LR files on USB drive

[Parsen66]

OK. I have moved from a PC to a Mac. All my pictures are on an external HD coupled with LR.

Now that LR is installed and working on the new Mac, I plugged in my HD and imported all files. All went well.

However, when I come to use one of those files and do any processing either in LR or PS it wont let me save them, saying the data cannot be written. Looking at the file info in Finder is tells me that the external HD is read only! This I'm guessing is the problem.

So, how do I change it to read & write assuming that's all I need to do? Is it also the case that PC's use a different file format (NTFS or FAT) whereas the Mac will use something totally different. I'm stumped and hope I've not cocked it all up!

HELP please.

[Tigger]

Re: LR files on USB drive

you need to format the extremal HD for Mac, this will obviously clear all data on the HD - so you'll need to copy images from HD, format ext HD, then copy them back onto the ext HD

[Parsen66]

Re: LR files on USB drive

you need to format the extremal HD for Mac, this will obviously clear all data on the HD - so you'll need to copy images from HD, format ext HD, then copy them back onto the ext HD

Cheers Ian I figured that would be the answer. So if I copy them to the Mac HD, format the external and then copy back again, would that work? Would that also change the file system for the existing images?

[Tigger]

Re: LR files on USB drive

Would that also change the file system for the existing images?

All your doing is telling the Ext HD to talk to the Mac and offer read / write capabilities the file structure isn't changed

[ColytonJohn]

Re: LR files on USB drive

... So if I copy them to the Mac HD, format the external and then copy back again, would that work?

That should work but reformatting without being 100% sure your images are safe is not a risk I'd take. No, I'd buy a new external drive and keep the old PC formatted drive until I was certain I no longer needed it - even then you can't have too many backups.

Cheers,
John

[Tigger]

Re: LR files on USB drive

That should work but reformatting without being 100% sure your images are safe is not a risk I'd take. No, I'd buy a new external drive and keep the old PC formatted drive until I was certain I no longer needed it - even then you can't have too many backups.

Cheers,
John

agree, but I think Alan has a windows PC so could use that to back up the ext HD so having that fall back - but I do agree you can never have too many BU's

[Parsen66]

Re: LR files on USB drive

That should work but reformatting without being 100% sure your images are safe is not a risk I'd take. No, I'd buy a new external drive and keep the old PC formatted drive until I was certain I no longer needed it - even then you can't have too many backups.

Cheers,
John

agree, but I think Alan has a windows PC so could use that to back up the ext HD so having that fall back - but I do agree you can never have too many BU's

Thanks for your comments and help. Yes still have the PC working so knew they were safe and warm in the spare room.

All sorted now, phew, panic over.

[Bhuna]

Re: LR files on USB drive

I would also suggest that when you come to move the files, use LR to do it - as this will update the catalogue within LR and may save you time having to import them all again into LR.

[Tigger]

Re: LR files on USB drive

Thanks for your comments and help. Yes still have the PC working so knew they were safe and warm in the spare room.

All sorted now, phew, panic over.

...I can sleep tonight

[Colin]

Re: LR files on USB drive

You can read and write NTFS (PC) disks from a Mac. Seagate do a free converter app that runs on the Mac and allows full read write access. There are similar apps from other suppliers that do the same.

**Update**
Just Googled this and in fact osX can do this without adding anything. See http://www.cnet.com/news/how-to-manu...write-in-os-x/

[Parsen66]

Re: LR files on USB drive

You can read and write NTFS (PC) disks from a Mac. Seagate do a free converter app that runs on the Mac and allows full read write access. There are similar apps from other suppliers that do the same.

**Update**
Just Googled this and in fact osX can do this without adding anything. See http://www.cnet.com/news/how-to-manu...write-in-os-x/

Cheers Colin, good advice for the future as I've now formatted the drive in the Mac and copied the images back to it.

[tesarver]

Re: LR files on USB drive

If you show the info on the drive, you can change the permissions to read/write

[tesarver]

Re: LR files on USB drive

Also a Mac will read and write to a DOS formatted disk. I do this all the time

Tom

[Parsen66]

Re: LR files on USB drive

If you show the info on the drive, you can change the permissions to read/write

Also a Mac will read and write to a DOS formatted disk. I do this all the time

Tom

Thanks Tom for the additional advice. Wow, its fun to move away from Microsoft