Can't write to external firewire PC harddrive.

xav3xxav3x
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
i have a 120GB Western Digital HARDdrive in a firewire box.. it is my drive for backups and storage used by my previous pc laptop.



I can read all the data from it.. and copy to my powerbook.



But i can't modify any of its content or add files there..



it says i dont' have permission.



how can i change this? i would love to be able to clean up and move stuff around.. and of course.. make backups of my data

thanks!!



p.s. i got my 1.5 powerbook just couple weeks ago.. and i'm loving it.. been PC user for over 10 years.. and i'm 22. lol. i'm a designer.. and i finally switched over.. and boy am i GLAD!!

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 2
    mr beardsleymr beardsley Posts: 365member
    Couple questions for you. Do you know if the drive is formatted in NTFS or FAT32? I think OS X can read/write ok to FAT drive, but I think it can only read from NTFS. Not 100% on that, but seem to recall it.



    Now a couple of things to try. First select the drive in the finder and choose "Get Info" from the File menu. Under the the "Ownership & Permissions:" section there should be a check mark for "Ignore permissions on this volume". Select that and now see if you can write to the drive.



    If that doesn't work, or you plan on only using your drive with your Mac, I would do the following. Copy all of the data off the drive, then format it to HFS+ (standard Mac format). To do this run the Disk Utility program in your utilities folder. Its Applications -> Utilities -> Disk Utility. Select your drive and then choose the "Partition" tab. Set up your partitions how you want them. Its fine to only have one. (If you don't know what partitions are, then you should probably just leave it like it is.) In the "Format" pulldown choose "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" and then click the partition button in the lower right. After that you should be good to go.



    Hope that helps.
  • Reply 2 of 2
    xav3xxav3x Posts: 36member
    Thank you. I have NTFS. Also there is no check mark any where. It just says: You can only read LoL. So ok, no prob. Now.. to get me a new harddrive =] And i'm sure i'll be using your formatting tip you have noted. (on a different drive) Yep i know partitions. Thanks again!



    -alvin
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