1. Seagate Portable Hard Drive

Need help with your computer? At Boxaid we can help you with Windows or Mac problems such as slow performance or virus removal service at an affordable price. Mac computers are easy to use, for the most part. But sometimes, things happen that can really turn that ease of use into “What do I do with this?” One of those things is when you unplug a USB storage device without ejecting it properly. Usually, you just get a quick warning message and things return to normal. But sometimes, something worse will happen. Instead, you’ll now have a read-only external hard drive that won’t allow you to do backups.

If you’re having trouble copying a file to your external hard drive, right click on it in your Finder and select Get Info. If you see this at the very bottom under Sharing & Permissions, then you have a problem. In some cases, you don’t even need to eject it improperly for this to happen – it just happens from one usage to the next. It can also happen if you are switching between using the drive on a Mac and a Windows PC. No matter the reason why, this can be a very frustrating thing to deal with, especially if you have just backed up a large amount of files onto your new drive.

Troubleshooting a Read-Only Seagate External Hard Drive Since Seagate is one of the most popular brands you will find when searching for a backup external hard drive for a Mac on sites like Amazon, we’ll troubleshoot this problem based on one of their hard drives. The first thing you will run across when you search for a read-only external hard drive on a Mac is the suggestion to reformat it. That’s the suggestion the Seagate forum support admin offers.

Of course, if you have files on it already, that really isn’t an option, as you would lose all of those files. Another suggestion you’ll find is to create a second backup of your read-only external hard drive and then reformat the read-only had drive. Again, this is an irritating prospect as you have paid for one hard drive, and you don’t want to pay for a second just because the first one is having problems. And it’s another suggestion by the Seagate forum admins. After reading a lot of forum entries, you’ll find the solution to this issues is actually quite simple – you just need to download and install a NTFS driver for Mac OS from. Once installed (and you’ve restarted your Mac), your external drive should be back to normal.

You can check by either trying to copy a file to it or right clicking on it in your Finder, selecting Get Info, and making sure the permissions have changed to read and write. If this isn’t the case, you may need to keep searching for solutions. But most of the time, this will solve the problem and allow you to use your external hard drive freely between your Mac and PC. Preventing the Read Only Hard Drive Issue One way to prevent this issue from happening with your Seagate (or other) external hard drive is to set up your external hard drive as specified in the directions that come with the product. While almost every piece of hardware is now plug-n-play, some do need those extra configurations and software to get the best performance.

Troubleshooting a Read-Only External Hard Drive Other Than Seagate Experiencing the read-only problem with another company’s external hard drive on a Mac, or not able to fix it with the driver suggested above? You can try searching on Google for others who have solved this problem, although many will simply suggest that you reformat the drive or get a second backup and then reformat your hard drive.

Some companies will, like Seagate, have specific drivers that you can install to help your Mac identify your external hard drive as read and write again.

So I have a 1TB external hard drive from Seagate. It has always worked great with my macbook air, but for the past few months it has been harder to connect it (Had to plug it in a few times before it connected, sometimes I had to restart the computer a few times before it would work). The last few times I used it and it actually worked it would disconnect itself without me even touching it or anything.

Now, when I plug it in it won't pop ut at all. The external hard drive makes a buzzing sound as usual but isn't blinking like it does when it's plugged into the computer and connected. It won't pop up under the units tab to the left in the finder window, it won't pop up under USB in utilities, it won't pop up when I open 'About this mac' and the system rapport thing, nor under the Connected USB list.

I have checked that all the boxes are clicked in the 'Show content' list. I can't find it anywhere in the computer and I don't know what to do. I need access to my hard drive and my Macbook is driving me crazy. I connect it with USB and can't plug it up to a power source since there's nowhere to plug it up. Additionally, it works for my other computer that's not a mac. But I need to be able to access it from this computer, so any advice or tips are very welcome. Thanks in advance.

Click to expand.No need to be rude. There's nothing wrong with the USB cord for the hard drive, nothing wrong with the hard drive, nothing wrong with the USB ports on the mac. So it must be some setting or such in the mac which is why I asked. My hard drive is a 1TB and I know 200GB is 'nothing', but as I said I don't have space anywhere to back it up. Buying a new one won't help since the hard drive is not the problem, and I can't afford buying a new one so help me solve my problem or don't post comments that aren't even helping thanks. I know you don't want to hear it, but it really sounds like there's a problem with your hard drive. I have dozens of external hard drives going back many years.

