Get access to change my read only files

Right-click on a file, Get Info, at the bottom of the window, change permissions under Sharing & Permissions.

 

Read Only EHDD

With my apologies for continuing this thread, I have a Maxtor One Touch 4 external HD. All files on this are read only and no more files can be added to the EHDD.

On the "Get Info" screen under sharing and Permissions is the message "You can only read". There is, however, no padlock and no way I can see to unlock the drive. Can you help?

 

How is the drive formatted? Right-click and Get Info on the drive to check.

 

Most likely the drive is formatted as NTFS, which OSx can only read, not write unless you install extra software.

 

That's my thinking, but as is the case too many times with first-time posters, chances are high that tonymce will never post again, so we'll never know.

 

Hey so I have the same problem. I originally formatted my hard drive when I had snow leopard and now that I have lion and it will only allow me to read only. I can read/copy whatever I want on it but I can't add anything to the hand drive. It is formatted NTFS. But I don't know where to go from here.

Thanks guys. And I'll try not to be one of those first time posters and see this problem through, haha

I've also tried this sequence in terminal, tells me its a read only file then the next line it tells me I can not change the permission type

sudo chflags 0 /Volumes/My\ HD
sudo chown 0:80 /Volumes/My\ HD
sudo chmod 775 /Volumes/My\ HD
sudo chmod -N /Volumes/My\ HD

And then when I ran ls -go this is the info it gave me

drwxr-xr-x 1 143360 Jan 13 23:03 Elements
lrwxr-xr-x 1 1 Jan 13 08:14 Macintosh HD -> /
drwxrwxrwx 0 0 Jan 14 11:03 MobileBackups

 

That's because you obviously had installed NTFS drivers on SL and you haven't done that yet on Lion.

NTFS (Windows NT File System)

• Read/Write NTFS from native Windows.
• Read only NTFS from native Mac OS X
  [*]To Read/Write/Format NTFS from Mac OS X, here are some alternatives:
  • For Mac OS X 10.4 or later (32 or 64-bit), install Paragon (approx $20) (Best Choice for Lion)
  • For 32-bit Mac OS X, install NTFS-3G for Mac OS X (free) (does not work in 64-bit mode)
  • For 64-bit Snow Leopard, read this: MacFUSE for 64-bit Snow Leopard
  • Some have reported problems using Tuxera (approx $36).
  • Native NTFS support can be enabled in Snow Leopard and Lion, but is not advisable, due to instability.
• AirPort Extreme (802.11n) and Time Capsule do not support NTFS
• Maximum file size: 16 TB
• Maximum volume size: 256TB
• You can use this format if you routinely share a drive with multiple Windows systems.

 

Awesome. Thanks! Yeah previously I had MacFuse but it doesn't work anymore (got a new hard drive in my laptop) cause I need a 64 bit. So i downloaded the Tuxera and it worked. I'm able to move around freely now.

Final question, I only have the 15 day trial so after that expires will I not be able to access the external hard drive anymore or can i permanently changed it through Tuxera?

Thanks again

 

No, you'll need to buy it.