External HDD is write-only - inability to reformat

Hello,
I've got a MacBook Pro and an old PowerBook G4, and I"m having similar troubles with each computer:
I have a couple of bus-powered firewire drives. I had been using them for archives on an old computer, and now I want to re-format the drives for different purposes. The trouble is that the drives load in write-protect mode only on all of my computers. 'Sharing and Permissions' says that I can only read the drives, though my Account says I should be able to read and write. 'Ignore Ownership on this Volume' is checked.
I've tried using Disk Utility to erase the drives, but all destructive procedures (repair disk, repair disk permissions, verify disk permissions, erase disk) are greyed-out and unavailable to me.
The disks currently have data on them, and I can read and access the data completely. I just can't change or erase it.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to re-gain my write privileges?

Hi vrojr,
if these harddisks are indeed using the NTFS file system (check with Disk Utility) you can try these instructions to reformat them http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2176
Make sure that all important data from these drives is backed-up !
Hope it helps
Stefan

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