Drive is read-only

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for