Can't copy or drag files to the external hard drive.

I was facing same problem that i was not able to copy any files to my external hard disk.

Best SOLUTION :

Please check the format of External Hard disk it should be FAT32

only then it supports both Windows and Mac which allows permission of READ and WRITE

if your external hard disk is NTFS it allows only READ in Mac so format to FAT 32 and enjoy..

with cheers,

Prasad Rajendra Setty

( @iamPRSetty )

I tried the above "zippylink" website. & if you hit download, you are directed to a site that sells VPN software. I did have an extremely rude rep, but they clam they are not affiliated with the zippy site. I also contacted another site listed & will post what I learned under that comment. Just an FYI for anyone that may try this route- I can't access any of my 8 WD 4 TB drives; I was able to approximately a month ago.

Connected a laCie external USB hard disk to the iMac today. Am not allowed to copy files onto the external drive. "Info" says "read only" and I can't find anywhere to change this. Looked up the external in Disk Tools, and it says "owner" is "inactivated".

Have you tried restarting? The reason for asking is OS X could not real my external USB drive until i restarted.

aRKay: Restarting would have been a good idea if the problem had occurred at the time of installation, but that's a couple of days ago so the machine mas ben restarted several times.

However, I managed to solve my problem. (Don't know if this solution will help Deep1917.)

It turned out that my external drive is NTFS formatted. OSX can read such disks but not write to them. For full NTFS compatibility you need the Paragon driver for Mac. I had this already, but it needed an update. Cost: $13 something. Things now work.

Åke

I have a Seagate drive and managed to install the Paragon driver for free through the Seagate website. It says you need to pay a fee for other branded drives but I'm sure they would have similar support on their websites.

Can now copy to my drive as previously in Yosemite. Thank God!!!!!!!

Problem solved. Upgrade Paragon to the latest version (14).

Hello

Same problem I faced it today when I tried to connect my 1TB WD E external disc to my Macbook Air 2013. (it was working fine with Yosemite)

What I did is very simple, now everything is ok and works fine.

here is the guidelines for you.

Make sure your Drive is disconnected from your mac

01. Visit this site http://www64.zippyshare.com/v/2gXV0C1e/file.html

02. click the Download button at the top right of the screen, now you have the 12.9 MB dmg file in your mac.

03. There is a read me file when you open the setup file, just open it and copy the serial key

04. Now follow the instructions and install it (MAKE SURE YOU ARE OFFLINE WHEN PASTE THE KEY AND CLICK CONTINUE)

05. Restart your mac

06. Connect your hard disk to the mac... YOUR PROBLEM SOLVED

🙂 🙂 🙂

Thank you so much for your advice! It's works fine now!!! 😀

Thanks so much that solved my problem.

Thank you for your fix for El Capitan and not being able to read my external HD

I bow down to your magnificence!!!

This is amazing! Problem solved! Million thanks

None of the suggestions have worked for me. I have a Seagate drive which I had formatted to HFS+ when I first got it. Since upgrading to El Capitan, I can no longer write to the drive. I cannot change the permissions on the drive either. I've tried installing the Seagate Paragon app, but it made no difference--which makes sense as my drive is formatted hfs. If anyone has any other ideas, I would love to hear them.

My advice...don't upgrade to El Capitan unless you are fine with losing a perfectly good backup drive. Boo, Apple!

Yes! Thank you, it worked.

this is absolutely RIDICULOUS.... how is this not being addressed by Apple immediately? This likely effects thousands of people...