Help! Brand new WD external hard drive problem

[budafist]

Just bought a Western Digital external hard drive today.

When I plug it into power and usb the icon pops up fine. But when I drag something into the folder it I get this:
http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/4849/picture1kl9.png


Looking at info I see that under Ownership & Permissions I can only "read".
http://img265.imageshack.us/img265/6162/picture2of5.png

How do I change this? Do I have to format it or something first?

[John G]

Don't think macs can write NTFS. You'll have to reformat to FAT32 (if you eve need to transfer stuff to windows) or whatever if mac has a specific format (HFS??? or something).

Fat32 has a 4 point something gigabyte file size limit btw.

[urstwile]

I'm taking it you have nothing on there since it's new. I'd format it through Disk Utility. My external hard drive is formatted as Mac Extended (Journaled) and works just fine.

I'm not that savvy on the meaning of the various differences, however.

[budafist]

Don't think macs can write NTFS. You'll have to reformat to FAT32 (if you eve need to transfer stuff to windows) or whatever if mac has a specific format (HFS??? or something).

Fat32 has a 4 point something gigabyte file size limit btw.

Um...I have no idea what that meant. Are you calling me fat? :p

I'm planning on using this solely for my Mac.

[budafist]

I'm taking it you have nothing on there since it's new. I'd format it through Disk Utility. My external hard drive is formatted as Mac Extended (Journaled) and works just fine.

I'm not that savvy on the meaning of the various differences, however.

I thought that might be it.

Do I reformat it under "Erase" option?

http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/1849/picture3jg1.png

[urstwile]

Yup, that's the way!

[Aerix]

John G is correct, Macs will not recognize the Windows NTFS format, you have to reformat it as FAT32, then it will work on both Mac and PC.

[mojoprime]

but you'll hit the size limit. if you're just using it on your mac, just format it as mac os extended (journaled). it'll work fine.

[Tea]

Did you meet with some success on that Buda?

[longboy]

but you'll hit the size limit. if you're just using it on your mac, just format it as mac os extended (journaled). it'll work fine.

That's a size limit for individual files (max of 4GB each), correct? Just double-checking-

[budafist]

I erased it on mac os extended (journaled) and SUCCESS!!!

I'd like to personally give my most sincerest thanks to all that helped. I called up the company that sold it to me and they told me to try it on another computer. They said that if it worked on another computer then it was my computer that needed fixing.

Thank goodness for you guys. No one else I know knows anything about macs.

[urstwile]

Yay I'm glad it worked out!

Macs are seriously underrepresented when it comes to tech support in those areas, I agree.

At my job, we're in the process of researching a new IT solution, our former IT guy needed to resign for personal family reasons, so we're back to the guy before him, who admittedly knows almost nothing about Macs. He comes to me with questions, and frankly, I feel out of the loop most of the time. He's trying to hook us up with an IT company, and one of the reps stated "we do full Mac support as well", no doubt to sell his business to us.

Let's just say I'll believe that when I see it. I've had experience with those IT companies and their "full Mac support". Generally it means they have the Apple.com site bookmarked, and that's about it.

[budafist]

We use a mac only tech support company to do our macs. They are really good. But when we have internet troubles, it's really hard to explain to someone over the phone that we are using a mac.

You tell them over and over you're on a mac and then the proceed to tell you how to troublehshoot in windows/outlook.

[urstwile]

I feel your pain, Buda, really I do. At least you have here to come to when they fail you. :)

[budafist]

I feel your pain, Buda, really I do. At least you have here to come to when they fail you. :)

Oh absolutely! I was telling my fiance the other day how lucky I am to have some friendly mac geeks to call on! ;)

[Virgo Nightingale]

The web designer where I work is pretty damn good at troubleshooting macs. He doesn't get paid to be our IT guy per se, but he certainly is anyways. If he ever left, our company would be screwed. The rest of us aren't nearly as knowlegeable.

[budafist]

You are lucky to have that guy. Maybe if he ever left he could stay on as an IT consultant person?

St. Inky is a PC guy but when ever he has problems on his mac he refuses to call our Mac IT people. Maybe he has too much geek pride and he tries to nut it out himself. He can spend an entire day trying to fix something instead of calling in a professional like I tell him to when something goes wrong.

Sometimes I think he secretly wants to do IT but he can't because he has no social skills.

[longboy]

Sometimes I think he secretly wants to do IT but he can't because he has no social skills.

Sounds like a perfect fit to me :D

[Cyan_Ide]

Sounds like a perfect fit to me :D

haha I thought the same thing.

Glad you got it to work, Buda. My friends and I all have WD externals and have been pretty happy with them.

[budafist]

haha I thought the same thing.

Glad you got it to work, Buda. My friends and I all have WD externals and have been pretty happy with them.

Oh cool! Let's start a club. We can decorate our external drives and have WD drive picnics followed by a WD drive parade.

[TR1]

I am glad you go your drive sorted. I had loads of problems with a Western digital attached to a mac via firewire. I reformatted as you did but the drive would never mount/or sometimes would sometimes wouldn't. After searching the internet I found the problem was a firewire conflict and the drive mounts fine when chained through another firewire device or attached to a fire wire hub. (just in case you have the same problems)

[mojoprime]

That's a size limit for individual files (max of 4GB each), correct? Just double-checking-

yes, though this article seems to suggest performance issues at volume sizes larger than 32gb.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Allocation_Table#FAT32