Usb hard drive will only alow me to copy from it not edit

this is my first mac and ive only had it for about a week but i pick up on computers very quickly, i have a usb hard drive that i have used previously with PC's the drive in it was pulled from a PC laptop nd formatted it but when i connect it to my mac it will allow me to view and copie the files but not edit or delete them.
i would be grantful for any ideas thank u in advance
scipio
mac book pro 2.0ghz Mac OS X (10.4.5)

Note that you cannot just reformat the drive. You must re-partition the drive. Open Disk Utility and select the drive entry (the one with the mfgr.'s ID) from the leftside list, then click on the Partition tab in the DU main window. Select one partition from the dropdown menu. If you want to use the drive to boot the MacBook, then click on the Option button and select the GUID partition scheme from the dropdown menu. Click OK, then click on the Partition button. Wait for the volume to mount on the Desktop, then quit DU.

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I have all of my graphic/music files on the HD of my Mac. I want to copy these files to a drive so that I can clean it off and sell it. I will be transferring the files to a PC.
I purchased a USB external HD from Best Buy four months ago. I plugged it in and it asked me to reformat the drive as Macintosh. I took it back and had them reformat the drive as FAT32 so that I could use it on both systems. I had this done twice because it didn't work the first time. Well, it didn't work the second time either but they tested it on their Macs and it worked so I think it's a problem with my Mac.
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Here is a USB faq. Hope it helps!
Try using Disk Utility to do a Disk Repair, as shown in this link, while booted up on your install disk for your unepectedly quit issue.
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Cheers! DALE

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Hi,
This is a long post - but one that I hope someone can offer advice on.
The Hardware
Mac Pro running OSX 10.8 (but this has happened on all versions of the OS i.e. 10.6/.7 etc)
3 x Internal SATA Hard Drives - All working perfectly.
External Drives:
2 x Western Digital My Book 1TB USB Hard Drives
1 x Seagate 750GB Hard Drive with USB2 connectivity
2 x IcyBox Dual Bay USB2 hard Drive enclosures using JMicron Chipsets - these enclosures have 2 x 1TB Western Digital Green in each (totaling 4 TB across the 2 enclosures).
D-Link 7 Port USB2 Hub
The Problem
- USB Hard Drives connected to the Mac are ejected from the system without notice and at random times AND/OR
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- Time Machine: TM will back up successfully several times, before eventually throwing an error up that it cannot create the folders required on the drive.
- The only way to be able to use the drives again is either remount the drive, or in some case, it is required to completely power the drive down and then reconnect.
Re-creating the problem
I have honestly not found a sure-fire way of replicating the problem. It seems completely random. It happens when I am actually sat at the computer, but it also happens when I am away from the computer.
In the past - my Time Machine hard drive has been one of the Western Digital MyBook drives. I also used the second MyBook for SuperDuper backups (extra redundancy). The 4TB drives in the IcyBox enclosures have been used to backup my ripped movie collection.
Recently however - I decided to have 2 of the 1TB drives in the IcyBox enclosures to be TM and SuperDuper backups. I have however reverted TM back to one of the Western Digital drives, purely for testing purposes. SuperDuper is backing up to one of the 1TB drives in the IcyBox.
I am trying various things to see if I can find the issue, but it is such a random event that it is taking ages to even come close to find a problem. Sometimes the drives will stay active for a few days, sometimes only a few hours, even minutes.
Theories
I have several theories as to why my USB drives continually disconnect.
1. The D-Link USB Hub.
Could connecting the drives through the hub be causing the problem? I don't really see how, unless it is a documented case that D-Link USB hubs do not play nice with OSX? To try and rule this out I have connected the current Time Machine back up drive (Western Digital MyBook) directly to the USB port on the back of the computer. The SuperDuper (IcyBox enclosure) drive is currently connected through the D-Link hub. I have removed all the other drives from the enclosures - so at present I have only 2 external drives connected (1 x 1TB Western Digital MyBook, 1 x 1TB Western Digital Green inside one of the IcyBox dual-bay enclosures - connected through D-Link Hub).
2. JMicron Chipset
I have done a bit of research on the internet and there are a few indications that perhaps JMicron SATA-to-USB controller chipsets found in a lot of external hard drive enclosures (including the dual bay IcyBox external enclosures that I have) do not play nice with OSX. If the JMicron chipsets in the 2 IcyBox enclosures is a problem - would that cause issues with other USB devices on the USB bus off the Mac? (i.e. can the JMicron chipset in the enclosures cause devices such as the WD MyBook drives which I assume use a non-JMicron chipset, to experience similar failures?)
3. Green Hard Drives
As I have said, I have 4 Western Digital Green 1TB hard drives inside the IcyBox Dual Bay Enclosures. Could the fact that these drives are 'Green' be causing a problem? They do go to sleep after x number of minutes, but they do wake up when required. But could on the occasion when I have problems, could this be caused by the 'Green' feature interrupting OSX in waking the drives? Coupled with JMicron chipset, could this be compounding the issue?
Possible Solutions
I am prepared to spend money on replacement drives and/or enclosures etc - but I would hate to spend x amount of money and have the same problem. So I am hoping to get some advice on what drives/enclosures are more than likely to work flawlessly with OSX.
Thanks for reading!

