This has a couple of close votes as *too localized*. As someone who personally is quite interested in the answer to this question, since I've heard of the problem before and would like to know how to solve it, I don't feel this is too localized. (I do think we may need to get more information from the OP to give more answers, however.)

- https://askubuntu.com/questions/174804/i-cant-copy-to-external-drive-read-only-error-cant-change-permissions-even-f

Why might this be too localized?

<sup>(All perspectives welcome, but as the wording of the title suggests, I'm particularly interested in answers from people who believe it *should* be closed as too localized.)</sup>