Can't erase external HD!

So when I was thinking I was going to have to take my computer in (my thread "Computer does not see modem") I decided to be extra careful by backing up my Documents folder onto the older external HD, even though everything is also backed up on the regular backup HD via Time Machine.

That old HD had the backups made by Genie backup from the old Windows PC. I don't need those backups any more. So I wanted to erase them and free up the space.

But it would not let me delete the old backups. Even logged into my admin account, it would not let me delete files from that HD. I tried to format, and got the error message that it could not unmount the drive (apparently it wanted to unmount the drive before formatting???) When I try to rmdir the directories it tells me they are read-only system.

Any ideas what's going on?

I opened a terminal and tried to chmod the permissions, but I don't seem to know the syntax.

There's got to be a way to erase or reformat the drive???

 

So, what do you do if you have a former Windows HD and you want to wipe it for use on a different system?

BTW, OS X can read the drive and copy files from it. The problem is that I have read-only permission, and even logging on with my admin account the drive won't let me delete files.

I presume the backup program set the permissions so only it could delete files. But it's MY drive and I have a right to wipe it!!!

 

Actually, I think these two are my only problems: ethernet died (that's kind of a biggie) and the old HD that I used for backups on the Windows PC won't let me wipe it for re-use now on the Mac.

Compared with the unending mountain of problems I had with Windows, this is nothing!

 

What a dirty mind you have. Must be that bunny fixation.

 

WOW!!! That was easy!!! Thanks dogfriend!!! :cheer2:

 

And time machine runs all by itself, requiring no user intervention once it's been set up. It creates a layered backup, allowing you to go back by intervals of an hour, for a few days, then intervals of a day for a while, then progressively longer intervals.

Nobody said OS X was perfect.

If an OS is like a house, OS X is a comfortable house in the suburbs with three bathrooms, three bedrooms, a high-efficiency furnace, and a dog that sleeps quietly at your feet but will rip a burglar to shreds; Windows is like a tumbledown house in a horror movie, where the house itself wants to kill you and invites every psychopath in the neighborhood in to do the dirty work. The OS X house from time to time gets a rattle in the plumbing. The Windows house requires you to carry a baseball bat or a kitchen knife with you at all times to protect yourself, and you're unlikely to go very long without losing an occasional limb at least.

 

That's assuming you even have the back door lock, which does not come with the house, but has to be purchased separately along with a special fee-based subscription to allow you to re-lock it every week. And of course there are three back doors which each requires a different kind of lock, each with its own annual fee.

Yeah, why would anyone anyone use a guest account anyway, unless it was a public computer where they wanted anyone to be able to log on???

And of course you never log on as admin unless you are doing housekeeping that requires it.

But I like the idea of having a separate regular user account.

 

That's what backups are for, and why including Time Machine in OS X was such a great idea. Though I agree about not operating as admin.