Log into your Mac. And Plug in your Seagate Drive. Your Seagate external hard drive unless it's one.
While the Launchpad has opened open the 'Other' folder then open the Disk Utility. When the Disk Utility opened, choose the drive you inserted. And click on 'Erase' then give a name to macOS Mojave installation, and select the format to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) then click. To free up computer hard disk, we can consider to move Photos library to an external drive or other USB device, and load the whole Photos library from the external drive in Photos. This article will show the detail steps about how to move Photos library to an external drive and use it in Photos.app on macOS Mojave.
Summary: In this blog, we will share two methods to create a disk image-the first one using macOS Catalina's Disk Utility and the second using a Mac data recovery application.
Read on to know the steps and benefits of these methods. Also, make sure you avail the free trial version of Stellar Data Recovery application.
Disk image of an external or an inbuilt Mac storage drive is immensely helpful in recovering files in case the source drive fails or dies. You can create a disk image of your APFS or HFS drive on a larger storage medium and access it at a later point of time.
Create a Disk Image Using Disk Utility on macOS Catalina
macOS Catalina's inbuilt Disk Utility provides an option to select a mounted storage drive be it internal or external SSD/HDD and create a disk image (.DMG) file to a location other than the source disk. The systematic steps to create a disk image of a drive using Disk Utility are as follows:
- Open DiskUtility and select the storage drive from the sidebar
- Go to File > New Image > Image from 'DriveName'
- Give a name to your disk image file and provide a destination to save the file
- Click the Format popup menu, then choose your required option
- If you want to limit the access of this disk image file, then click the Encryption popup menu to set a password for its access
- Click Save to continue the imaging process
- Click Done once the imaging process is over
Disk Utility mounts the image file's disk icon on the desktop and sidebar of Finder. You can use the mounted image file to open its content.
Create a Disk Image Using a Mac Data Recovery Utility on macOS Catalina
The third-party data recovery utility, Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Mac also allows you to create a disk image (.DMG) file of the inbuilt Mac storage drive/volume or an external storage device. The logical steps to create a disk image of a drive using the utility are as follows:
Step 1)Download and install Stellar Data Recovery Professional on your Mac with installed macOS Catalina (or later macOS/OSX)
Step 2) Launch the software and select RecoverData from the main interface
Step 3) Click the ‘2nd‘ icon present at the top of the interface and select CreateImage
Step 4) From the 'CreateImage' screen, select a drive or a volume to create an image file
Step 5) If you wish to create an image of the entire selected storage location, click Next
Step 6) If you wish to select the range to create an image, click the AdvancedSettings
- From the 'SelectRangetoCreateImage' screen, drag the sliders to define the starting and ending sectors of the image file
- Click Close and then click Next
Step 7) In the 'CreatingMediaImagetoSave' dialog box, locate the destination where you wish to save the image file
Step 8) In the 'SaveAs' text box, type the disk image name and then click Save
This completes the disk imaging process using the software. Unlike Disk Utility, macOS Catalina does not mount this image file for you to access its data. Nevertheless, you can keep this newly created disk image as a backup and use it to recover data at the time of data loss.
Recover Data from a Disk Image Using the Software
The methodical steps to use the .DMG file for data recovery are as follows:
Step 1) Launch the software and select Recover Data from the main interface
Step 2) Click the ‘2nd' icon present at the top of the interface and select Load Image
Step 3) From the 'Load Image' screen, select the .DMG file or else click Add to add the image file
Step 4) Click Scan to start the recovery process
Step 5) Once the scan is over, preview and select the required files then click Recover
Step 6) Specify the save location and click Save. You can find the recovered data in the saved location. Watch the below video for the process.
Conclusion
We hope the blog helped you in understanding the practical details of how you can create a disk image file of a storage drive on macOS Catalina. By implementing Disk Utility, you can generate a disk image file and can open the automatically mounted image file from the saved location. On the contrary, by using Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Mac, you create a disk image file and use it to scan and recover lost, deleted, or inaccessible files.
Unlike Disk Utility, the software allows you to select the specific region of the drive for image creation. We recommend this method to recover files from a storage drive that is too big in size. For instance, if your storage drive has the data storage capacity of say 8 TB, then you need to recover data in portions. Free download the software to create an image, scan, and preview files. Register the software to save the recoverable files.
