I can't import files from my mac to my external hard drive on a mac. Works on Windows

I used OS X Mountain Lion and Windows 7. I bought an External Hard Drive Several Years Ago. I can't import files on it, just read it. In Windows i can read and write it. I want to upgrade my OS X Mountain Lion to OS X Mavericks. I am afraid that i will lose all of my files. Please help

That is because the external drive you are using is formatted in the Windows NTFS format, which is fine for Windows.
OS X can READ files from that format but can NOT Write to that format. If you want to use that external drive with both Windows and Mac OS X you will need to reformat it in a format that both Windows and OS X can Read from and Write to.
Those would be FAT32, in OSX it is called MS-DOS (FAT), or exFAT. You do that formatting in either OS X Disk Utility or Windows Disk Management.

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Help! I can't move files from my MacBook to my external hard drive!

Hey all..
I can't move files from my MacBook to my 40GB hard drive! Whenever i try to do that the com will reply that i can't move the files because the hard drive cannot be modified. This never happened before and how can it be solved?
Appreciate all answers thanks..

What filesystem is your external hard drive formatted as?
You can check this with the program called Disk Utility.
My guess is that it is formatted as NTFS, the default filesystem for windows XP. Mac OS X only supports read-only access to NTFS-formatted drives.
Reformatting, and with it erasing everything on your drive, to another filesystem would be a solution if this is the case.
Google recently released MacFUSE which should allow read-write support to ntfs-drives. Not recommended for the un*x-unexperienced, though.
Martin

How can I drag files from my macbook to my external hard drive?

Hi! I can't seem to drag files to my hard drive using my macbook pro? How can I do that?

Welcome to Apple Support Communities
What happens when you try to drag a file to the external drive? If it just doesn't copy, it's because the external drive is formatted in NTFS, and OS X can't write in NTFS hard drives. There are some solutions:
1. Buy a third-party application like Paragon NTFS, which will allow you to write in your external drive.
2. Format the external drive with exFAT or FAT32, so you will be able to use the external drive with PCs and Macs.
If you choose the last one, copy all the data from the external drive to a Mac or PC before erasing the disk. I recommend you to use exFAT because it hasn't got the limitation of files bigger than 4 GB, so you have to format the external drive on a PC. That's because, if you do it in the Mac, PCs won't recognize it

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It is a seagate hard drive

You can use File Sharing in iTune to copy files over.
http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee374/Diavonex/Album%208/e5fda704749f1ad8716 c247ddcb1823a.jpg
http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee374/Diavonex/Album%208/a22fbbcb5f18066bc27 8239f2f1388b6.jpg
http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee374/Diavonex/Album%208/805492e801e4fafe0aa 1ca4363dd3a86.jpg

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I finally got a representative that was able to help me, she had me go to Get Info, by right clicking iMovie from the finder, and I had to click on Sharing & Permissions>Everyone>Read & Write

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I cannot transfer files from my MacBook to my external hard drive anymore. The device responds with error-36 about documents being unreadable and unwritable. Previously the device worked fine.
External Hard Drive
I have an imation Apollo II 2.5" Portable HDD 320GB.
163 GB available.
Macbook
Model Name: MacBook Finder Version 10.6.8
Model Identifier: MacBook6,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.26 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 3 MB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz

It still doesn't seem to work.
The Finder can’t complete the operation because some data in “POLITICS COMPARATIVE POLITICS IN GLOBAL WORLD” can’t be read or written.
(Error code -36)
The device is also formatted in Mac OS extended

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Does anyone have any information on why my external hard drive would not be allowing me to move files from my computer to my external hard drive? I have a Seagate Free Agent external hard drive. It has 1TB of space that is no where near being used. It will show up on the desktop when I plug it in, but i cannot move anything to it. Also, I have a few movies on the external hard drive that I cannot view for some reason. Does anyone have any input on why that could be? It gives me the pop up window that says "a required codec isn't available." Any onformation will be very helpful. Thank you in advance for your help.

leemamacita wrote:
i have tried to transfer files from my mac to my external hard drive but i just couldn't.. help me
More information would help. How is the external connected? Does the external appear on your Desktop? Has the external been formatted for a Mac? What method do you use to transfer files? When you try to move a file to the external, what does happen?

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Use the File ➙ Export ➙ File Export menu option with Kind = Original. That should get the original video file exported. Try to export one to the Desktop first and open it with Quicktime Player. If all goes well export the rest to a folder on the EHD. How is the EHD formatted? It should be OS X Extended (journaled).

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Ive always been a PC user until recently when i purchased a macbook pro. I have an external hard drive that i used to back up all my files including word documents & mp3's etc. I now want to use the same hard drive to back up files from my macbook but i dont want to make a copy of the entire drive (like with time line) i just want to save individual files. When i go to do this, a light grey circle appears with a 'cross out' and i am unnable to copy/save the file. In the past (with PC) all i have had to do is drop and drag to perform this function. I have attempted to make an alias, copy and paste etc to overcome the problem but nothing thus far has worked.

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Tuxera NTFS 2012.3.2
NTFS for Mac OS X 9.5.3
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Drive Preparation
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Successfully imported pictures from camera, backed up on external hard drive but now there is no sign of the pictures on hard drive or Iphoto...PLEASE HELP???

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Once imported, as always, I saved the photos onto my external hard drive.
Normally I would also keep the images on my camera until I have finished the job and handed the finished product to the customer although on this occasion I had to delete them due to an extensive shoot and the need for space.
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I've checked all my trash cans etc to ensure they haven't been accidentally deleted and they haven't.
Please help?!?!?!
Many thanks in advance
Damsel in utter distress! x

There are 9 different versions of iPhoto and they run on 9 different versions of the Operating System. The tricks and tips for dealing with issues vary depending on the version of iPhoto and the version of the OS. So to get help you need to give as much information as you can. Include things like:
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- What version of the Operating System.
- Details. As full a description of the problem as you can. For example, if you have a problem with exporting, then explain by describing how you are trying to export, and so on.
- History: Is this going on long? Has anything been installed or deleted? - Are there error messages?
- What steps have you tried already to solve the issue.
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How can I move photos from pictures to my Iomega external hard drive? I have copied all photos, however it won't allow me to paste them. The paste button is grayed out.

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http://support.apple.com/kb/PH2506
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Hi Bengt, Thanks for your input, much appreciated.
I have a WD 1TIG hard drive and are using usb connection, is it possible to use fire wire with these? I have had trouble with a lot of the videos I Imported, once they downloaded the file in the viewer window showed up blank and when I mouse over them it places a picture of another file in the window and wont drag and drop into the movie window, like their corrupted or something? Had to delete just about all of them and start again. Also is it possible to select a bunch of videos in the viewer window as to change the dates to the correct dates? All I have been able to do is "select all" which is no help.

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Thanks DJ! I didn't know this could be an issue but I see now my external drive is read only on my Mac.

I can't import files from my mac to my external hard drive on a mac. Works on Windows

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