Write protected External Hard drive

Question

Write protected External Hard drive

Hi, I am pretty new to Macs having just swapped over from PC.
I am trying to copy and use files from an external hard drive which was first used on my old PC.
Even though my Mac displays the Hard drive on my desktop it states that the hard drive is Write protected therefore I cannot change any of the files on the hard drive.
Does anyone know how to make my external hard drive not be 'Write protected'?
Thanks

iMac, Mac OS X (10.5.5)

Posted on Sep 22, 2008 2:19 AM

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Answer 1

Duane

Level 10

124,293 points

Sep 22, 2008 9:43 AM in response to Martin garnham

Martin, Welcome to the discussion area!

It looks like your external hard drive is formatted as NTFS. The Mac OS can read that format but can not write to that format.

If you want the external drive to be swappable between your iMac and Windows, format it as FAT16 or FAT32. If you only need to use it with your iMac, format it as HFS+.

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Answer 2

Sep 23, 2008 3:20 AM in response to Duane

Many thanks that is a great help.

Only one more question - How do i format this?

Many thanks again

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Answer 3

den.thed

Level 10

91,618 points

Sep 23, 2008 6:21 AM in response to Martin garnham

Hi Martin

Here's a great article by Ken Stone that explains OS X Formatting and Partitioning:

http://www.kenstone.net/fcphomepage/partitioningtiger.html

FAT32 will allow you to share data (pc > mac > pc), just make sure that you have all the data on the External HD somewhere on your pc as formatting will ERASE the current data on it.

Dennis

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Answer 4

Sep 24, 2008 5:05 AM in response to den.thed

Many thanks Dennis, thats a great help.
Martin

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