Summary: Two methods to change Seagate external hard drives from read-only back to read-write, so that you can edit, delete, and rename files on this Seagate external hard drive. Also, if a Seagate external hard drive is read-only or files are locked on Mac due to NTFS format, you can use iBoysoft NTFS for Mac to mount it in read-write mode on Mac.
When you plug a Seagate external hard drive into your Mac, one of the worst things would be that you find your Seagate hard drive is read-only. Your photos, videos, and other files you saved from a Windows PC could be locked. Or your Seagate external drive could be write-protected.
Generally, there are three reasons for Seagate external HDD being read-ony on Mac:
- 1. Use NTFS driver for Mac to write to NTFS Seagate external hard drives
- 2. Change the permissions from read-only to read-write Seagate external hard drive
- 3. Repair disk corruption that makes Seagate external hard drive read-only
Are you facing such disk problem right now? Well, you are not the only one.
'I'm having a problem using my Seagate external hard drive. I only have permission to read files on my external hard drive, but I am not allowed to write or edit files on the drive when using Mac OS. Why this happened and how to fix Seagate external hard drive read-only on Mac?'
You might have trouble backing up or adding files to Seagate external hard drives on Mac. But it's not necessarily because the disk is locked but some other reasons. For example, the Seagate external hard drive becomes read-only on Mac.
In this article, we introduced three possible reasons for disk being read-only on Mac, and you can find solutions to change the external drives from read-only accordingly.
Why is your Seagate external hard drive read only on Mac?
You may be wondering why my Seagate external hard drive is read-only. Gimp mac os x 10 6. In fact, read-only Seagate external hard drive results from various reasons. It could be the NTFS format that makes this trouble since NTFS is not writable on Mac. Generally, there are three possible reasons:
- 1. The Seagate external hard drive is NTFS formatted.
- 2. You don't have permissions to access the Seagate external hard drive
- 3. The Seagate external hard drive has some disk errors
In the following part, we'll go into details about how to fix the Seagate external hard drive read-onli issue in different situations.
Case 1: The Seagate external hard drive is NTFS formatted
Most Seagate external drives are read-only on Mac because they are pre-fomatted with Windows NT file system (NTFS) by the manufacturer. So your Seagate HDD is read only on Mac, which affects Seagate Backup Plus Ultra Touch, Portable drive, and Slim.
However, macOS disabled the NTFS write support by default. How to redact a pdf on mac. If you connect an NTFS formatted external hard drive to your Mac, you will find that files on this disk will be locked or show as read-only. You can only read but can't add files to this Seagate external hard drive on Mac.
How to check if your Seagate hard drive is NTFS formatted on Mac?
- 1. Open the Finder and click Go at the upper right of your desktop, then choose Utilities.
- 2. Find Disk Utility and open it.
- 3. Select your Seagate external hard drive in the left sidebar of Disk Utility.
- 4. Then you can see Windows NT File System on the right.
- 5. You can click the Info icon at the upper right to check if this disk is writable.
Solution: Use NTFS for Mac to write to Seagate external hard drives on Mac
In this situation, what you need is not to unlock the Seagate external hard drive but a NTFS for Mac driver. Many people would think about converting NTFS to APFS or formatting the Seagate drive for Mac to make it compatible with macOS. However, the truth is that you can fix the Seagate external hard drive read-only issue without formatting, i.e. you don't have to lose your files on this drive.
Download latest photoshop for mac. Alternatively, you can download NTFS for Mac software to enable NTFS drive write support on Mac with no fuss. There are a great number of NTFS for Mac in the market, and iBoysoft NTFS for Mac is used here as an example.
iBoysoft NTFS for Mac: NTFS for Mac driver and more
iBoysoft NTFS for Mac is a handy disk management tool, which can help you mount NTFS formatted external hard drives, USB flash drives, SD cards, etc. on Mac with write support. This NTFS drive mounter is also compatible with macOS 11 (Big Sur), 10.15 (Catalina), macOS 10.14 (Mojave), macOS 10.13 (High Sierra).
How to use iBoysoft NTFS for Mac to write to NTFS Seagate external hard drive on Mac?
