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.

Similar Messages

I am having trouble installing. downloaded Mavericks but it will not let me install to hard drive, says that is reserved for Time Machine. I have an external hard drive, but disconnected that before download.

I downloaded Mavericks but can't get past the install; it thinks my hard drive is reserved for Time Machine. I have an external hard drive but dis-connected that before download.
I have Time Machine turned off.

Check to see if you have a file name Backups.backupdb on the disk drive.
If the installer sees such a file it assumes that the disk drive is being used by Time Machine.
Allan

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.

External hard drives suddenly changed to read only

Three of my external hard drives suddenly changed to read only. These hard drives have been working on my macbook pro for months. When I click on get info 'read only' shows up and there is no lock icon nor is there a window that shows name | permissions, also in disk utility the 'verify disk premissions', 'verify disk', 'repair disk', and 'repair disk premissions' buttons are ghosted and I can not select them. I have not made any changes to my computer and I have read many other posts and have not been able to find a solution.

About a hundred times with no luck. Some of my research is leading to Western Digital, there may be a problem with the drives' 'smartware' software. I've been using this drive for months and I never used the 'smartware', but I tried it anyway with no luck. I just remembered that four days ago I had this drive plugged this drive into an Iomega wireless storage device and it seemed to work fine. Now the wireless storage device can't find the drive at all. I just need to know if there is a way I can change the permissions back to read/write, otherwise I will have to buy another drive and transfer all the data to the new drive and re-formatt the wd drive.

Don't have an external hard drive but want lion

I would love to download lion, but currently do not have an external hard drive availible. Should I wait and buy an external hard drive to backup data?

You should get an external drive and start backing up immediately. Not maintaining a backup is asking for trouble.

External hard drive permissions frozen to "read only"

Hi
I have an external hard drive (windows formated) and I am using it on my imac but the permission won t change from read only
I need to copy files into it and I can't right now...
Thanks for your help if you have an idea!
Matt

I have an external hard drive (windows formated) and I am using it on my imac but the permission won t change from read only
If it's in the Windows NT filesystem, you need to install a driver such as this one or reformat the drive, which erases everything on it.
(45387)

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

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.

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 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

External Hard drive Permissions changed to "read only"

I use a Seagate Slim Drive (500GB) on my Macbook Pro (Late 2012, Retina, 13"), to store movies and tv shows and whatnot. Last night, I was watching a movie and everything was fine. I ejected the drive after use and it stayed that way overnight. This morning, I tried to connect it, but the partition refuses to mount. I got a friend to help me run command prompt diagnostics using terminal, which revealed that the permissions had suddenly changed to "read only". I really need to access the data on this drive because some of the movies in there are part of an important project that could hopefully land me job. Any help is welcome.

1. Select the external hard drives icon
2. Right-click > Get Info (cmd + i)
3. Expand the Sharing & Permission column
4. Click on the lock at the bottom right
* You will be prompted for an administrator name and password *
5. Once unlocked change the permission for user, group & everyone to read & write
6. Click the little gear right below and select “Apply to enclosed items…”

I have 2 external hard drives, but can not view photos from 1 hard drive in LR5 now. I used this hard drive in LR5 before, but now it does not show up. How do I get the hard drive to show up in LR5?

Any ideas on how to connect hard drive back into LR5?

Hi:
Let's see if I can help you, help me. Operating system is OS X, version 10.8.5.
The photos on hard drive (1) have never been removed from Lightroom (or have they?)They have not been removed from LR.
Could you explain why hard drive (1) stopped appearing in Lightroom, it must have been because you did something, otherwise the photos on hard drive (1) will still appear there.LR always worked great, until I had to upgrade my operating system to get LR5 to work. Then it has been one problem after another.
So, once I ran into this problem and before we started to chat….I simply RE-imported all the photos from (1). They came in fine, except none of their key words came along with them. So my ability to find anything is "0". It was bad enough to have to do the import all over, but the thought of having to re-tag 1000"s of images is overwhelming.
Thanks for your patience.
Kathy

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.

How do i get my external hard drive permissions changed from read only to read and write?

Does anyone know how to get an external drive to unlock the permissions from read only to read and write? Without reformatting or buying an app?

Hey P,
If you single click on your external drive icon on the desktop and then goto
'File > Get Info' a window will display the information for that drive. At the
bottom of the window their should be a check box that either allows you
to recognise users of not. You probably want to uncheck this box.
Or... You can keep the user option and just change the permissions
using the same Get Info window.
A.

I have an external hard drive, from Iomega. However, I cannot copy or save any file to it. On my PC it says that is possible to read and write in it, but in my Mac, it says I can only read. can somebody help me?

I have an external hard drive, from Iomega. that I can open and see my files. However, I cannot copy or save any file to it. On my PC I have it says that is possible to read and write in it, but in my Mac, it says I can only read. can somebody help me?
Also, Im a photographer, so I like to name a lot of files at the same time (used to do in on PC and it was very usefull.) cannot find out how to do it on my Mac. Really appretiate if some one can give me a solution! Thanx

Your drive is formatted with the NTFS file system. OS X can read but not write to the NTFS file system. There are third party drivers available that claim to add the ability to OS X to write to an NTFS partition. I have not tried them and don't know if they work.
The only file system that OS X and Windows can both write to natively is the FAT32 file system.

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

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for