I have a new laptop running windows 7, my external hard drive containing photographs previously allowed me to view files and edit them quickly in windows photo gallery on my old laptop which had windows vista. Now I only have windows live photo gallery with windows 7, when i plug my hard drive in and open folder to view files then click on a photo it will not allow me to edit them it says they are read only. Please help?! (I tried unchecking the read only box right back at the outside file of hard drive for the pictures folder, it went through the motions as if it were removing in attributes, yet nothing seemed to change!)

Hi jacs162, Try the suggestions in this knowledge base (KB) article first: You cannot view or change the Read-only or the System attributes of folders in Windows Server 2003, in Windows XP, in Windows Vista or in Windows 7 If the issue persists, you can take ownership of the folders in the external hard drive to check the result: 1. Right click on the folder you would like to take ownership and then click Properties. 2. On the Security tab, click Edit button. 3. Click Add… button and then type everyone. 4. Click Check Names and then click OK. 5. Highlight Everyone in the Security window, check Full control in Allow check box. 6. Click OK. Hope this helps. Regards, Linda