Read only Privilege on External Hard Drive

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Level 1

8 points

Read only Privilege on External Hard Drive

I am logged on to MacBook Pro (2017) as myself, and I am shown in Users & groups as *****me, the Administrator.

Now, after several months since the last time, I try to reconnect to a SABRENT External Hard Drive I am advised in "Get Info" that "You can only read".

Although, in Sharing & Permissions, I am listed as *****(me) with Read & Write Privilege, it appears that the Hard Drive has not recognised *******me, and thinks I am "staff" or "everyone"

I have unlocked the "Get info" and tried to assogn Privilege "Read & Write" to everyone, but do not have the authotiy

MacBook Pro 13", macOS 10.15

Posted on May 24, 2020 4:14 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

BobTheFisherman

Level 10

84,925 points

May 24, 2020 6:55 AM in response to swallotom

That drive is formatted NTFS for Windows. Macs can only read not write to NTFS formatted drives.

If you were able to write to this drive in the past then you were using a third party app that provided that functionality. Paragon and Tuxera are two such apps.

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Answer 2

swallotom Author

Level 1

8 points

May 24, 2020 12:21 PM in response to BobTheFisherman

Thanks, Bob. Great answers.

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Answer 3

swallotom Author

Level 1

8 points

May 24, 2020 8:39 AM in response to BobTheFisherman

Thanks, Bob. So I’ll need to buy another hard drive to which my MACBook can write. I already have another but it is running Time Machine backups and doesn’t seem to accept being also used for external storage.

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Answer 4

May 24, 2020 8:42 AM in response to swallotom

You can format the NTFS drive for your Mac (recommended) using Disk Utility, or you can install and use one of the third party apps I mentioned.

Word of caution. When you format the drive all data on the drive will be lost. If you have any data you want to keep make sure you copy it off the drive prior to formatting.

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Read only Privilege on External Hard Drive

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