External HD Issues with new iMAC

Parker Clack · 04-30-2008, 11:11 PM

As many of you know Ron talked me into get a new iMac. I was ok with the system I had and fought him on the idea but relented in the end and I am for the most part happy that he did.

I am having an issue with it though that I would like your input on.

I have a MyBook 750G external USB HD that I want to use to move files over from my PC to the Mac. I am using parallels with Mac OS X 10.5 and XP.

When I plug it in the Mac will find it just fine but I cannot write to it. XP doesn't find it unless I unplug it and plug it back in. Then the Mac tells me that I didn't take the HD out right and that I need to go back in and eject it properly. If I eject it from the Mac then it doesn't show up in XP anymore. The only way I can use it if I can get it to load in XP and not worry about the Mac side.

Do I have to format it to run with the Mac since it is NTFS? Do I have to set up something on the drive to allow it to be written to?

Also, when I was running XP with the included Media Player 9.0 the audio with MP worked just fine. I upgraded to Media Player 11 and the video works ok but if you put in a CD no audio is heard. The Mac side audio works just fine. All the audio controls on the XP side are enabled so it should work. Any word that this is a known issue? Ron told me he hasn't been able to get his to work either.

I also have Quicken for Windows on the XP side. If I drag the icon over to the Mac side to launch the program it will drop into Parallels and open the file but then nothing shows up. If I quit Quicken then the program will load normally. Is there something that I have to include in the icon on the toolbar to allow it to launch correctly?

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JohnRice · 05-01-2008, 12:38 AM

I can't help with the Parallels stuff, but might have the solution for writing to the external HD.

It could be a permissions issue, which is easy to fix. Just single click on the HD icon and hit command-i. A window will open showing all sorts of info about the drive. At the bottom next to "Ownership & Permissions" it should say "You can - Read & Write". If not, click the triangle next to "Details". The options are probably locked, so click the little lock symbol (you will probably have to enter your user name and password) then make sure you are selected as the owner and select that you can Read & Write.

It's all part of the Mac OS antivirus and sometimes when you are sharing things between systems it has to be configured first. If that doesn't fix it, I'm at a loss.

Parker Clack · 05-01-2008, 02:37 AM

I did read from another Mac user that they had an issue writing to the HD as it had to be formatted in HTS+ instead of NTFS.

I will give your suggestions a try and let you know if that helped.

Thanks

Ronald Epstein · 05-01-2008, 03:21 AM

I actually formatted my drive in Mac Journal, which is what I
had thought you need to do (though I am uncertain if it will
then be read by windows).

Go to APPLICATIONS -> UTILITIES -> DISK UTILITY -> Click
on external drive for options.

Parker Clack · 05-01-2008, 07:30 AM

John:

I don't have a "Details" option in the information box. Any other way to set the permissions as they are set to read only?

JohnRice · 05-01-2008, 08:03 AM

Parker, there is one other option I know of. Is there a check box at the very bottom to "Ignore Ownership on this Volume"? You could check that, but I'm not sure that is a good idea.

I have almost no experience with running Windows on Mac, so I hesitate to give specific suggestions beyond what I already did. Maybe Ron has identified the problem.

Daryl L · 05-01-2008, 02:53 PM

Parker,

Take a look at this tutorial about connecting and adding devices. It might help.

Parker Clack · 05-04-2008, 07:58 AM

I tried all those things and the HD remains read only from the Mac. I just about have everthing switched over. The only odd thing is that I can transfer all my Thunderbird accounts over to the external drive but when I go to find them to import them they are no where to be found. I have the all the settings set up so that I see hidden files, etc. but still nothing.

DaveF · 05-04-2008, 01:52 PM

OS X can only read NTFS formatted drives. OS X cannot write to NTFS.

My BootCamp / Parallels partition is formatted with FAT32 so I can have read/write access from my Mac.

If you need to write to an NTFS partition, you might find some success dealing with MacFuse. I've not used this and can't make any claims as to its ease of use or quality. See here for a starting point.



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