It is not uncommon for them to fail. I don't think people are being rude to suggest that you get another drive and backup your important data before this one completely fails. I don't think there are any 'settings' on your Mac that will help this, although there could be a hardware problem. Getting another drive would also help you diagnose that - if you see the same kinds of problems with a new drive then it would point to a problem on your Mac. And really, it isn't unreasonable to own two hard drives, even if it turns out that the first one is OK. They are very inexpensive, perhaps borrow a few dollars from a friend or family member, or sell something to raise the money?

The hard drive has worked fine with the mac for 1.5 years. When I got the mac I had it formatted to work with the mac, so it's not at it's full potential when connecting it to my windows computer. I'm not 100% sure what it's formatted as since I was not the one who did it. The hard drive works on first try in my windows, pops up immediately. On the mac it worked fine, too.

But as I said, a few months ago it started getting worse and you had to plug it in a couple times or restart the computer before it would connect. Also, it works perfectly fine on a friend's macbook air with the same updates and everything. So the problem must be in my mac. Since there's nothing wrong with the hard drive, I'm not worried that something will happen to my data at the moment. I'm just having connection problems between the hard drive and the mac. As I said, not sure exactly how it's formatted, and not sure how to find out.

When I got the mac it was formatted in some way that only allowed it to work on my PC. When I connected it to the mac I could open it but not change the files in any way (Copy them, move them around, delete them or save anything on the hard drive), a friend helped me format it to the mac.

So now it's the same way around but with the PC. It has worked fine on the mac for over a year now and when I connect it to the PC I can't move things around, delete them or save new things on the hard drive, but I can copy them to the PC. I don't know if this helps, I'm not that good with hard drives and the differences between Mac/Pc and so on. Click to expand.Very simple: click once on the hard drive icon so it is highlighted then go to the file menu and choose Get Info. You will see in item for Format. If it was formatted for the Mac, it will say 'Mac OS Extended'. However, this kind of formatting will not work on Windows PC unless some special software was installed on the PC.

But I think your 'logic' is flawed. The older a drive gets, the more likely it is to fail, so the fact that it's been fine for a year and a half does not mean it has no problems. It all comes down to how important the data is on that drive. If you don't particularly care about losing the files, then just continue with what you're doing. But if they're important, you are taking a big risk. Even if the drive is absolutely fine, you should have a second drive as a backup.

Sooner or later that drive WILL fail, and then you will probably lose its contents forever unless you have a backup. The hard drive has worked fine with the mac for 1.5 years.

When I got the mac I had it formatted to work with the mac, so it's not at it's full potential when connecting it to my windows computer. I'm not 100% sure what it's formatted as since I was not the one who did it. The hard drive works on first try in my windows, pops up immediately. On the mac it worked fine, too.

But as I said, a few months ago it started getting worse and you had to plug it in a couple times or restart the computer before it would connect. Also, it works perfectly fine on a friend's macbook air with the same updates and everything. So the problem must be in my mac. Since there's nothing wrong with the hard drive, I'm not worried that something will happen to my data at the moment.

I'm just having connection problems between the hard drive and the mac. As I said, not sure exactly how it's formatted, and not sure how to find out. When I got the mac it was formatted in some way that only allowed it to work on my PC. When I connected it to the mac I could open it but not change the files in any way (Copy them, move them around, delete them or save anything on the hard drive), a friend helped me format it to the mac.

Seagate Portable Hard Drive

So now it's the same way around but with the PC. It has worked fine on the mac for over a year now and when I connect it to the PC I can't move things around, delete them or save new things on the hard drive, but I can copy them to the PC.

I don't know if this helps, I'm not that good with hard drives and the differences between Mac/Pc and so on. So I have a 1TB external hard drive from Seagate. It has always worked great with my macbook air, but for the past few months it has been harder to connect it (Had to plug it in a few times before it connected, sometimes I had to restart the computer a few times before it would work). The last few times I used it and it actually worked it would disconnect itself without me even touching it or anything. Now, when I plug it in it won't pop ut at all. The external hard drive makes a buzzing sound as usual but isn't blinking like it does when it's plugged into the computer and connected.

It won't pop up under the units tab to the left in the finder window, it won't pop up under USB in utilities, it won't pop up when I open 'About this mac' and the system rapport thing, nor under the Connected USB list. I have checked that all the boxes are clicked in the 'Show content' list. I can't find it anywhere in the computer and I don't know what to do. I need access to my hard drive and my Macbook is driving me crazy. I connect it with USB and can't plug it up to a power source since there's nowhere to plug it up.

Additionally, it works for my other computer that's not a mac. But I need to be able to access it from this computer, so any advice or tips are very welcome. Thanks in advance.