External Hard Drives Changing Permissions to Read Only

Three of my USB external hard drives have suddenly changed to read only. One of the times I was trying to transfer/back-up the files from one drive that had changed to read only to another external. Suddenly the second drive changed permissions. Then after plugging a third external, that drive changed permissions. They all were working perfectly fine with my computer and I have only been using them on MACS. Any explanations? Could there be something wrong with my USB ports? Is it possible to have a virus of some sort?
Thank you!

In disk utility I had a look. I cannot verify or set permission (greyed out). The data coming back from info. How can I change this??
Name : FUJITSU MHZ2320BH G1 Media
Type : Disk
Partition Map Scheme : Master Boot Record
Disk Identifier : disk2
Media Name : FUJITSU MHZ2320BH G1 Media
Media Type : Generic
Connection Bus : USB
USB Serial Number : 560A48A291F9
Device Tree : /PCI0/EHC1@1D,7/@3:0
Writable : Yes
Ejectable : Yes
Mac OS 9 Drivers Installed : No
Location : External
Total Capacity : 298,1 GB (320.072.933.376 Bytes)
S.M.A.R.T. Status : Not Supported
Disk Number : 2
Partition Number : 0
Name : NieuwVolume
Type : Volume
Disk Identifier : disk2s1
Mount Point : /Volumes/NieuwVolume
File System : Windows NT File System (NTFS)
Connection Bus : USB
Device Tree : /PCI0/EHC1@1D,7/@3:1
Writable : No
Universal Unique Identifier : C7B58C48-D6BC-4078-9DAE-CB125901A4D6
Capacity : 298,1 GB (320.070.288.384 Bytes)
Free Space : 127,1 GB (136.438.530.048 Bytes)
Used : 171,0 GB (183.631.757.312 Bytes)
Number of Files : 85.578
Number of Folders : 0
Owners Enabled : No
Can Turn Owners Off : No
Can Be Formatted : No
Bootable : No
Supports Journaling : No
Journaled : No
Disk Number : 2
Partition Number : 1

Similar Messages

External Hard Drive changed permissions to 'read only'

I have been searching everywhere for a solution to this with no luck, so I figured I would start my own post and see what comes of it.
Computer: iMac Intel 24" /3.0ghz/4gb ram/1TB WD hard drive
External Drive giving me issues: Western Digital 1.5TB (has been formatted for Mac)
I recently installed a new main hard drive into my iMac after the original one began to die. I have an external drive that I had been using for achiving files for a long time, with no issues at all. After I installed the new drive, it has suddently become 'ready only' - thus, I cannot write to the drive at all, but can pull information off of it.
When I go to 'Get Info' and down to the permissions section, it is completely 'greyed out' - I can't change or click anything. It reads:
sckenyon (me): read & write
staff: read & write
everyone: ready only
Which is normal, but given that I should have writing priveledges, shouldn't I be able to change those permissions? Or that I should have writing permissions since it shows that I should have them?
I have tried some commands in terminal under other discussions, but I just get a statement that says the volume is 'ready only'.
I have tried Verify Disk in Disk Utility - doesn't do anything, just tells me the disk is OK. I have no option to repair permissions - they are greyed out.
So, can anyone help me out here? I'm at a complete loss! I'm not a complete noob at this, but I am definitely not an expert. I'm capable of following terminal commands if that's what it takes, but I do not want to format the drive if I don't have to (it's already formatted for Mac, so I don't see why I should have to).
Thank you

The problem may be an erroneous flag for the volume of the external drive that puts it in read-only mode. When I had a similar problem, the following steps corrected it.
1. Open Disk Utility and Verify the Volume.
2. If the verification shows that the volume is OK. If so, run repair disk. If the verification does not shaw that the volume is OK, STOP. Copy the drive immediately to oanotehr drive before proceeding. Failure to do so can result in permanent data loss.
3. After the repair function completes, close Disk Utility and start Terminal. It is located in the System Utilities. Type in the following command:
sudo chflags nouchg /Volumes/[Volume Name]
For example, assume your external drives are named Mary X where X is a sequential Arabic numeral. The command line for one of those volumes will be "sudo chflags nouchg /Volumes/Mary\ X" where X is the drive number. You will be prompted for your administrator's password. Note that when you type in the password, it will not be echoed in the terminal window for security reasons . Press "Return"
If your experience is similar to mine, your external drive will no longer be in read-only mode. Hope this is helpful.

I have an external hard drive but it is read only on my macbook.

I have an external hard drive but it is read only on my macbook. I have tried my friends which works on his macbook but this is also read only on mine. Do I need to change any settings?

