Why don't I have a Lock Icon available to me on an external drive?

Question

Why don't I have a Lock Icon available to me on an external drive?

Hi.

I will first off beg your forgiveness, as I am very new to iMac.

I have been using PC for quite some 20 years, but I am having difficulty with Finder and it's peculiarities.

My main problem is that there is no lock icon available to me in the "Get Info" section, when I go to place files on an external drive.

Despite being the administrator of this particular iMac, I only get "you can only read" in the Sharing and Permissions section.

I can find no function to allow me alter this situation.

Can anybody please help me?

Thank you.

iMac, OS X Mountain Lion, external drive

Posted on Aug 12, 2012 11:43 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

RRFS

Level 5

4,522 points

Aug 12, 2012 11:50 AM in response to stuckintheattic

Change your "Privledge" setting in the Get Info pane.

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Answer 2

Aug 12, 2012 11:55 AM in response to RRFS

Thank you for that reply.

I cannot find a privilege setting anywhere in the Get Info section, despite having opened all the triangles.

Whereas I can unlock my internal Mac drive, there is no such option for the external drive.

Thank you for your assistance.

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Answer 3

Aug 12, 2012 12:00 PM in response to RRFS

Drive was in an NTFS format, and was therefore not compatible with the iMac it seems.

I have just reformatted it to the same FAT 32 format as used by the internal drive, and all is working well.

Thank you for all your help

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Answer 4

baltwo

Level 9

62,362 points

Aug 12, 2012 1:25 PM in response to stuckintheattic

Since you're a newcomer to the Mac, see these:

Switching from Windows to Mac OS X,
Basic Tutorials on using a Mac,
Mac 101: Mac Essentials,
Mac OS X keyboard shortcuts,
Anatomy of a Mac,
MacTips,
Switching to Mac Superguide, and
Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Lion Edition.

Additionally, *Texas Mac Man* recommends:

Quick Assist,
Welcome to the Switch To A Mac Guides,
Take Control E-books, and
A guide for switching to a Mac.

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Answer 5

amytuz

Level 1

8 points

Mar 4, 2013 4:40 PM in response to stuckintheattic

I'm having a similar problem; however, my hard drive has already been reformatted to FAT32.

The WD hard drive was previously used on a PC; I reformatted it a few months ago. Everything was working fine, yet a few days ago an error message started popping up when I would connect the drive saying "Mac OS X can't repair the drive....Reformat the drive..." yada yada--and now it's read only.

So, my question, do I really have to reformat it again??? What would I reformat it to?

Of course, if there exists a way to avoid having to relocate all my files (for hours), that'd be great.

Any help is most appreciated!

--Amy

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