Trouble with external HDD

[thewall]

I have a problem with my external HDD,i backup all my photos to it so it is quiet valuable to me,i went to use it the other day and found out in the "get info" window that i could only read it,and when i open a folder it takes ages to load the photos,in did notice that the format was ntfs unlike my usb sticks which work ok and are fat32.
I have put folders on the HDD from my mac and a windows machine,have i clicked on something by mistake,i need to get this working.
thanks

 

[stridemat]

If it worked previsouly then its strange why it might have stopped.

To write to an NTFS drive you need to install something like NTFS for Mac.

 

[Bear]

...
I have put folders on the HDD from my mac and a windows machine,have i clicked on something by mistake,i need to get this working.
thanks

It sounds like you may have hit "Convert to NTFS" on the Windows system. Leaving your only choices to either load support for NTFS on your Mac or reformatting and restoring your data on the drive.

If you say the later isn't possible because it's the only copy of your photos, I suggest you get a second drive and copy the content of the disk over so you do have a backup.