Anyone reading this, I did a combination of things that finally worked. Partitioned the drive in half (so my saved stuff was left alone.) Formatted the new partition by “deleting” it. This created a new icon on the desktop to the newly formatted partition. Double-clicked on the new drive. Select “get info” (upper right button), then I unlocked to “ignore ownership.” Finally I went back to the application that was not allowing me to save to that specific location, and I hit “search" or “find” and then typed in the name of the partition I gave it (default name is “untitled” but it will be whatever you name it above, or how it appears on your desktop). Then the application finally found it. Lastly, clicked on it, and then it allowed me to save to the External drive. I am currently copying files, god bless it.