External Hard drive is a Locked Volume

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Level 2

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External Hard drive is a Locked Volume

I installed my iPhoto Library on an external hard drive that came formatted with Windows NT Filesystem. I did not reformat the drive because I wanted to be able to view the contents on both Mac and Windows computers.

When connected to either of my two Macs, the Get Info, Sharing & Permissions states “You can read and write” but there is no lock symbol that would permit me to make changes.

When connected to a friend’s Mac, I am unable to open the iPhoto Library file, getting a message that it is on a locked volume. Viewing the “Sharing & Permissions” now indicates that I can only read and there is still no apparent way to change it.

Is there a way to enable the drive to permit “read and write” on Macs other than my own?

MacBook Pro (17-inch Early 2009), OS X Mavericks (10.9.5)

Posted on Sep 4, 2015 10:26 AM

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Answer 1

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Niel

Level 10

726,905 points

Sep 4, 2015 10:30 AM in response to Ralphjh

The iPhoto library needs to be stored on a volume formatted as Mac OS Extended. Since you don't want to reformat that drive, use the Disk Utility to repartition it or create a disk image on it.

If it matters, being able to write to NTFS drives from Mac OS X requires using a tool such as Paragon NTFS.

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Answer 2

Ralphjh Author

Level 2

230 points

Sep 4, 2015 1:55 PM in response to Niel

Niel wrote:

The iPhoto library needs to be stored on a volume formatted as Mac OS Extended.

I am able to open the iPhoto Library on the drive as formatted and make changes to iPhoto.

If it matters, being able to write to NTFS drives from Mac OS X requires using a tool such as Paragon NTFS.

Your last comment appears to answer my basic question, that is, how to write to the drive with other Macs. Something like Paragon NTFS came with the drive and I apparently installed it on my Macs because "NTFS for Mac OS X" appears in my System Preferences. Since my friend's Mac doesn't have this feature installed, it isn't worth the trouble to do what I originally envisioned.

Thanks for the input.

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