Here's my lo-tech solution (if you have Parallels) to this frustrating problem:
Eject your hard drive.
Unplug (USB) your hard drive from the MAC .
Start Parallels.
When Windows has started, plug your drive back into the MAC.
You should get a little screen asking if you want the drive to be utilized by MAC or Windows. Select Windows.
Use Windows to copy your files over to the hard drive.
This is less than ideal and not a long-term solution, but I was afraid of attempting any reformatting since I have many files on my hard drive.
Just remember that Windows has to be running first, before you plug in your hard drive.

Hi all not sure where original request went but as a new apple user I have external hard drives that are now "read only" and I can't change or save documents. Went to Get Info and this did not help. Can anyone assist with solution, thanks.

I am a new user to apple and have external hard drives from previous computers. I have many documents I can no longer access and change as they say the drives are read only. How do I change the read only to read and write etc for these external drives. I tried Get Info but this did not assist. Thanks.

Hi,
Google is your Friend
10:18 PM Sunday; February 12, 2012
 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Lion 10.7.3)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

Seagate 500 GB external hard drive allowing me to "read only"

Hi Everyone -
Well, I'm a Mac greenhorn - so I'm still learning the ropes of this wonderful world of Macs - after living with PCs my whole life.
I have a 500 GB Segate Free Agent Drive - I have tons of files on the drive that I would like to go through and delete - but I am only able to "read only" in the permissions. I've followed the help menu's instructions to do everything from change the settings in the files permissions to "read & write" - but the option is not available. I've gone into the applications/utility to try and repair the drive - but so far no luck. When I look at the information for the Free Agent Drive the specs tell me: The format is for the Windows NT File System. I'm guessing this is part of the problem?
Long story short: I need to be able to access/ add&delete files to the external hard drive on my Mac and my laptop. Is this possible? My software was all pre-loaded at the Apple store so if anything regarding reloading software is needed - I'm going to be clueless on that too. I'm usually clueless anyway
If anyone has knowledge - I'd greatly appreciate a suggestion.
Thanks for reading guys!

Hello and Welcome to Apple Discussions.
Macs can only read NTFS drives at this time. You should reformat the drive to HFS+ ("Mac OS Extended" in Disk Utility) for sole use with a Mac; or to FAT32 ("MS-DOS" in Disk Utility) if you need to use it with a Windows laptop and iMac.
mrtotes

External hard drives randomly marked as read only

I have a few External Hard drives (the two I care about the most are Seagate brand and fairly new). Both of them have been set up for Mac use only and never gave me any issues on my older Mac and were used frequently. I just recently got a new Mac. I hooked up my hard drives, denied the Time Machine pop-up, and copy my work onto my new computer. Though I was able to copy my work to my new computer, I couldn't move files on my external hard drive anymore nor could I add new files (back-up work) to the hard drive. Not sure if it's just the new computer or rejecting the time machine pop-up, but my external hard drives can no longer back up my work.
Anyone know what the issue is here? I browsed these forums for a bit and it seems like the common solution is to unlock it or repair the disk. Both task I am very familiar with; however, I don't get the option. There is no lock icon for me to click to unlock and repair the disk (as well as all other options in the disk utilities) is greyed out for the external hard drives. If anyone knows whats going on here, I'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks!

machumpo wrote:
Not too thrilled that it is going to wipe the hard drive (and I prefer to avoid third party when possible), but I will give it a shot.
What you can do is use another external drive formatted to your requirements and copy the data from your current one to it. Then do the reformat. Also if you have the space on your MBP internal drive, copy the drive data to it, format the drive and recopy the data back to the reformatted drive.
Any chance you know how my external hard drives magically changed formats?
I cannot assist you there.
Ciao.

My external hard drive change to read only

I have been backing up my vids, pics, etc on my Seagate HDD for the past 2 months with my Macbook Air. All of a suddenly my external HD changed permissions to read only. I understand that this has been a hot topic for some time but I have not found the solution in any of the threads. Under the "Get info" tab "Sharing & Permissions" section it only reads "you can only read" with no other info. No mention of the users (I am the admin and there are no other users setup) or any other info and I can't click or hit anything (other than my head against the wall!!!!) If I try the Desktop Utilities route my Macbook Air recognizes the eternal hard drive but all buttons such as "verify Disk" etc are greyed out... no idea what I should do. Tried logging out of my user account and back in, tried ejecting and reconnecting but everything has failed.
Anyone with any ideas?! please need any help I can get. Thanks!

Disd you ever get a resolution to your problem? I have exactly the same problem with my ADATA HD710 I use for Time Machine, it works fine for a while, then for no apparant reason I can no longer write to the disc. Even though my permission is still read/write, I am told I can only read and everything is greyed out in disk utility. Previously fixed problem by reformatting, and starting again, but have just lost ability to write again. Need help!
FYI appears to happen when disc not connected to MacBook for a while. Disc fomatted Mac Os extended.

