my external drive shows read only

Question

bsdeitch Author

Level 1

4 points

my external drive shows read only

how do I change permissions to write to it???

not sure what the problem is here, I think it is a permissions problem !!! anyone have an idea what i should look at???

thanks

Ben

MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.1)

Posted on Dec 16, 2013 6:54 PM

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Answer 1

Niel

Level 10

726,845 points

Dec 16, 2013 6:55 PM in response to bsdeitch

Click on it, choose Get Info from the File menu, and check the format.

If it's formatted as NTFS, reformat it as MS-DOS, exFAT, or Mac OS Extended (Journaled) as desired.

If it's formatted as FAT32 or exFAT, use the Disk Utility's Repair Disk command on it; this may also happen for a flash drive which is about to fail.

If it's formatted as Mac OS Extended, click Authenticate and provide your administrator password, or change the permissions on that specific folder in its Get Info window.

(94931)

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Answer 2

LowLuster

Level 6

12,105 points

Dec 16, 2013 7:08 PM in response to bsdeitch

If this is a new external or one you had previously used on the Windows computer it is probably formatted in the Windows NTFS format.

You can change that with Disk Utility.

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