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.

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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

Can i use my time capsule to wirelessly backup my macbook and its external hard drive, which up until now was it's time machine and storage? How?

Can i use my time capsule to wirelessly backup my macbook and its external hard drive, which up until now was it's time machine and storage? How?

The external drive must be connected to the Mac using either USB or FireWire
You must remove the external hard drive from the list of items that are "excluded" from backups in Time Machine Preferences.
Here's how:
Open System Preferences (gear icon on the dock)
Open Time Machine
Click Options
Look for the name of the hard drive in the list of "excluded" items and click on it to highlight it
Click the -- (minus) button at the bottom of the list to remove the hard drive from the list of "excluded" items....so it will now be backed up
Strongly recommend that you do the first backup using Ethenret from your computer to the Time Capsule since the entire contents of the external drive will be copied on the first pass. Ethernet will be 3-5 faster than wireless.
Once you have the first backup done, you can use wireless for subsequent backups since they will nornally be much smaller....unless you add large files to the external drive.

I am trying to confirm the time at which a particular backup occurred using an external hard drive that I have since misplaced. Although time machine lists the backup times for some backups, it does not list them for all. Can someone help?

I am trying to confirm the time at which a particular backup occurred using an external hard drive that I have since misplaced. Although time machine lists the backup times for some backups, it does not list them for all, including the one in question. Can someone help?

Okay, I've sussed it. I saw a link to another discussion that hadn't turned up in any of my searches before I posted the question above.
My Tosh HDD was formatted to FAT 32 and therefore would not be backed up by Time Machine. I removed all data from it - nightmare as I hadn't enough space to put it on the macbook HDD, but, after trawling through numerous photos and deleting rubbish for hours, I finally made enough space and copied all data across. Then, after clearing the data from the Tosh HDD, I used disk utilitity to reformat it to Mackintosh OS Extended. Chose the option without kournalling because I'm not baking up onto this disk and so don't need it - according to some other discussions I found.
When it was done I check on time machine in system prefs and once I selected options, I was able to remove it from the excluded from backups list. Hey presto. Now I'm moving my photo library and my music library onto the Tosh HDD and my macbook should start to breath again. Hurray.

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 get an error message when I try to empty the trash in order to clear up an external hard drive. I had been using it for time machine, have shifted that to a larger external hard drive, and want to free up the space for photographs. Any suggestions?

What should I do when I get an error message (error code - 8003) when I'm trying to empty the trash to clear up additional space on an external hard drive?

Yes. And you should not have moved that folder. Put it back. To move your iTunes library move the folder from User's Music.
tt2

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.

An External Hard Drive says read only, I want to write to this drive. How do I change this?

My external hard drive, which is connected via firewire, changed to a read only drive. I want to write to this drive. How do I change the setting to write to the drive?

If the drive comes from the Windows world, it will probably have an NTFS format. MacOS doesn't like NTFS and won't write to it. Would have to get some third party driver to enable writing.

I need a step-by-step plan: my WD external hard drive is 'read only'

Hi,
I hope someone can help me, because i'm in quite a pickle. I bought a WD 500 GB external hard drive a couple of months ago. I have a MacBook Pro version OS X 10.8.5. The problem I have now is that I haven't used my external hard drive for a couple of weeks now, until today (note: I bought this hard drive and used it for the first time on my macbook pro, never on windows before or any other laptop/pc), and all of a sudden I can only 'read' my hard drive, it suddenly seemed to have changed it settings by itself to 'you can read only' whilst I never did anything to the permission settings....
So i read a couple of questions about this online, and apparently im not the only one with this problem. but all the answers i read are way too complicated for me, with too much computer jargon. Therefore i just need a simple step-by-step answer, whatever i need to install or 'configure' in order to make this thing work again!!
Please can somebody help me??? I never used this thing for more than a month and only my macbook pro....help!! It cant be that i used this hard drive once and then all of a sudden it changes it's settings??
Thanks,
Daphne

If you can see the hard drive in Finder, select it, do a Get Info (command - I) and see what permissions you have in Sharing and Permissions. It should be Read/Write. If it isn't, unlock the padlock, and change it. Then look towards the top to see how the drive is formatted. It normally should be Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
If it is not that format, go to Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility. Open Disk Utility select the drive, select the erase partition, and after making sure the correct format is set, erase the drive. At the bottom the current format is shown. This will remove anything that was on the drive.

