Cannot write to external USB drive after SL Install...

If you are comfortable with Terminal, this might work:

1. Open Terminal
2. Enter "cd /Volumes" to change to the /Volumes directory where all your external devices are mounted.
3. Enter "ls -altr" to display the name used for all your external devices.
4. Enter "chmod 777 device_name" to give read, write and execute permissions to the owner, group and other users of that device. (i.e. I would enter "chmod 777 usbdrive" to change the permissions on a device named "usbdrive".

You also might need to enter "su" first before you can perform step 4.

All the " marks shown are just to show what needs to entered. Do not include the " when you are entering the commands.

StevenKinchen wrote:
... this prompted me to enter a "su password"... the only password that I have is my admin password... which returned a "sorry" response...

This may tell us something. Try an innocuous Terminal command, such as:

sudo periodic daily

When it asks for the password, key it in, you won't see anything, and see if it accepts it or not.

How many accounts does the machine have and which are you logged in on?

Joe

You cannot write to a NTFS file system from Mac OS X in it's default configuration. There is at least one link -see below - that suggests that write can now be turned on in SL.

You either need some third party software or perhaps [this (Enable native NTFS read/write support)|http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20090913140023382] will work.

I haven't had any need to write to a NTFS fie system, thus have no first hand recommendations on the best solution.

Steve

If the drive mounts, click once on it in the Finder Sidebar and choose Get Info from the File menu.

If needed, unlock the padlock at the bottom right and change your rights accordingly.

Joe

It sounds like it accepted the password. Type the command in all caps to be sure, you'll see what it does. Don't cap the password however. 8^)

Joe