Worry not, here are a couple of ways to remove your external hard drive's read-only restrictions on Mac without losing any of your precious data. Therefore, even though erasing all the data on the hard drive could very well fix the read-only issue, it isn't an option because we would also lose our important data.

Many of these files are backups from our Mac, while others could be data that we need to access on another computer or device. We use our external hard drives to save our precious files, from images and videos to program files and documents. How to Change Hard Drive From Read Only Mac Without Erasing As a result, any time you try to copy or move these files and folders, you'll receive external hard drive read-only errors. It often occurs that we forget to change these permissions or remove them completely when moving the external hard drive between different Macs. Sometimes we set up access permissions for our most important files and folders. To identify whether the external hard drive you're working with is in the NTFS format, simply right-click the hard drive and select 'Get Info.' Mac users can still read files in the NTFS hard drive, but writing to them won't work. However, it is compatible with Windows PCs, which is why it's so popular.

Some hard drives may be formatted into an NTFS file system which is incompatible with Macs. It's best to pay attention to the formatting process, so you can spot if anything goes wrong. Here's an outline:Įrrors can crop up while formatting your drive and one of them those it could lead to is… You guessed it, external hard drive read-only errors. There are three major reasons why your Mac external hard drive receives read-only errors. What Causes External Hard Drive Being Read-Only on Mac However, making changes to these files and folders like copying, deleting, and saving, you will need to write permissions. Reading means you can open the files and folders and view them. What Does Hard Drive Read Only Mean on MacĬomputers and devices with internal or external memory in the form of memory cards and hard drives handle data in one of two ways, reading, and writing. What does 'hard drive read-only' mean and what are the causes? 1. Why Is External Hard Drive Read Only Mac?īefore we go about sharing solutions on how to fix the external hard drive read-only errors on Mac, first we need to highlight the problem. How to Prevent Hard Drive Read Only Error Format External Hard Drive to Read and Write Files on Mac

How to Change Hard Drive From READ Only Mac Without Erasing Why Is External Hard Drive Read Only Mac?

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