Problem

On my laptop this is not a problem because I am the administrator, but on school computers I am limited as to what I can do (i.e. sometimes cannot put files on or take them off, can not move files into folders or organize)

Solution 1

1. Connect your external drive to the computer

2. Choose your drive on the desktop by clicking it once so that it is highlighted

3. Get Info on the drive by either hitting the key combination of "command" - "i" or by going to the "File" menu bar option and choosing "Get Info"

4. In the Get Info Window, scroll to the bottom and expand the "Permissions" view

5. Make sure the "Ignore ownership on this volume" check box is checked Note: If this option does not show up, you are probably using your drive as your Time Machine Backup. See Time Machine section below

1. Once that is checked on, you should no longer have problems copying files from different computers

Solution 2 when using Time Machine

Note: When attempting to use this fix, please make sure you have your data backed up on another hard drive.  We are not responsible for any lost data.

1. Connect your external drive to the computer

2. Once drive was mounted, launch Disk Utility

3. Choose your external hard drive on the left side of the window

4. Click on the "Partition" tab

   

5. Then click the + sign bottom of the Partition Layout

   

6. Move the slider to the desired size for your new partition. I recommend a 80/20 split with 80% of the drive dedicated to the original time machine partition

   

7. Click Apply

   1. You are presented with a warning dialog. Make sure it says that your original Hard Drive volume is going to be "resized" and not wiped

      

8. Click Partition

9. Once Finished, follow the Solution 1 steps to make sure permissions are being ignored on your new 2nd partition