Seagate Backup Plus Drive "You can only read"

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Level 1

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Seagate Backup Plus Drive "You can only read"

I was able to write to my Seagate Backup Plus Drive from my imac 27" with Lion while the drive is NTFS without using any add'l app (although everywhere i can read that this is not possible, well, i have proof), however now that i plugged it into my macbook air also with lion, when i Get Info the drive, it shows "You can only read" under Sharing and Permission. Can anyone explain why?

Reading through other posts I tried to verify disk in Disk Utility but it gave me the "Verify volume failed: Invalid request." error, all other options are greyed out.

Formatting the drive in another format is not currently possible as it has been bought as a "rescue" for my macbook air and it has files on it copied from my imac that is currently 2000 km's away from where i am...

Your help would be much appreciated.

Thanks a lot in advance.

MacBook Air, Mac OS X (10.7.2)

Posted on Aug 19, 2012 6:05 AM

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Answer 1

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dwb

Level 7

32,920 points

Aug 19, 2012 6:23 AM in response to benomatis

benomatis wrote:

I was able to write to my Seagate Backup Plus Drive from my imac 27" with Lion while the drive is NTFS without using any add'l app (although everywhere i can read that this is not possible, well, i have proof),

You are wrong...OS X cannot natively write to NTFS and if you wrote to that drive you do have additional software. You just don't realize it. I'm willing to bet that you have (or at one time had) VMWare Fusion or Parallels Desktop installed on your iMac. They install a driver to permit NTSF writing.

Why can't you write to the drive with the MacBook? Because it lacks the NTFS driver.

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Answer 2

benomatis Author

Level 1

5 points

Aug 19, 2012 6:35 AM in response to dwb

Hi dwb,

Appreciate your quick reply. You can tell me I'm wrong, however I have proof: I have copied files on my drive and I can see it's NTFS now on my macbook air (didn't verify the file system when i did the copy using my imac), however here it's read-only. I'm quite conscious about what applications I install on my computer, thus unless any of the apps zou mention come with something else, I did not install them myself, so maybe a miracle happened, not sure 🙂

so really the only way for me to be able to write on this using my macbook air is to install a 3rd party?

Thanks in advance.

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Answer 3

dwb

Level 7

32,920 points

Aug 19, 2012 6:44 AM in response to benomatis

We can argue until the cows come home but the fact remains that OS X cannot write to an NTFS drive without 3rd party software. You may not have installed such a driver yourself but there are programs that install it because they need the service and I named two of the most commonly installed ones.

You want to write to that drive with your MacBook? Install an NTFS driver. It is the only way. You'll get no other answer because there is no other.

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Answer 4

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

Aug 19, 2012 8:22 AM in response to benomatis

There was a hack for earlier versions of OS X that did enable writing to NTFS volumes. You must have installed that (very dangerous) hack at some point, and then forgotten about it. Apparently it no longer works, or was removed when you upgraded.

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Answer 5

benomatis Author

Level 1

5 points

Aug 19, 2012 10:30 AM in response to dwb

@dwb: I don't want to argue, man, I'm just giving you information of my experience. You're probably right with that I must have installed something on my iMac that allowed me to write on a drive with NTFS file system, it's just surprising as I'm not the kind of guy who's just installing stuff without knowing what those apps do. Thank you for taking the time responding.

@Linc Davis: no, do not use any hacks, so that's not an option, although thanks for your input; could have been the case.

Thanks all!

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