External Hard Drive is read only?? how do i change this?

ive just gotten a new external hard drive which i use a giant usb pretty much,
only problem is when i drag files into it to copy it tells me that "untitled" cant be modified.. also when i check its info im told that it is read only... how do figure out how to change this...
i need help please

Hi jami01
You need to reformat your new external drive in Disk Utility. Currently it will be formatted as NTFS which is a windows format and the Mac can read that but not write to it, hence your problems.
If you wish to use it solely with your Mac and not share it with a PC, then then choose the HFS+ format
Open Disk Utility,
-Select the external disk in the left panel. make sure you have selected the correct disk.
-Click the Erase tab
-Give the disk a name
-Select the Volume Format type to be HFS+
-Click Erase
If you wish to share it with a PC then Choose MS-DOS(FAT32) format
regards roam

External Hard Drive Is "Read Only"

Hi,
I'm currently running OSx Lion on my MacBook Pro and I recently wanted to use my external hard drive to transfer some files from my Mac to my PC. The problem is, after plugging my exxternal into my Mac, I noticed I only have the ability to "read" the files on the external. The external hard drive is a Maxtor OneTouch 4 and it is a Windows NT File System (NTFS).
When I do "command+I" and go to "Sharing & Permisions" it just says "you can only read". There are no other options, no padlock icons... Nothing.
Is there any way I can fix this? If so, can it be put simply (I am still struggling to use a Mac, as you can see, haha).
Thanks in advance!

Mac will not write to a NTFS volume. There are third-party apps out there which can fix that, but I've no idea if they'll work with Lion.
If you need to transfer files between Mac and PC regularly, re-format the drive as FAT32 (or exFAT, aka FAT64, if the windows version supports it).
exFAT would be preferable if it's available as FAT32 has a file size limitation of 4GB.

My external hard drive has "read only" permissions for me, how come?

1 TB Seagate hard drive, USB connected
i can see and move files FROM it to my MacBook Pro, but i cannot copy files back to my Seagate drive
its sharing and permissions are set to "You can only read"

rick_kimberlee wrote:
Nope, locks me out; turns out Seagate had Mac flavored and PC flavored external hard drives; alas, mine is a PC flavored one...
rick_kimberlee you can read more here on reformatting with your Disk Utility:
http://db.tidbits.com/article/10307
Hope this solves your problem.

External hard drive went read only

I have a Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Desk external hard drive, which i've loaded movies, pictures, videos, and documents on to. I have only used up about 100GB of 1.5TB and for some reason when I plugged it in today it wont let me load anything onto it and if you click get info on it, it says you can only read. Any idea what changed or how to fix this?

BookX wrote:
all Seagate hdd are NTFS formatted by default from manufacturer.
I suggest verifying your information prior to posting. This drive
<http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/products/external/external-hard-drive/mac-deskt op-hard-drive>
is a Seagate drive, and it is not formatted as NTFS. If you consult its data sheet, you'll find it's formatted as HFS+, and compatibility with Windows is provided by a suitable driver, available for download from Seagate.
If you need further information about Seagate drives, I suggest consulting Seagate directly, or, at least, reading some of the data sheets and tech papers provided by Seagate free of charge.

NTFS External Hard Drive now read only

Hello Everyone,
For months I have been connecting a NTFS 1 TB Phantom Labs external hard drive to my mac book, to access my music collection, as well as store additional large files. Today, however, I found my external hard drive to be "read only," rather than read and write. Interestingly, the folder where I keep my music, also includes the lock image as the external hard drive icon.
When I look in Disk Utility, the Phantom Drive is originally listed as read/write. However, the mounting point, named disk2s1 is listed as read only.
Does anyone have any idea how to resolve this situation and return to the read/write status I originally enjoyed?
Thanks.

I have got the exact same problem!!
have a 320 seagate ext HD formatted as NTFS that I have been using for the last 3-4 months that suddenly became read only.
I'm running macfuse with 3G to read and write to the drive and prior to this have never had an issue.
Have another ext HD formatted as NTFS that reads and writes fine. I have tried disk utility but verify and first aid are greyed out for the seagate drive, One minute I was writing to my drive fine and next time I plugged it in Read only (yes I ejected properly as always)
Any ideas?? I hope it's not a re format and start again..

New external hard drive is read only... why?

Ok I have bought an external hard drive and plugged it all in. It has shown up on my desktop but when I tried moving files to it it said that the hard drive can not be modified. I checked and it says that it is read only.... why?!
Do I need to do something or is it just not working?
Might it need reformating if so how do I do that? I am a virgin when it comes to things like this so someone please deflower me!

Under the Get Info window, check to see if the disk's format is listed as NTFS or Windows NT filesystem; if it is, you will need to reformat it before you can write to it on a Mac. To reformat a disk, open the Disk Utility in your /Applications/Utilities/ folder, click the Erase tab, provide a format and a name, and confirm this action.
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External hard drive becomes "read only" and won't let Time Machine back up

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