FYI - re: the SuperDuper drive that is in one of the IcyBox enclosures.
I just opened this drive up in Finder. I heard the drive wake up, but when I came to copy a file over (tried various file sizes) - I got the error -50 message.
Here is the info from Console.
31/07/2012 23:35:52.000 kernel[0]: disk4s2: 0xe000c2e4 (UNDEFINED).
31/07/2012 23:35:52.000 kernel[0]: disk4s2: 0xe000c2e4 (UNDEFINED).
31/07/2012 23:35:53.000 kernel[0]: disk4s2: 0xe000c2e4 (UNDEFINED).
31/07/2012 23:35:53.000 kernel[0]: disk4s2: 0xe000c2e4 (UNDEFINED).
31/07/2012 23:35:53.000 kernel[0]: disk4s2: 0xe000c2e4 (UNDEFINED).
31/07/2012 23:35:53.000 kernel[0]: disk4s2: 0xe000c2e4 (UNDEFINED).
31/07/2012 23:35:53.000 kernel[0]: disk4s2: 0xe000c2e4 (UNDEFINED).
31/07/2012 23:35:53.000 kernel[0]: disk4s2: 0xe000c2e4 (UNDEFINED).
31/07/2012 23:35:53.000 kernel[0]: disk4s2: 0xe000c2e4 (UNDEFINED).
31/07/2012 23:35:53.000 kernel[0]: disk4s2: 0xe000c2e4 (UNDEFINED).
31/07/2012 23:35:53.000 kernel[0]: disk4s2: 0xe000c2e4 (UNDEFINED).
31/07/2012 23:35:53.000 kernel[0]: disk4s2: 0xe000c2e4 (UNDEFINED).
31/07/2012 23:35:53.000 kernel[0]: disk4s2: 0xe000c2e4 (UNDEFINED).
31/07/2012 23:35:53.000 kernel[0]: disk4s2: 0xe000c2e4 (UNDEFINED).
31/07/2012 23:35:53.000 kernel[0]: disk4s2: 0xe000c2e4 (UNDEFINED).
31/07/2012 23:35:53.000 kernel[0]: disk4s2: 0xe000c2e4 (UNDEFINED).
31/07/2012 23:35:53.000 kernel[0]: disk4s2: 0xe000c2e4 (UNDEFINED).
31/07/2012 23:35:53.000 kernel[0]: disk4s2: 0xe000c2e4 (UNDEFINED).
31/07/2012 23:35:53.000 kernel[0]: disk4s2: 0xe000c2e4 (UNDEFINED).
31/07/2012 23:35:53.000 kernel[0]: disk4s2: 0xe000c2e4 (UNDEFINED).
31/07/2012 23:35:53.000 kernel[0]: disk4s2: 0xe000c2e4 (UNDEFINED).
31/07/2012 23:35:53.000 kernel[0]: disk4s2: 0xe000c2e4 (UNDEFINED).
31/07/2012 23:35:53.000 kernel[0]: disk4s2: 0xe000c2e4 (UNDEFINED).
31/07/2012 23:35:53.000 kernel[0]: disk4s2: 0xe000c2e4 (UNDEFINED).
31/07/2012 23:35:53.000 kernel[0]: disk4s2: 0xe000c2e4 (UNDEFINED).
31/07/2012 23:35:53.000 kernel[0]: disk4s2: 0xe000c2e4 (UNDEFINED).
31/07/2012 23:35:53.000 kernel[0]: disk4s2: 0xe000c2e4 (UNDEFINED).
31/07/2012 23:35:53.000 kernel[0]: disk4s2: 0xe000c2e4 (UNDEFINED).
31/07/2012 23:35:53.000 kernel[0]: disk4s2: 0xe000c2e4 (UNDEFINED).
31/07/2012 23:35:53.000 kernel[0]: disk4s2: 0xe000c2e4 (UNDEFINED).
31/07/2012 23:35:53.000 kernel[0]: disk4s2: 0xe000c2e4 (UNDEFINED).
31/07/2012 23:35:53.000 kernel[0]: disk4s2: 0xe000c2e4 (UNDEFINED).
31/07/2012 23:35:53.000 kernel[0]: disk4s2: 0xe000c2e4 (UNDEFINED).
31/07/2012 23:35:53.000 kernel[0]: disk4s2: 0xe000c2e4 (UNDEFINED).
31/07/2012 23:35:53.000 kernel[0]: disk4s2: 0xe000c2e4 (UNDEFINED).
31/07/2012 23:35:53.000 kernel[0]: disk4s2: 0xe000c2e4 (UNDEFINED).
31/07/2012 23:35:53.000 kernel[0]: disk4s2: 0xe000c2e4 (UNDEFINED).
31/07/2012 23:35:53.000 kernel[0]: disk4s2: 0xe000c2e4 (UNDEFINED).
31/07/2012 23:35:53.000 kernel[0]: disk4s2: 0xe000c2e4 (UNDEFINED).
31/07/2012 23:35:53.000 kernel[0]: disk4s2: 0xe000c2e4 (UNDEFINED).
31/07/2012 23:35:53.000 kernel[0]: disk4s2: 0xe000c2e4 (UNDEFINED).
31/07/2012 23:35:53.000 kernel[0]: disk4s2: 0xe000c2e4 (UNDEFINED).
31/07/2012 23:35:53.000 kernel[0]: disk4s2: 0xe000c2e4 (UNDEFINED).
31/07/2012 23:35:53.000 kernel[0]: disk4s2: 0xe000c2e4 (UNDEFINED).
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Also, while the drive was inaccessible, I tried 'Verify Disk' in Disk Utility - here are the results
Verifying volume “SuperDuper”
Checking file systemPerforming live verification.
Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
Checking extents overflow file.
Checking catalog file.
Checking multi-linked files.
Checking catalog hierarchy.
Checking extended attributes file.
Invalid leaf record count
(It should be 2 instead of 1)
Checking volume bitmap.
Checking volume information.
The volume SuperDuper was found corrupt and needs to be repaired.
Error: This disk needs to be repaired. Click Repair Disk.
Please also note that the all my external hard drives have recently been reformated using GUID part. map and HFS Journaled.

