Read-Only Access to external hard drive

I have a Fantom Drive 1 TB external hard drive connected to my computer. I only have "read only" access however. I've tried changing the permission to no avail. The readme.txt file for the drive says - "THIS DRIVE HAS BEEN PREFORMATTED FROM THE FACTORY USING THE NTFS FILE SYSTEM... NTFS has limited compatibility with Mac OS (requires 10.4 and newer, read only"
Does this mean I'm out of luck or is there something I can do that will allow me read/write access to this drive?
Thanks - Leah

Natively in OSX, you only have read-only access to NTFS partitions. Here's a free utility that's supposed to work for what you want (I've not tried it):
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/systemdiskutilities/ntfs3g.html
HTH,
Brian

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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

Cannot access shared external hard drive with other mac accounts

I cannot access a shared external hard drive with other mac accounts (all accounts are on the same macbook Pro). The shared external drive is shared via time capsule and is connected (of course) in USB. I see well this external hard drive as a shared disk with my main account. Yes shared option has been activated with the Airport Utility .. but when I open other account these othe accounts can see the external drive but cannot access to its content that is flagged with a no way sign. Strangely enough when I close my main account and start opening a new session with one of the other account then fine I can access the external hard drive and its content .. BUT then it is from my main account than I cannot access its content the no way sign showing ..
Looks like only one account at a time can access the content of this SHARED external hard drive .. any one as an idea on how to really make it a shared hard drive so that all accounts on the same mac can also access it ? I am at my wit ends on this case. THANKS ..

Results of my enquiries at Apple Genius Bar .. the guys found the problem interesting. They've been unable to provide a fix neither to give any explanation as to the reason why. To be fair I was not much impressed by the technical level demonstrated ..
In the mean time I have found that if account no.1 can see the shared external drive content and in such case account no.2 (same Mac computer) cannot see its content (only the external HD with a no way sign) this account no.2 can UNMOUNT (by ejecting) this external HD from account 1 and then remount it (just clicking on the TC shared part in a finder window) and .. see and access its content ; whilst account no.1 cannot see its content anylonger. Unless it unmounts the shared external HD and remount it .. then account no.2 can see its content anylonger. This can goes on an on.
So eventually YES the TC can allow to share a USB external drive between several accounts and a same Mac .. BUT this require to unmount and remount EACH time the external drive is accessed from a "no.2 account". So OK to share files with seldom access but not practical in case of frequent access needed.
I just I have now to figure how iTunes can automatically unmount and remount a shared external HD when it needs to access one of this shared HD content from on time account no.1 and then next time from account no.2. May be I am asking too much ..

Is there a way for my macbook air (running Lion) to access an external hard drive on my Imac (running snow leopard) specifically for Iphoto and itunes?

Is there a way for my macbook air (running Lion 10.7.2) to access an external hard drive on my Imac (running snow leopard 10.6.8) specifically for Iphoto and itunes?

Yes. For those two applications specifically there is sharing. This presumes both computers are on and connected to the same network.
In iPhoto, enable sharing by (on the iMac) going to the iPhoto menu > Preferences > Sharing > check Share my photos. You can either share the entire library or only selected albums. Now on your MacBook Air, in iPhoto, go to the same preference pane and select Look for shared photos.
iTunes has something similar. In the iTunes menu > Preferences > Sharing > check Share my library on my local network. On the other computer, look in the left column for SHARED and select the iMac. You can now play that music on the MacBook Air.
There are other ways to share files but for those two applications this is the simplest way.
Best of luck.

How do I block access to external hard drive

I have a child account on my computer, and have set up various parental controls but can't see a way to block the access to external hard drives which are connected to my Mac.
I have a couple of drives which contain my work related files so I don't want my child to view or edit them. Is there a way I can stop her seeing these drives when she searches for something in Finder?
Thanks

You can create encrypted sparse disk image.
Once you have done that you can move the data you wish to protect into it.
This way the only to access the data is by first providing the password to open the disk image.

