We have some gotten various files on some hard drives from somewhere. I would like to reorganize the files on there and add some more, but when I try to do that I get an error saying the drive is a read-only filesystem. Finder won't let me do anything to it, and can't do anything in the Terminal either.
How was the drive made read-only in the first place? How can I make it writable?
I am not Mac OS X 10.6, and the drive when mounted says FREECOM HDD. Have access to a Windows computer as well if needed.
When I click on the Info button in Disk Utility on the drive I get the following info:
Name : SAMSUNG HM160HI Media
Type : Disk
Partition Map Scheme : Master Boot Record
Disk Identifier : disk2
Media Name : SAMSUNG HM160HI Media
Media Type : Generic
Connection Bus : USB
USB Serial Number : 10D0B58436FF
Device Tree : IODeviceTree:/PCI0@0/EHC1@4,1
Writable : Yes
Ejectable : Yes
Location : External
Total Capacity : 160.04 GB (160,041,885,696 Bytes)
S.M.A.R.T. Status : Not Supported
Disk Number : 2
Partition Number : 0
And on the volume:
Name : FREECOM HDD
Type : Volume
Disk Identifier : disk2s1
Mount Point : /Volumes/FREECOM HDD
File System : Windows NT File System (NTFS)
Connection Bus : USB
Device Tree : IODeviceTree:/PCI0@0/EHC1@4,1
Writable : No
Universal Unique Identifier : DE1A6D72-14C0-4CEC-AB76-A26A53E1B1C7
Capacity : 160.04 GB (160,039,240,704 Bytes)
Free Space : 88.94 GB (88,935,407,616 Bytes)
Used : 71.1 GB (71,103,832,064 Bytes)
Number of Files : 129
Number of Folders : 0
Owners Enabled : No
Can Turn Owners Off : No
Can Be Formatted : No
Bootable : No
Supports Journaling : No
Journaled : No
Disk Number : 2
Partition Number : 1
I mean… they have to have had it writable at some point in time. How would they otherwise get the files there? How can I make it writable again?
Best Answer
OS X can read NTFS volumes but not write to them. You will need third-party software to enable writing. Here is a mention of one possibility.
More recent information says that Snow Leopard has the ability to enable writing (it's disabled by default). This page has information on adding an entry to the fstab.
You should be aware that there is a risk of data corruption.