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I just bought the Airport Extreme 802.11n and a WD MyBook Essential Edition 500GB to use with it as a shared disk. Reformatted it on my Mac and it works fine, but can't get Airport Disk Utility to see it. I've tried resetting everything, but no go.
The improved range compared to my old Airport Extreme 802.11b/g is great, but I've wasted my money on the disk if the Airport can't connect to it.
Why was there no explanation anywhere in the specifications that this new Airport only works with some USB disks? The way it's written is clearly designed to make you think that any external HD that connects to a USB port will work.
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USB hard drive is set to read only?

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BRDVPRA,
Your external drive is undoubtedly formatted as NTFS. As you already know, your Mac can read this format, but it cannot write to it. There are some third-party shareware applications that will allow your Mac to write to the NTFS volume; search for these on versiontracker.com, if you want to give this a try.
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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?

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I'm wondering if anyone else has any kind of a similar experience? It appears that I can stream music and video from the drive easily enough, it's the writing to the drive that seems to be the issue. Thanks in advance...
Best Regards,
Jeff

I would think you would have better luck formatting it as HFS+ (Macintosh Extended File System). You'll still be able to see it from your non-Mac PCs.
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=6370006#6370006

What's the easiest way to add storage to a mac mini. (1TB hard drive but only 32G of real storage). External device, internal or partitioning?

What's the easiest way to add storage to a mac mini. (1TB hard drive but only 32G of real storage). External device, internal or is there some way to partition? I tried doing so but received a message that there wasn't enough free space to partition. Seems like a 1TB drive should have more storage than my Ipad

Its worth confirming what free space you have on your drive:
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I thought I had come up with a great back up plan:
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2) Once a week take my computer home, connect it to another usb hard drive and change TM preferences to run on that disk.
3) When I get back to work, I change my TM preferences back to the original usb hard drive.
4) Expected result: I then have to separate usb hard drives with back ups of my computer, one which have been run every hour and one at home which have been run every week.
Now I realized that every time I change the TM preferences to run on another usb disk TM will start from scratch and do a completely new TM back up. This means that I can not restore any old files with TM.
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daloco77 wrote:
Now I realized that every time I change the TM preferences to run on another usb disk TM will start from scratch and do a completely new TM back up. This means that I can not restore any old files with TM.
First, it should do a new, full backup only if you've gone several days (at least 10) without a backup to that disk (apparently, you can go longer if there weren't a lot of changes); done a full restore (maybe); or renamed your internal HD.
Second, TM will not delete the last backup to make room for a new one. It will fail for lack of space, instead. So you should be able to restore old files as long as those backups remain. That's why your TM disk should be at least twice the size of the data it's backing-up (and preferably 3 times).
But remember, if you created a file after the last backup to one disk, and deleted it before switching back, your only backups of that file are on the other disk.

Usb hard drive will only alow me to copy from it not edit

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