Problem with star ratings in Bridge

[Brea]

I'm in Bridge and I can't get it apply a rating with either the keyboard or the Label menu). I'm in the Essentials pane and I press the spacebar to see the photo full screen. I press Command+5 (or whatever number) and nothing happens. The star ratings don't respond.

 

I used bridge a few months ago and it all worked just fine. All Adobe apps are up to date (I have Adobe cloud subscription). The computer is up to date. There's plenty of free space. I've tried purging the cache and resetting the preferences in Bridge.

 

Also, possibly related (?), I can open a file from Bridge to ACR, but when I hit Close I get the message "unable to save the RAW conversion settings. The file could not be created."

 

Damien helped me pinpoint that I am able to use star ratings with files that have always been on my internal hard drive, so I think the external hd is the issue.  I did recently replace it and am wondering if the formatting of the drive could be the issue?  Thanks for any help you can offer!