"WD Elements" Read-Only

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Your Mac's Specs
Black MacBook, 2.2GHz , 2gb RAM, 160gb HD. iPod 5g 30gb
I recently bought 1 320gb external hard drive, a WD elements one. When i plug it into my macbook, it recognises it, but under settings it is "read-only".
How do i change it so i can read/write?
and if i do, will it only read/write on a mac?

the best scenario would be read/write on both windows and mac, but if not then just mac.

thanks for the help
 
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MacBook Pro 13.3 inch mid 09 4gb RAM 500GB HD, iPhone 8GB, 30GB ipod video, Airport Extreme
you have to reformat it to fat32 try that

if that wont work mac extended (journaled) will make it mac only
 
OP
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ok, how do i make it fat32?
 

bobtomay

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15" MBP '06 2.33 C2D 4GB 10.7; 13" MBA '14 1.8 i7 8GB 10.11; 21" iMac '13 2.9 i5 8GB 10.11; 6S
Beware that FAT32 will not allow you to place any file 4GB or larger onto the drive.

This will also erase any data currently on the drive.

Open up Disk Utility
Highlight the external drive (not the partition) in the left pane
go to the Partition tab
Volume Scheme - change it to however many partitions you want
Volume Information - Format - select MS-DOS (FAT)

for Mac only access and the ability to keep files larger than 4GB, leave it at the default selection Mac OS Extended (Journaled)

I would highly recommend 2 partitions - setup 1 for a SuperDuper! bootable backup (it would need to be at least the size of your internal drive or less based on how much data you plan on keeping on the internal) and then a 2nd partition for storing miscellaneous stuff
 

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