MY Hard Drive says_"YOU CAN READ ONLY" for the OWNERSHIP AND PERMISSSIONS!

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Level 1

1 points

MY Hard Drive says_"YOU CAN READ ONLY" for the OWNERSHIP AND PERMISSSIONS!

I cannot add anything to my EXTERNAL (SimpleDrivePS) hard drive. When I try to copy something to it, it says "The item cannot be moved because SimpleDrivePS cannot be modified."
Upon control-clicking this external hard drive's icon, under "Get info" it says "You can read only" for it's "Ownership and Permissions."

I have used this hard drive with Windows-based computers, but not with this new Apple yet.
What do I need to do so that I can move or copy things to this external hard drive?

Also, is there a discussion room for just general questions? - There are many little things that I wonder how to do from time to time as I am trying to become accustomed with Apple, like shortcut key for desktop, or where is control panel or link to "my computer" or other shortcut keys - things like that.

iMac5,1, Mac OS X (10.4.9), 2.16 GHz:Intel Core 2 Duo:2 GB Memory

Posted on May 6, 2007 10:05 PM

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Answer 1

May 7, 2007 5:32 AM in response to newappler

Hi newappler;

If your disk is formatted NTFS, this is normal. OS X can read but not write to NTFS. If you want to use the disk on the Mac for both read and write you will have to reformat.

Allan

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Answer 2

newappler Author

Level 1

1 points

May 7, 2007 1:26 PM in response to Allan Eckert

Thanks for the info Allan. So I'm somewhat uneduacated with computer, especially Apple. I heard this term "NTFS" from someone else also.

So,
Reformatting will erase everything on the disk, correct?
How do I find out if it is indeed NTFS?
How do I re-format something the appropriate way?

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Answer 3

May 7, 2007 1:49 PM in response to newappler

Hi newsppler;

Since I have never had a disk that was formatted NTFS, I am not absolutely sure exactly how you can discover how it is formatted. I think if you look at the disk with Disk Utility that should tell you.

Yes. If you reformat you will lose everything that is currently on that disk.

To reformat open Disk Utility and then select the disk. You then click the partition tab. This will allow you to select what format you wish to use. I would suggest Mac OS Extended +

Allan

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Answer 4

eww

Level 9

53,028 points

May 8, 2007 7:24 AM in response to newappler

NTFS is a hard drive format commonly used with and by recent versions of MS Windows. Your drive may have come pre-formatted as NTFS.

Click once on the external drive's icon and choose "Get Info" from the File menu. In the Get Info window, what is shown in the "Format:" line?

Reformatting the drive as "Mac OS Extended" will make it useful with your Mac at the expense of usefulness with Windows PCs, which can't read that disk format at all without third-party add-on software. For best cross-platform compatibility, if you need that, use the MS-DOS (FAT32) format instead. If the drive will now be used only with your Mac, definitely use Mac OS Extended.

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