Why is my iomega drive read only

Then use Disk Utility or another robust disk or volume repair tool like DiskWarrior to check the drive for errors and attempt to fix them. Sometimes errors can go unnoticed on a drive, so if these tools report the drive is working OK, then consider wiping the drive and repartitioning it.

This can be done with Disk Utility by selecting the drive device in the program's sidebar, then going to the Partition tab that appears and choosing "1 Partition" from the drop-down menu. Then click the Options button and choose GUID as the partition type to use, followed by clicking Apply to save these changes. Generally read-only errors with drives are limited to their formatting, so these steps should help fix the problem, but do keep an eye on the drive; if the problem crops up again, it could be a hardware malfunction in the drive, in which case it would be best to replace it.

Have a fix? Post them below or e-mail us! Be respectful, keep it civil and stay on topic. We delete comments that violate our policy , which we encourage you to read. You must log in or register to reply here. Storage 2 Dec 16, Question M. Question How can I move all my data to a new Hard drive? Post thread. Question Super giving me worse frames than a ? Started by Small-Change Oct 7, Replies: Graphics Cards.

News Comments. Question Ah! My parents won't buy me a single graphic card like GTX and I worked so hard in my exams I'm waiting since 2 years help me pls! Question Can I locate an older version of a driver in File Explorer? Windows Latest posts. Question Need help with cooling for summer Latest: CountMike 3 minutes ago.

Question license plate readabe action camera Latest: pinooooo 9 minutes ago. Digital Cameras. Latest: CountMike 11 minutes ago. Question Computer visually stutters and sound goes robotic for about seconds. Latest: CountMike 17 minutes ago. Question Motherboard and memory Latest: mamasan 22 minutes ago.

Moderators online. Tom's Hardware is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site. All rights reserved. England and Wales company registration number Refer to this paper to get solutions to solve external hard drive read only issue, so that you can make write operation to it.

Remove the write-protection or use another disk. How can I change the external hard drive from read-only to normal status? Is there any suggestion? A hard drive is read-only write-protected means that you can only read or copy data on it and you are not permitted write to it or modify the data on it. Usually, your external or internal disk are set to read only for keep the data intact on it. And the disk becomes write-protected can be caused by many events and common ones are listed below:.

The USB external drive is with physical write protection switch and it is locked. If that's the case, you can just move the switch to the unlocked position. The file sytem of the external or internal drive is corrupted. Why can you only read the external hard drive that is connected to your Mac? There are three possible reasons. Right-click your hard disk and select 'Get Info', if you find the external hard drive in NTFS format, that's what the cause is.

The incompatibility of the file system is the main cause. NTFS is a file system that is optimal for Windows-based computers. Although the Mac operating system allows you to read the files on the external hard drive, you can't write files to it because the way that NTFS writes data to the device is incompatible with the way macOS doing it.

Go to the Fix. An external hard drive is subject to the access permission set up by OS X for all files and folders on the system. When you use the device on another computer with a different OS, the permission settings with it may not be recognized or prevent access to the files on the hard disk. Another common cause for the external hard drive 'Read Only' problem on Mac is the formatting errors of the storage device itself. If you see a warning that says the device is only being mounted in read-only mode while connecting, your hard disk is diagnosed to have formatting errors that prevent you from writing files to it.

Identify the cause that leads to the 'Read Only' error on your Mac from the information above, then follow the corresponding solution to solve the problem with ease. If your external hard drive is read-only on your Mac due to its NTFS file system, you can fix it by reformatting the device to a Mac-compatible format with Mac Disk Utility.