Mac OS X Snow Leopard freezing/slowdown issue (Mac Fuse/NTFS-3G & NTFS for Mac)

[Schtumple]

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Right, this isn't a thread asking for help.

This is a thread for anyone who is experiencing a large slowdown and/or intermittent 10-60 second freezes on Mac OSX Snow Leopard, where the freezes are completely unrelated to anything you're doing, any app you're using, or whether the system is under heavy or little use.

I found the issue stems from the use of Mac Fuse (with NTFS-3G installed) and/or Paragon NTFS for Mac OSX, the combination of these 2 apps essentially doing the same job (NTFS write support), conflicts and causes the hard drive to be under constant (although very little) use, which can randomly cause 30-60 second freezes.

If anyone is experiencing these same freezes, uninstall either one app or the other, or both, and that might help remedy the situation.

EDIT: updated because I didn't specifically mention which macFUSE plugin I had installed....

 

[darkplanets]

MacFUSE doesn't enable NTFS write, per say. It enables third party filesystem frameworks by providing the proper frameworks upon which plugins are built.

Hence NTFS-3G, or why Fusion/VM things usually require MacFUSE.

 

[AndersD]

yep, I am having the same problem. I did a reinstall to se if it helped, but it is still freezing up from time to time.
I am using mac os 10.6.4 on a 15" macBool Pro3.1 and Paragon NTFS for mac 8.0.0

I havent found a solution yet, just wanted to confirm your problem.

 

[Schtumple]

yep, I am having the same problem. I did a reinstall to se if it helped, but it is still freezing up from time to time.
I am using mac os 10.6.4 on a 15" macBool Pro3.1 and Paragon NTFS for mac 8.0.0

I havent found a solution yet, just wanted to confirm your problem.

I think it might be more to do with Finder constantly accessing the NTFS partition, I don't know what it's doing, but it constantly accesses it, reading and writing (only tiny amounts), but it's enough to cause a complete lock every now and then.

 

[gurm42]

I got this problem too. But I _only_ had Paragon installed at the time.

It ran fine on my last MBP 15 - which was the 2009 model, and was running 10.6.3. On the new 2010 model (Core i5) running 10.6.4 I saw egregious slowdowns and just general machine pokiness while running Paragon.

Paragon has an FAQ that blames Spotlight for "repeatedly trying to index the NTFS partition" but considering that I see the slowdown even with no NTFS partitions mounted, I hardly think that's the problem.

So I rebuilt the laptop and only installed MacFUSE and Tuxera NTFS (NTFS-3G) and still see some pokiness although not as pronounced.

Essentially, it's looking like ANY NTFS driver pretty much causes 10.6.4 - especially these new models - to be very problematic. I'm flummoxed by this, and since I am a heavy Windows user I don't have the luxury of just reformatting all my discs HFS+.

I will post back if I find a solution.

 

[Schtumple]

Yeah I'd often unmount my NTFS partition, which didn't change anything. If you have an app that monitors disk usage, it's only being used by maybe 20 - 500kbps, it's not being stressed, it's just being used constantly, it's worrying that it's constantly under use, can't be good for the drive after a while.

 

[thiago.grazioli]

anyone here found a solution?
im having the same problem for a few days.


thanks