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ShadowPuppet

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 12, 2007
18
3
I've been searching and reading tons of threads and websites, and I'm still a bit confused/unsure, so I figured I'd ask.

Can the Time Capsule read/write an external disk formatted as NTFS? I do not want to do Time Machine or any other backups to this disk; it's only for shared files (documents, movies, music, pictures) between my Macbook Air and my Windows 7 desktop. It would be convenient if I didn't have to move all my files off the external and reformat it, so I would like to keep it NTFS if I could.

Is the "Airport Extreme and Time Capsule do not support NTFS" (from below) just a soft limitation so we can't use an NTFS drive to try to Time Machine, or is it an absolute "YOU CAN NEVER USE AN NTFS DRIVE ATTACHED TO A TIME CAPSULE!"?

Or exFAT.


____________________________________________________________

Overview of the four major file systems (called "Formats" in Mac OS X) used on Windows and Mac OS X, compiled by GGJstudios. You can use Disk Utility to format any HDD to your liking.

Any external hard drive will work with PCs or Macs, as long as the connectors are there (Firewire, USB, etc.) It doesn't matter how the drive is formatted out of the box, since you can re-format any way you like. Formatting can be done with the Mac OS X Disk Utility, found in the /Applications/Utilities folder. Here are your formatting options:

HFS+ (Hierarchical File System, a.k.a. Mac OS Extended (Journaled) Don't use case-sensitive)

NTFS (Windows NT File System)
  • Read/Write NTFS from native Windows.
  • Read only NTFS from native Mac OS X
    [*]To Read/Write/Format NTFS from Mac OS X, here are some alternatives:
    • For Mac OS X 10.4 or later (32 or 64-bit), install Paragon (approx $20) (Best Choice for Lion)
    • For 32-bit Mac OS X, install NTFS-3G for Mac OS X (free) (does not work in 64-bit mode)
    • For 64-bit Snow Leopard, read this: MacFUSE for 64-bit Snow Leopard
    • Some have reported problems using Tuxera (approx $36).
    • Native NTFS support can be enabled in Snow Leopard and Lion, but is not advisable, due to instability.
  • AirPort Extreme (802.11n) and Time Capsule do not support NTFS
  • Maximum file size: 16 TB
  • Maximum volume size: 256TB
  • You can use this format if you routinely share a drive with multiple Windows systems.

exFAT (FAT64)
  • Supported in Mac OS X only in 10.6.5 or later.
  • Not all Windows versions support exFAT. See disadvantages.
  • exFAT (Extended File Allocation Table)
  • AirPort Extreme (802.11n) and Time Capsule do not support exFAT
  • Maximum file size: 16 EiB
  • Maximum volume size: 64 ZiB
  • You can use this format if it is supported by all computers with which you intend to share the drive. See "disadvantages" for details.

FAT32 (File Allocation Table)
  • Read/Write FAT32 from both native Windows and native Mac OS X.
    [*]Maximum file size: 4GB.
  • Maximum volume size: 2TB
  • You can use this format if you share the drive between Mac OS X and Windows computers and have no files larger than 4GB.
____________________________________________________________

I'm fine with configuring my computer so that I can read/write HFS+ in Windows, just really trying to avoid having to move stuff & reformat a 2TB hard drive! :D

Thanks!
 

blueroom

macrumors 603
Feb 15, 2009
6,381
26
Toronto, Canada
If you haven't bought a Time Capsule yet then consider getting a Synology NAS instead.

A TC or NAS isn't designed to have drives plugged into it and shared on a temporary basis. BUT once a drive is setup and formatted for use by the NAS it can be shared to any OS (it's taken care of by Samba on most NAS's)

Lastly TM or AEBS don't support NTFS. It does support Fat32
 
Last edited:

maflynn

macrumors Haswell
May 3, 2009
73,419
43,307
I never got Time Machine to work on a format other then HFS+ on external drives, though with NAS they can be a different format provided it has the ability to store the metadata, i.e., ext4.

I agree with blueroom, get a NAS, it offers more flexibility and performance.
 
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