Can'r copy things to external HDD on Mac

Anewbe4u · 27 Jan 2007 at 23:56

Hiya,

I've just recently started using a Mac, at first my external HDD worked fine, I could copy things to it no problem, now though I can't. It says

The Item "what I'm trying to copy" cannot be moved because "hdd name" can not be modifed.

Any ideas?

Thanks

unknowndomain · 28 Jan 2007 at 00:06

anewbe4u said:
Hiya,

I've just recently started using a Mac, at first my external HDD worked fine, I could copy things to it no problem, now though I can't. It says

The Item "what I'm trying to copy" cannot be moved because "hdd name" can not be modifed.

Any ideas?

Thanks

Is it NTFS formated per chance?

Anewbe4u · 28 Jan 2007 at 00:08

Probably, I'm sure I copied to it before though!

Maybe I made that up?

hartgeh3 · 28 Jan 2007 at 00:16

I would format it again using Disk Utility, also rename it too.

titchard · 28 Jan 2007 at 00:30

anewbe4u said:
Hiya,

I've just recently started using a Mac, at first my external HDD worked fine, I could copy things to it no problem, now though I can't. It says

The Item "what I'm trying to copy" cannot be moved because "hdd name" can not be modifed.

Any ideas?

Thanks

Right click (or ctrl+click if you are on a one button mouse system) on the HDD and click "get info" from the menu.

Down toward the bottom of the window it should inform you of your permissions - which from what you have said will say "Read Only" (You will have to click the drop down triangle to see it).

Open up the HDD with Disc Utility to see what format the disc is formatted too - from the sounds of it - NTFS. If you want the HDD to be read by both Windows, OS X, or pretty much everything, reformat the driver to FAT32 (I think it may be called MS-DOS in the list of options). If you only want it to be read in OS X - Format to HFS+.

I would do Fat 32 myself as then anything can read it, only do HFS+ if you will have single files bigger than 4GB and / or will only be using it on OS X.

BE AWARE DOING THIS WILL LOSE ALL DATA ON THERE! PLUG INTO A WINDOWS MACHINE AND BACK UP DATA FIRST!!!!

Hope this helps!

Rich

Anewbe4u · 28 Jan 2007 at 04:47

Thanks for the detailed reply.

I'll get on it straight away.

Anewbe4u · 28 Jan 2007 at 06:13

Also to save opening a new thread.

Does the DVD writer in the current Macbook do dvd-r?

Thanks

Will_3rd · 28 Jan 2007 at 11:33

anewbe4u said:
Also to save opening a new thread.

Does the DVD writer in the current Macbook do dvd-r?

Thanks

It should do, you can double check by going to System Profiler --> Disc Burning

It should say something similar like this:

Reads DVD: Yes
CD-Write: -R, -RW
DVD-Write: -R, -RW, +R, +RW