[straightv6]

I have a WD My book usb external HD. When I hook it up it comes up as read-only. Is there a way to change it?

[jakec]

Yes right click the External HDD icon their should be propertites> Permissions tab up the top change it so the owner has Read/write execute privileges

or you can go via command line and change it via the Chmod or CHown commands the defult prigliges are 7 (owner read, write and execute divice or file) Group 5 (read and execute priviles only) and Others 5 (again read and execute,

it is all explained here:chmod MAN Page

cheers,

Jake

[farinha]

If the disk is formated in ntfs you can't wright to it without installing specific modules.
According to your signature you are using Ubuntu. Take a look at this guide, it explains how to enable ntfs writing capability in Ubuntu.

[straightv6]

Originally Posted by jakec

Yes right click the External HDD icon their should be propertites> Permissions tab up the top change it so the owner has Read/write execute privileges

or you can go via command line and change it via the Chmod or CHown commands the defult prigliges are 7 (owner read, write and execute divice or file) Group 5 (read and execute priviles only) and Others 5 (again read and execute,

it is all explained here:chmod MAN Page

cheers,

Jake

Thanks but I've already tried this. I think its probably something like farinha mentioned.

[Nitestick]

i agree, it's probably formatted as NTFS. check out the NTFS-3G drivers: NTFS-3G: Stable Read/Write NTFS Driver

[straightv6]

This was my fix:

* Applications -> Add/Remove -> search for 'NTFS', you should find NTFS Configuration Tool, install it.

* Applications -> System Tools -> NTFS Configuration Tool -> Enable Write Support (depending on your device internal/external)