How do I access an external hard drive attached to an Airport Extreme using the Finder's "Go to the folder" feature?

How do I access an external hard drive attached to an Airport Extreme using the Finder's "Go to the folder" feature?
I have an external hard drive attached to my Airport Extreme and I can access it just fine through Finder. I would like to be able to keyboard navigate to it in an efficient manner. I tried to use the "Go to the folder" feature but was unable to.
I had tried dragging the drive to the Network folder but the shortcut it created does not lead to the drive's contents...it seems to lead right back to the parent directory:
I hope I explained the question well. Thank you for all of your help and time in tending to my inquiry.

Cant you set up "back to my mac" then go to finder preferences and put a check mark under everything under the shared location. Also set up back to my mac on your airport extreme.

Why does my I Tunes play only some of my library when it can't access the external hard drive from which I imported some of the music? My esternal hard drive has been corrupted, but I thought I Tunes would have "saved" songs I dragged to it.

Some of my ITunes library came from CDs, some from an external hard drive with songs in it. My external hard drive went bad, which I wouln't have thought would have affected my Itunes library or the songs I had previously imported to it from the external drive. But now the Itunes cannot locate many of those songs. Is there some process of importing/saving that is different when you import from CD? Hope someone can help.....MN

Hi MNinPungo,
When adding music to iTunes from another location (for example, an external hard drive), iTunes can either make a local copy of the file in the iTunes Library or create a pointer to the original file in the original location, depending on the preferences you have set. You may find the following article helpful:
Add to Library
So you can access content quickly, iTunes indexes all music, audio book, and video files that you add to iTunes. This index is called the iTunes library. When you add content to the library, iTunes adds an entry for each audio or movie file to your index. The files could be in your Home folder, somewhere else on your hard drive, on an external hard disk, or on another computer that you're accessing through file sharing.
To add files to your iTunes library, you can use these options:
Drag files from the Finder to the appropriate icon on the left side of the iTunes window.
Choose File > Add to Library (on Windows, choose Add File to Library or Add Folder to Library) and select the song or folder that you want to add.
iTunes adds entries to your iTunes library for the selected files and copies the files to your iTunes Music folder (if you selected that option in the Advanced pane of iTunes preferences).
iTunes: About the Add to Library, Import, and Convert functions
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1347
Regards,
- Brenden

Can no longer access NTFS external hard drive

Have been using the new Mac-Book Pro for about 4 weeks now. Until last week, when I attached by Seagate NTFS formatted external hard drive to my USB port, it showed up in Finder right away and I could access files ( read ) on it without any problems.
But since last week, if I attach the same drive to my USB port, it no longer shows up in Finder. I cannot see it at all !!
Any ideas ? All i need is to read files from it, I don't need to write anything to it.
Thanks.

BTW, after talking to a Apple-Support personnel and doing a bunch of hard-ware tests they recommended that I format the external drive to a FAT32 partition.
Not a good solution, as XP cannot format a drive using FAT32 for drives more than 32 GB, the drive in question is a 100 GB capacity.
I just want to read the NTFS partition on the Mac. Don't need write access. I thought Leopard supported "read-only" access to NTFS drives. What drives me crazy..is that Leopard could see and read this drive fine until last week.... What happened !!
Thanks for your inputs.

Can no longer access my external hard drive

My husband I and switched to a Mac after using Windows machines for years. We have a Free Agent external hard drive to store ALL of our music files and, most importantly, our photos. When we first got the Mac, we plugged in the FreeAgent and it worked fine (obviously, I couldn't write to it, only read the files, but that was basically fine). In the last few days, I realized I can't access the drive at all, no icon, nothing under Computer, no ability in iTunes or iPhoto, nothing. I unplugged its and powered both the Mac and the FreeAgent down, and then reconnected everything and that did not help. Any thoughts or suggestions? It would break my heart to lose my photos. I have a lot of them backed up on removable media, but I take a lot of pictures and stand to lose hundreds.
This is a possible duplicate post, so please bear with me. Our Mac was purchased at the end of May 2012, but we have not upgraded to Mountain Lion. As the Genius in the store put it the night we bought the computer: it's better we learn our way around the system as it is now without all the extra bells and whistles.

