Hello.
You can drag and drop files (using Finder) between your Desktop and your external storage device. If you have the images in folders you can drag and drop the entire folder or individual files.
5 replies
Thanks Jason, but this doesn't work. I can drag from the desktop into my Photos in Finder but not onto the storage device which is a WD Passport.
I suspect then it's probably a new HD, formatted for PC. Is this a new HD or is there already data on it? If it's new with nothing on it you can format it to be "Mac friendly" by following these instructions -
http://guides.macrumors.com/Formatting_an_External_Device
If it's already got data on it you want to keep, I'd recommend making sure that data is somewhere else (off the drive) for a temporary period of time. Then format/partition the drive if you need Mac and PC.
http://www.geek.com/articles/apple/how-to-partition-a-mac-hard-drive-20120416/
Thanks for that Jason. The drive has been working with a PC so that's no doubt the issue. Strange that the Mac reads the drive, i.e. opens the pics on it and allows them to be dragged to the desktop but not from the desktop the drive.
If it's an NTFS drive, which I suspect it is you'll have read access to the drive but not write access. So this is expected behavior. That being said, if you intend to use the drive with a Windows machine and a Mac on a regularly basis a split partition is recommended and then budget allocation based on your needs.
Keep in mind that in order to partition the drive you'll need to wipe it first, so make sure the data is backed up on the Windows side first before you proceed.
how to copy photos from desktop to peripheral storage device