can wd external hard drive be formatted for both mac and windows

To change permissions on an external hard drive on Mac: If your drive is not formatted to NTFS and you still can’t access it, try manually changing the permissions using Finder. Method 1: Change Drive Permissions on macOS Method 3 asks you to format your drive, which will wipe your data.

Methods 1 and 2 are the only ways to change a hard drive from “Read Only” on Mac without formatting. Check if the entry under the “Privilege” column beside your name (or “everyone”) says “Read Only.” If so, that means you can’t write data to that drive. Scroll down to the bottom of this new window and click the toggle beside “Sharing & Permissions” to expand these settings. Right-click your external hard drive in Finder and click “Get Info.” Users can modify and check permissions for an external hard drive on Mac from anywhere in Finder. How to Check Permissions for External Hard Drive on Mac In other words, using an NTFS drive means that you don’t have permission to write to your external drive on Mac. Due to compatibility issues, NTFS is “Read Only” on Mac (but “Read & Write” with Windows). NTFS Formatting.Your drive may be formatted to NTFS. You can attempt to fix it using Disk Utility. Corruption can occur due a virus attack, interruption during read and write, software issues, and/or physical damage. Formatting errors are a symptom of a corrupted drive. Click here to jump to that section.įormatting Errors. This can easily be changed through Finder. It’s possible that the “Read Only” permissions were carried over to your Mac when you connected your drive. You can change an external hard drive’s read and write permissions using a computer. Knowing which one of these applies to you is key to successfully fixing this issue.

There are 3 common reasons why an external hard drive is “Read Only” on Mac. Why is External Hard Drive Read Only on Mac? How to Recover Data From an External Hard Drive after Formatting.Method 2 Use Disk Utility’s First Aid Function.Method 1 Change Drive Permissions on macOS.How to Fix External Hard Drive Read-Only Issue on Mac.How to Check Permissions for External Hard Drive on Mac.Why is External Hard Drive Read Only on Mac?.

Can wd external hard drive be formatted for both mac and windows