Thank you so much for your response. I tried your steps this evening...both of them, and still don't find the FreeAgent drive. I don't have my Windows laptop here at home, but will bring it over so that I can connect the external drive and make sure that there's still DATA on the darn thing. If all the files are still there and can be accessed through a Windows machine, then I guess all is not lost. I'll have to look into purchasing a new external drive to work with the Mac now.
I apologize for the lack of info on my system. I am brand new to Mac - as stated, we only purchased our first-ever Mac back at the end of May and then I almost immediately started a new job, so I haven't really had time to get to know the ins-and-outs of the system. For instance, I don't know where to look to get OS info..all I can tell you is that the machine is 4 months old and I haven't installed Mountain Lion yet. I don't have a boatload of apps installed either - pretty much what came with the computer with the additon of MS Office for the Mac, which I needed for work and school.
The external hard drive was initially used with Windows machines, so when it WAS working with the Mac, I wasn't able to write to it, but the files were all there. Because there are days at a time now where I don't come near the computer, I can't say when the FreeAgent stopped working with the Mac.
Thanks for your help, and if you have any other suggestions, I'd be very appreciative.

Being able to 'Read & Write' on an external hard drive on the Mac

Hi there,
I can't seem to be able to add things to my external hard drives on my MacBook Pro. I can with my USB stick but not with the larger external hard drives. Could someone help me change the permission settings to allow me to 'Read & Write' rather than just 'Read Only'.
Thanks
Nadia

How is this drive formatted? If it is NTFS then it is read-only. In order to use it on the Mac you will have to repartition and reformat the drive. On the other hand if it is properly partitioned and formatted for the Mac and the drive has become read-only then there is a different solution.
For the first alternative:
Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (for Intel Macs) or APM (for PPC Macs) then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
For the second alternative:
Fix No Access Permissions on HD.

Finder crashes when accessing my external hard drive

I have a Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex 1TB external hard drive where I keep a lot of my extra data. Very recently, I can't pin-point exactly when, the hard drive has been causing Finder to crash, most of the time irreparably -- and by irreparably I mean it will crash and I'll try to relaunch it but it won't work, in fact it won't actually relaunch unless I then click the Finder icon (which had no dot under it), after which it will immediately launch into an "Application Not Responding" state.
The reason I believe it is the external hard drive is because I have two computers, both of which have the same problems when doing stuff with the hard drive, and neither have problems when the hard drive isn't plugged in.
Some weird things: I have been accessing an excel document on the drive and have been saving the document this entire time -- before I began to think that it was the hard drive causing these problems. It seems as though I could open that document and save it without any apparent problems. Same sort of thing when I used Ableton Live recently. I could access my sample library on the external drive through Live's browser and it would seem to work just fine. However, with Live, when I tried to save a project it would immediately crash Live (presumably because Live is trying to save via Finder or something?). I can't remember if Finder would subsequently crash or not, but I remember having terrible issues with Finder crashing around the times I would be using Live and trying to save.
I tried doing a Repair Disk on the external through Disk Utility, but after it was showing only the stripey progress bar down at the bottom and only saying "Verifying and Reparing Disk," for a little while I stopped it and tried to quit Disk Utility, only to have Disk Utility crash and now Finder crash as well.
Another couple of things to note. Finder is not able to copy something to or from the external, or move something from the external to the trash. It will be stuck at 0 percent progress and if I press the x it will say "Stopping" and never go away. However when I do that and then just unplug my external I immediatley get a "Disk removed improperly" dialog and Finder will work again right away.