My external hard drive will not open and only shows up in Disk Utilities. When I try yo repair it, it give me and error of invalid sibling link. How do I fix my external hard drive?

My external hard drive will not open and only shows up in Disk Utilities. When I try yo repair it, it give me and error of invalid sibling link. How do I fix my external hard drive?

Invalid sibling link may not be fixable by Disk Utility. (Disk Utility is very conservative, and will not attempt repairs that might cause you to lose data.)
It is an indication of serious Directory damage.
that leaves
a) third-party Utilities that will take those risks, or
b) re-initializing the drive (which deletes all your data) and restoring from another backup source.
c) "Copying off whatever files you can salvage" has gone by, and you cannot copy anything off a drive that will not mount. You may be able to use "rescue" programs such as prosoft engineering Data Rescue to copy files to another drive, but that sounds a lot better than its reality. You may get many files, but not get ANY filenames.

I have an imac 2009 the disk drive is damaged and I have lost the passwords I need to reset passwords I tried booting with a macosx disk from an external hard drive but did not read the drive how else can I reset password ?

I have an imac 2009 the disk drive is damaged and I have lost the passwords I need to reset passwords I tried booting with a macosx disk from an external hard drive but did not read the drive how else can I reset password ?
I have a 2012 mac book pro can I use that to connect with firewire and load osx that way? and how woudl I do that?
Thanks so much!

To what password are you referring? Do you mean your user account's admin password? Or do you mean the master password for File Vault or do you mean a Firmware Password?
For an admin password:
Forgot Your Account Password
For Snow Leopard and earlier
     Mac OS X 10.6- If you forget your administrator password
For Lion/Mountain Lion
    Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
     When the menubar appears select Terminal from the Utilities menu.
     Enter resetpassword at the prompt and press RETURN. Follow
     instructions in the dialog window that will appear.
     Or see Reset a Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Password and
     OS X Lion- Apple ID can be used to reset your user account password.
If you cannot do the above then try this:
1. Boot to Safe Mode by restarting and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND-S keys until a black screen with white type appears.
2. At the prompt, type the following commands pressing return after each command line:
     /sbin/fsck -yf
     If you do not receive a "Filesystem OK" message then repeat this command until
     you do. If after seven tries you still do not receive a "Filesystem OK" message,
     then the system is corrupted and needs to be reinstalled.
     mount -uw /
     cd /private/var/db/netinfo
     mv local.nidb local.old
     rm ../.AppleSetupDone
     shutdown -r now
The second-to-last command above will cause OS X to think that the operating system is newly installed, and when the new owner starts up the computer it will send him/her to the startup wizard where he/she can start a new user without reinstalling.
This last method does not actually change a password. It simply removes the user accounts and lets you create an initial admin account as if the computer were new out of the box.
How to reset the OS X password without a startup CD:
Reboot into Single-user Mode. Enter the following and press RETURN after each command line
   1. Type fsck -fy
   2. Type mount -uw /
   3. Type passwd <username>
I have never tried this method myself.

How do I change permissions from read only on my external hard drive?

I'm a new convert from PC to MAC and I'm kicking myself because it's been **** ever since.
My music and business documents are all kept on an external hard drive and that hard drive is NTSF.
My MacBook is reading the whole drive as read only. I'm trying to add my huge library to the cloud but it's not reading it all.
How can I convert the drive to FAT without losing everything. I have 91 gigs of music that as a dance teacher, cannot afford to lose.
Please help!

chombitafeya wrote:
If I'm only using Mac now, do I still follow #2 from above?
If you are going to use the external drive only with Macs now, you can consider the option to format the external drive with "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)". In this case, only Macs will read the external drive, but compatibility will be better.
chombitafeya wrote:
If I go out and buy an external hard drive that's Mac compatible, will I still be able to transfer the files from my NTSF drive to the new Mac compatible drive or do I have to use a pc to solve this problem?
First of all, note that all external drives are compatible with Macs. If you find external drives which come as "for Macs", that's because they come formatted in "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)".
In that case, you will be able to transfer the files from the NTFS drive. Note that you can read NTFS drives and you can copy files from the NTFS drive to your Mac or other disks. The only thing you can't do is copy files to the NTFS drive

MY Hard Drive says_"YOU CAN READ ONLY" for the OWNERSHIP AND PERMISSSIONS!

I cannot add anything to my EXTERNAL (SimpleDrivePS) hard drive. When I try to copy something to it, it says "The item cannot be moved because SimpleDrivePS cannot be modified."
Upon control-clicking this external hard drive's icon, under "Get info" it says "You can read only" for it's "Ownership and Permissions."
I have used this hard drive with Windows-based computers, but not with this new Apple yet.
What do I need to do so that I can move or copy things to this external hard drive?
Also, is there a discussion room for just general questions? - There are many little things that I wonder how to do from time to time as I am trying to become accustomed with Apple, like shortcut key for desktop, or where is control panel or link to "my computer" or other shortcut keys - things like that.

