WD Hard drive cannot be modified

hi

First post on here so forgive me if i missing something stupid.

i just bought a new MacBook Pro (OSX 10.5.7) but when i try to move things from my MacBook to my WD external hard drive (500GB firewire) i get the error message.

The item "file im trying to move" cannot be moved because "WD drive" cannot be modified.

This HD worked fine on my G4 Powerbook (OSX 10.3.9) and it still does.

Can i use the G4 to open the HD so macbook can write to it aswell? this is really starting to drive me a little bit mad..

thanks

What format is the 500 GB drive using? It almost sounds like the drive may be formatted as NTFS which would make it read only. Is it possible you were using a third party driver with your G4 to write to the drive?

Normally a Western Digital hard drive of 500 GB size comes formatted from the factory as NTFS and sometimes as FAT-32.

Regards.

I just set up this WD 500GB HDD today (08/01/2009).
If you have the same, you'll need to partition and re-format part of it for your macbook pro to use.
Using Disk Utility, partition however much of the external drive you want for your MBP and format as "journaled" if you plan to use Time Machine for backup purposes.
Super easy and super fast. Especially if you're using Firewire.
I backed up about 80gb with firewire 800 in about an hour. Not bad for the initial process.

ah i think i found the problem.

when i plugged it in today i got the msg:

the dish "wd drive" was not repairable by this computer. it is being made available with limited functionality. you must back up your data and reformat the disk asap.

So when i reformat i need to format in FAT-32?

thanks for the help guys

No. Format it to "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" for your Macbook Pro. This will allow you to use Time Machine for automatic scheduled backups.
I don't know anything about the G4 specs.