Interesting. What avout your login items in your Accounts preferences?
To save everybody downloading that stuff:
~/Library/LaunchAgents
com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist
com.adobe.ARM.df0ab5bbe6f698196fcc21e3c1e66dcb758bd911f4d637272d9d8109.plist
com.apple.AddressBook.ScheduledSync.PHXCardDAVSource.F8FFDCC1-8936-45DE-BF21-BF3 C08DF0EF9.plist
[email protected]
com.divx.agent.postinstall.plist
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com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist
com.google.keystone.agent.plist
com.m-audio.fasttrackpro.helper.plist
com.seagate.SeagateStorageGauge.plist
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com.adobe.SwitchBoard.plist
com.google.keystone.daemon.plist
waves.SoundGrid.RawEthernetHelperTool.plist
com.apple.remotepairtool.plist
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/Library/StartupItems
ProTec6
kexts
com.Cycling74.driver.Soundflower(1.5.2)
com.maudio.usb.fasttrackpro.driver(1.8.1)
Is the goflex a usb-attached enclosure?
Remove maudio, specifically that com.maudio.usb.fasttrackpro.driver. If you just move that out of /System/Library/Extensions (or if there is an installer) you need to reboot after adding/deleting kext's.
If no software was installed by you then somehow that external got that com.seagate.SeagateStorageGauge.plist installed in your /Library/LaunchAgents. If the maudio removal doesn't change anything then this segat launchagent is the next to go.

Cannot Access Toshiba External Hard Drive On MacBook Pro

I have had this Toshiba portable external hard drive for about 3-4 years now. It is powered through the USB port (USB 3.0 I believe, but maybe it's older and is only USB 2.0). All of a sudden my hard drive will not show up on my Mac or PC to be accessed (on the PC it says "device descriptor request failed" and doesn't show at all). At first I thought it was because I updated to Maverick when it was first available, but realized I had been accessing my hard drive and using time machine with it since then. Right now there are a lot of files on this hard drive I would like access to so I do not want to format the drive at all. Furthermore, the drive appears in disk utility and I did the verifying and repairing disk functions in disk utility and they were successful, but nothing was actually fixed. Also, the light is constantly flickering white, sometimes it would be solid blue, but recently only flickering white.
I have also refereed to this discussion thread, however, in this person's situation their drive does not appear at all where mine actually does. The solutions provided were to try a new cable or that there is not enough power being provided from the computer through the USB cord into the hard drive. I have never had this issue and have tried both cords made by Samsung and one from a WD My Passport. Please let me know if I should try the powered USB hub and I will, I just don't understand why the power going to the drive changed all of a sudden since I've been using it for years.
I have already ordered a new external hard drive so I can back up my computer, but I still need the files on this hard drive. Luckily it seems to still be alive which makes me think there is a way to get the files. So if anyone can help me figure out a solution to this problem without losing my files that would be excellent.
Thank you. I will try to provide you with any additional information you would like to know.

Since you can see the drive in Disk Utility, select it, go to the Restore tab, and use that to copy the data to a new drive. Note the warning on reformatting the destination drive - make sure there is no data on the new drive.

Why can I no longer access my external hard drive?

I've been accessing my (powered) external hard drive for several months through my AirPort. It was never formatted for a Mac, since I had purchased it when i was still using a PC. And we still have PCs in the house that I want to be able to have access as well.
When I purchased the AirPort I was told that I could use it as an external drive, so I had moved some files onto it. Then... I was told, NO, don't put files on your AirPort because it could eventually lead to corrupt files in the Time Machine.
Yesterday, I was in the process of removing files from the AirPort and copying them to the external drive. I hit a point where my computer seemed to be thinking too hard and too long. The majority of the file transfers had been fine, but when I went to look at the external drive it appeared to be empty. After a bit of freaking out, we plugged the external drive directly into my Mac book to confirm that the files are still there. I've rebooted the computer, powered down the AirPort, and powered down the external drive to no avail.
While speaking with Apple customer service last night, we reset the AirPort as well. Nothing. I was finally told that my only option was to reformat the external drive. I'm hoping that someone here might have more insight before I jump through moving everything again.

#:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            999.3 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3

Why Can't I see or access my external hard drive anymore using finder

I have a MacBook using Lion 10.7.5 and I use a Seagate 1 TByte external hard drive to store large photo and video files so that these won't take up space on my system hard drive. I also use the drive to share files with friends, colleagues and family members. Just recently I was no longer able to see my harddrive when I plugged it into the USB port on the Mac. However, when using the Disk Utilities, I was able to see the hard drive but could not access or see the files. Therefore the USB cable and USB port is working from a hardware perspective. The light also was on when I plugged the hard drive into the USB port so I know the hard drive is working. I brought the laptop and hard drive to my local Apply store to see if they could determine the problem. They did everything I already did regarding the testing of hardware. They recommended that I reload my software because something in the OS must have gotten corrupted. I re-installed the OS and the updates to the version. The re-install DIDN'T help. Using Bootcamp with Windows XP which is installed on my MacBook, I wanted to find out if Windows would recognize the hard drive and also give me access to the files. Using Windows, I was able to now see the drive and access the files. I now know the hard drive works, the USB cable and port is working and windows gave me the ability to access all of the files.
THE FIX: The hard drive was stuck in the Windows Mount Mode and because of this, the Mac OS was not able to recognize the hard drive using finder in Mac OS. When I was still in Windows, I ejected or dismounted the dick prior to removing the hard drive from the MacBook. I then shut down Windows and restarted the Mac OS. Once the system was fully up, I plugged the hard drive into the MacBook via the USB port. The Hard Drive is now being recognized by my Macbook once more. I can again access all my files.
HOW THIS PROBLEM OCCURRED: While sharing my hard drive with a colleague to transfer some files on a PC using Windows, the colleague disconnected the hard drive from the PC after the files were transferred by pulling the USB cable out of the USB port without a software dismount or ejection. This caused the hard drive to hang in a "windows mounted state" even though there was no power to the hard drive. When peripherals are connected to either a Mac or PC systems, they should always to properly dismounted via a software dismount or a system ejection. Proper dismount of peripherals will always insure the closure and correct allocation of data within the booting sectors and data fields of the hard drive.

ld3mb wrote:
Thanks everyone. I suppose I'll just reformat for Apple. I need to use it for large files, and I suppose I could survive without editing ablities on Windows.
There's another alternative, format it as exFat, 4G limit does not apply and OSX + Windows will be able to read/write.

Upgrading to Mavericks wrecked my MacBook Pro & now it only works when external hard drive is plugged in

So I tried to upgrade to Mavericks today and it failed (same error as in this post which seemed to be a common problem). It wouldn't let me repair the disk, and after trying all sorts I rebooted my computer in recovery mode - it wouldn't let me reinstall Lion because the hard drive was apparently locked and I could see no way around this. So I decided to restore from a Time Machine backup on an external hard drive and that worked okay, except my MacBook now only works when the external hard drive is connected. If I remove the external hard drive, I'm back to square one as it still won't let me reinstall Lion as the HD is locked!
I have no idea what's going on. HELP!

The startup drive is failing, or there is some other internal hardware fault.
Make a "Genius" appointment at an Apple Store, or go to another authorized service provider.
If privacy is a concern, erase the data partition(s) with the option to write zeros* (do this only if you have at least two complete, independent backups, and you know how to restore to an empty drive from any of them.) Don’t erase the recovery partition, if present.
Keeping your confidential data secure during hardware repair
Apple also recommends that you deauthorize a device in the iTunes Store before having it serviced.
*An SSD doesn't need to be zeroed.

Read-Only Access to external hard drive

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