- 1. Download and install iBoysoft NTFS for Mac on your Mac, then restart the computer.
- 2. Launch this NTFS driver for Mac and connect the read-only Seagate external hard drive to Mac.
- 3. Then, you can fully write and copy data to the Seagate external hard drive on Mac after the drive is mounted successfully.
Aside from being an NTFS for Mac driver, iBoysoft NTFS for Mac is also a wonderful tool to manage files on NTFS external drives. It lets users open, monut, repair, and erase NTFS drives on Mac natively and seamlessly.
Case 2: You don't have permissions to access the Seagate external hard drive
If your Seagate hard drive denies your access or restricts you to read-only activities, there is likely an permission issue. Being a multiuser operating system, macOS sets up access permissions for all files and folders on the system, including external drives.
Solution: Change permissions on Seagate external hard drive
To fix the read-only Seagate external hard drive issue, you need to regain full access. You can ignore the ownership or change the sharing and permissions of this disk in the Finder by following the below steps.
- 1. Select Seagate external hard drive on your desktop or in the Finder sidebar, and then press Command + I to get information of the drive.
- 2. Scroll to the bottom of this list and click on the triangle that is at the left side of the Sharing & Permissions tab.
- 3. Click on the lock icon at the right bottom and type in the password to unlock this tab.
- 4. Check the box to Ignore ownership on this volume, or you can toggle it off and then on if it's already enabled.
- 5. Click on the gear button and choose Apply to enclosed items… to save your changes.
Then you can go to check if your Seagate external hard drive is read-only still. If not, you will be able to write to this disk.
External Hard Drive For Mac
But if you can't access the Seagate external hard drive as it's locked still. Well, the disk may be really locked by certain programs, especially for Seagate Backup Plus Ultra Touch. Then you need to unlock the password protection or hardware encryption with Seagate Secure software.
Case 3: The Seagate external hard drive has some disk errors
If your Seagate external hard drive becomes read-only not for the reasons above, you may need to have a check if there is any inner disk error. Some formatting errors will make an external hard drive read-only on Mac. If this is the cause, usually you will see a warning in Disk Utility that states it is only being mounted in read-only mode.
Click to see more errors of the Seagate external hard drive not showing up on Windows.
Solution 1: Fix read-only Seagate external hard drive in Disk Utility
Fortunately, there is a built-in tool called First Aid that can check and repair some minor disk errors. When your Seagate external hard drive becomes read-only due to logical disk problems, you can use First Aid to repair it then.
External Hard Drive For Mac Mojave Drive
Here is the guidance to fix read-only Seagate external hard drive with Disk Utility:
- 1. Open Disk Utility.
- 2. Select the read-only Seagate external hard drive on the left window.
- 3. Click First Aid in the top center and choose Run to repair this disk.
Solution 2: Reformat Seagate external hard drive
However, if Disk Utility fails to fix read-only Seagate external hard drive, the last thing you can try to remove write protection from Seagate external hard drives would be reformatting. Reformatting will assign a new file system to this disk, consequently, the Seagate external hard drive issue could be fixed.
But before you go ahead to erase this disk, you should know that reformatting will wipe the files on this hard drive. Thus, you are advised to check if you have a copy of data back in the first place , or you can recover lost data from this external hard drive with iBoysoft Mac data recovery to avoid data loss.
If you're sure that you have data backup in hand, you can proceed to reformat this read-only external hard drive with the following tutorial.
- 1. Open Disk Utility as you did before.
- 2. Select the read-only Seagate external hard drive in the left sidebar.
- 3. Click the Erase button in the top center of Disk Utility.
- 4. Fill in name, format, and scheme when the pop-up asks.
- 5. Click Erase to confirm this operation.
A final note
Besides Seagate external hard drives, Toshiba, WD, Samsung, or other brands' external hard drives will come across the read-only problem. It is common to see people complaining WD My Passport external hard drives suddenly became read-only on Mac. You can also use these solutions to fix this problem. What's more, an NTFS formatted WD external hard drive won't work on your PS4 console for gaming as well. But if you are unable to fix it with the solutions suggested above, you can only send it to local disk repair store for help, but that will cost a lot usually.