Hi newsppler;
Since I have never had a disk that was formatted NTFS, I am not absolutely sure exactly how you can discover how it is formatted. I think if you look at the disk with Disk Utility that should tell you.
Yes. If you reformat you will lose everything that is currently on that disk.
To reformat open Disk Utility and then select the disk. You then click the partition tab. This will allow you to select what format you wish to use. I would suggest Mac OS Extended +
Allan

IPod cannot be synced because external hard drive could not be read

I moved my music folder to an external hard drive to create space on my laptop, and changed the location under Preferences / Advanced. Since I did this, my iPod trys to automatically sync but gives the error message "The iPoD "[name]" cannot be synced. The disk could not be read from or written to." The external hard drive is on and working. Is there some reason that the iPod will not sync with this external hard drive? What do I need to do to fix it? Thanks, Bill

First question, since you made
the change, can you still play your music from within
iTunes?
Patrick
Sorry for the delay in answering as I have been traveling. Yes, I can play music from iTunes. The music is located on my external hard drive. iTunes software is on my laptop, and the music library points to the music folder on my external hard drive.
Thanks, Bill
Dell Laptop Windows XP

My newly transferred songs from my external hard drive to my ipod read as "Other" instead of "Audio" files

Okay, i need help bad.
Here's the issue. This is my 2nd iPod classic. My first one, which worked beautifully for several years, died. the drive went bad. A sales associate at the Apple Store said it just crapped out (she didn't use those exact words) and my options were to send it out for a new 80G to replace the bad one at $120, or buy a new one, which yielded only one size and one choice for the classic ipod, the 160G. So i sucked it up and bought the 160G. I wanted the extra storage space anyway.
Came home, hooked it up, and new ipod required a newer version of itunes to mount and manage mp3's. it's not iTunes 10, required for sync with iPhone, but newer than what i currently had at hook up, which was some version of 8 or 9. it's now version 9.2.1, to be exact. After installation was complete, iPod mounted and worked with new version of iTunes just fine. Just recently, I connected my external hard drive to my laptop to transfer music i had backed up from my old classic and iTunes. The transfer seemed to work fine, but now with my pod still connected, the newly transfered audio mp3 files are not in my library. The are stored as "Other" under the iPod Summary tab, NOT AUDIO. so i cannot listen to those 14,000 or so songs and albums i just transfered. This is completely frustrating. Can anyone help?? Thanks. How do i convert these to Audio Mp3 files instead of "other" so i can listen and manage in my library, and so they show in the artists menu?? I have "Manually manage songs" checked in the Summary tab. I think it's storing or acting as an external hard drive. Someone help, i'm really ****** off right now. I spent a lot of time d*cking around transferring songs i can't even listen to or make playlists from now. Thanks a lot!
< Edited By Host >

You maybe right, you transfer your 14k songs to your iPod under disk mode, so it don't appear as Audio.
To load your songs into Ipod Audio section, your must load them via iTunes, either Sync or Manually Manage your library, any other way, it just uses up space in the iPod Harddisk, and wont be on your iPod music menu.
So
1. Import your 14K songs into the iTunes library first. (read the iTunes help if you need instructions)
2. You can either Manually manage selected songs from the library or Sync all.
You can delete the songs in the Other section, by going into diskmode, use Finder and delete the 14K songs.
Good luck!

Can I use time machine to back up computer hard drive AND contents of an external HD (contains only photos) onto another external hard drive (standalone HD for backups only)? PLEASE HELP!!

I keep my photo files on a separate external hard drive, separate from my laptop hard drive. And I want to be able to use time machine as the back-up system to back up BOTH the computer's hard drive AND the external hard drive.... and i want all of the "back-up" information contained on a separate standalone external HD. So in the end, I have a 250GB computer hardrive, a 1TB external hardrive, and I want to have a 2nd external hard drive that will be the location to store the "back-ups" (using time machine) which will be either a 2TB or 3TB harddrive.
I am in dire need of help....

Yes, just make sure that they are not excluded in Time Machine.

Looking for help with an external hard drive....read on please...

I have all of my music on an external hard drive, and that's where my iTunes "points" to for all the songs in my library. Here is my question (and please be as literal as possible, even if you think it's obvious):
When I purchase new songs from iTunes Store, they don't go directly to the harddrive (at least I don't think so). So, what steps do I need to take to get any new songs from my iTunes library onto my external harddrive? Thanks in advance. I know it should be obvious, but I've been burned by countless "obvious" functions/actions in iTunes one too many times

RAIDing the two will destroy the data on the drive. I'm sure that's explained in the manual.

External Hard Drives Changing Permissions to Read Only

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