My portable drive is 'read only'

[norskbear]

Hi,

I have been trying to copy to a portable drive but it is 'read only'. I previously used it on my Windows laptop and could copy freely to it. I changed settings to read/write for 'everyone' using my Windows laptop but it still says 'read only' when accessing from my Macbook.

Is this portable drive now rendered useless with my Macbook or can I somehow change it to read/write with OS X?

Confused.com

Apologies....double-post....

https://forums.macrumors.com/archive/index.php/t-122178.html

 

[GGJstudios]

Is it formatted as NTFS? If so, that's most likely your problem.

FAT32

• Read/Write FAT32 from both native Windows and native Mac OS X.
• No individual file larger than 4GB.

NTFS

• Read/Write NTFS from native Windows.
• Read only NTFS from native Mac OS X
• To Read/Write NTFS from Leopard: Install MacFUSE and NTFS-3G. You can install both with NTFS-3G for Mac OS X.
• To Read/Write NTFS from Snow Leopard: Guide: Enable native NTFS Read/Write in Snow Leopard
• (Be aware that some are of the opinion that enabling native NTFS in SL is unstable/unreliable, and favor the MacFuse/NTFS-3G method for Snow Leopard)

HFS

• Read/Write HFS from native Mac OS X
• To Read/Write HFS from Windows, Install MacDrive
• To Read HFS (but not Write) from Windows, Install HFSExplorer

 

[xlii]

Your problem is how the windows drive was formated. OSX can only read/write to windows drives that are formated as FAT32. Yours is probably formated as NTFS which OSX can only read.

Edit: GGJstudios, you beat me to it.

 

[Mac-Michael]

^^^
Has to be FAT32.

 

[norskbear]

Is it formatted as NTFS? If so, that's most likely your problem.

FAT32

• Read/Write FAT32 from both native Windows and native Mac OS X.
• No individual file larger than 4GB.

NTFS

• Read/Write NTFS from native Windows.
• Read only NTFS from native Mac OS X
• To Read/Write NTFS from Leopard: Install MacFUSE and NTFS-3G. You can install both with NTFS-3G for Mac OS X.
• To Read/Write NTFS from Snow Leopard: Guide: Enable native NTFS Read/Write in Snow Leopard
• (Be aware that some are of the opinion that enabling native NTFS in SL is unstable/unreliable, and favor the MacFuse/NTFS-3G method for Snow Leopard)

HFS

• Read/Write HFS from native Mac OS X
• To Read/Write HFS from Windows, Install MacDrive

Thanks but this is way too complicated for me as a new user to Mac OS. I think I will invest in a new portable drive. Thx again,

 

[GGJstudios]

Thanks but this is way too complicated for me as a new user to Mac OS. I think I will invest in a new portable drive. Thx again,

All drives are the same. Only the formatting is different, which you can do yourself with Disk Utility.

 

[Mac-Michael]

Thanks but this is way too complicated for me as a new user to Mac OS. I think I will invest in a new portable drive. Thx again,

Well, it's not that complicated, but if you choose to buy a new one make sure it says Mac Compatible or Made to work with Mac or Mac Formatted. But then you wont be able to use it at all in Windows, so ..

Edit:

found this