2023-10-31 17:20:51
Perhaps when connecting an external hard drive or SSD to your Mac, you come across the situation where it is set to read-only. This is because the drive is formatted with Microsoft’s NTFS file system, which is not supported by macOS. However, there are simple solutions to revert this setting and allow recording to your external hard drive.
How to edit a read-only hard drive on mac?
There are several approaches to unlocking an external hard drive on a Mac, from reformatting the drive to installing software that enables writing to NTFS volumes. For more experienced users, there are also more advanced and experimental options, however, they are not safe, which is why we will not cover them here.
It is important to highlight that support for reading NTFS drives was implemented in macOS starting with version 10.15, known as Catalina. This means that although you cannot move or edit files directly on the NTFS drive, you can copy files to your local drive.
HD or SSD formatting
Image: Canva
If your external hard drive/SSD is empty, or you don’t need the files available on it, the simplest option is to format it. To carry out the process, you need to connect your disk to the Mac. Then, access the Utility of Discoand in the sidebar, tap To switch off.
When formatting, you will need to choose the best format for the external drive, according to its intended use:
Backup com Time Machine: If you plan to use the disk to make backups with Time Machine on macOS 10.13 or later, format it to APFS. Select the Scheme as “GUID Partition Map” to enable this option. For older systems, opt for HFS+ (known as Mac OS Extended).
portable disk: If you want to create a portable disk to use with your Mac and other systems like Windows, choose exFAT. If you are only working with Macs, APFS is the preferred option unless you need to use the disk on a system older than 10.13.
Working with old PCs: Although rare, if you intend to use the disk in an older Windows computer that does not support exFAT, you may need to opt for the older FAT option. In most cases this should be avoided as it limits the disk size to less than 32GB.
Paid Tools
Image: Paragon / Tuxera
To gain full access to read-only NTFS disks on macOS, there are paid solutions that simplify the process. Among them, we will highlight two options here:
Microsoft NTFS for Mac: This application costs US$19.95, that is, R$111.06. It has a 10-day trial period, and is fully compatible with Apple Silicon.
Tuxera NTFS for Mac: This application costs US$15.00, that is, R$78.68. Additionally, you can take advantage of a 15-day trial period.
Both support writing files to NTFS on macOS. Additionally, you can format, check and repair NTFS volumes on Mac, as well as use other features such as automatic drive recognition.
Finally, it is worth mentioning that there are other more technical methods, which involve the Mac Terminal. However, there is a very high chance that the process may fail, and thus cause you to lose all the material available on your HD. Therefore, we will not present them in this material.
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