I cannot edit external hard drive permissions so i cannot add things to the file

So I'm trying to transfer some data from an old laptop to an external hard drive (which is formatted to NTFS, it was made on a windows laptop by my parents), but I cannot edit it. I'm trying to edit the permissions, and it says only the main user can Read and Write to it, while staff/everyone else can only read. I'm trying to change all of them to Read and Write, but when I try to change it, this message pops up, saying "The operation can’t be completed because you don’t have the necessary permission."


How do I get this permission enabled?


Im using a Late 2014 Mac Mini running macOS Mojave 10.14.1

Mac mini 2018 or later

Posted on Dec 24, 2018 5:53 AM

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3 replies

Dec 24, 2018 7:56 AM in response to ViralVillagerYT

The least risky approach is to get another drive and copy everything over.

You can get software by Paragon or Tuxera to use the drive as is, with read and write capabilities, but if this is sensitive material it is better to be safe.

If you have another copy, you may erase the drive, format it as ExFAT (so that is readable and writable on both macs and pcs without extra software), and copy that stuff and more. I'd keep the extra drive as a backup. If there is only one copy of something, well...

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I cannot edit external hard drive permissions so i cannot add things to the file

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