PC/Mac problems with NTFS

[macstatic]

In order to transfer some files from my Mac to a PC-using friend (Windows 7 I think) I was given an external USB-3 drive which was pre-formatted NTFS.
I quickly found out that I couldn't use it with my Mac, but by installing additional (free) software I apparently could (Fuse for OSX, NTFS-3g and Fuse-wait).
All seemed well after that as the Finder seemed to copy my files over to the hard drive as with any hard drive, but now my friend tells me he's having issues (can't see anything on the drive) and said something about having to download "Apple application support" (which he can't find). This doesn't seem to make any sense to me. I don't have any more details right now, but apparently something's wrong even though all looked fine at my end when I copied the files over. Any ideas?

 

[macenied]

??? ... pre-formatted NTFS ...

NTFS is supported by OSX and it is the native Windows filesystem since Windows NT. It should not cause any problems with exchanging data in your case.

Find an external drive YOU can completely erase, partition and format with NTFS and try again. Don't use emulators or 3rd party software for this.

 

[macstatic]

Searching the web for info on the subject tells me that I can't format NTFS on a Mac without running some sort of emulation. Are you saying my friend should first format the drive on his PC before handing it over to me?

 

[macenied]

You can partition the external drive with the default MBR partiton table and format it with the NTFS filesystem under OSX. I took a screenshot for you ( did not apply the changes, though ).

I would recommend you format the drive just for the sake to know what has been done.

 

[macstatic]

Thanks. Good idea to reformat the drive.
I hadn't noticed the NTFS option in Disk utility until I just tried it after reading your posting.
Yes, indeed -it's there, but apparently part of NTFS-3g/Fuse OSX which I installed in order to copy files over to that drive and not part of OSX itself.

It doesn't say that in your screenshot, so what have you installed in order to get NTFS support?

 

[macenied]

I have nothing installed for NTFS support - it's part of the OSX distribution ...

Maybe you can remove your add-on software if this has been the only purpose for it ?

Not that it should matter - I see you use GUID Partition table - can you try MBR ( the older standard ) for data exchange ?

 

[macstatic]

That's strange. Are you using Mavericks?
I'm on 10.9.4. and when I attached the external hard drive I could read the files there (various utilities the manufacturer had put there) but I could not copy my files over.
That's when a web search led me to understand that in order to write files to an NTFS drive you need to install additional software such as NTFS-3g/Fuse OSX (free), Paragon ($$) or Tuxera ($$). Apparently OSX can only read NTFS drives, though you say you can both read and write without having installed additional software?
I chose the free method since I don't have much use for this other than to transfer the files over to my friend.

The screenshot shows my own Time Machine drive for the MacBook Pro. It's not NTFS formatted but standard MacOS extended (journaled). MBR is the old FAT-32 standard, isn't it? I thought about that but read about the limitations of file sizes (I don't know how big files my friend intends to put on the drive later) and less security with just one MBR instead of two.

 

[macenied]

I use OSX Mountain Lion ( 10.8.5 ) and can exchange data with NTFS filesystems without additional software. MBR has nothing to do with FAT32 . I also don't use NTFS for Tme Machine - did not get that this is your Time Machine drive.

The drive shown in my screenshot is my ( Bootcamp ) Windows 7 Backup and Media drive.

 

[lokster]

hmm I'm using paragon right now to read/write files onto NTFS drives, and so far so good, like my windows PC have no trouble reading the files i've transferred over.

i didn't know there was native support, I'm on mavericks 10.9.4 and after a fresh install i noticed i couldn't copy anything onto an ntfs drive. i could just read the information. Thats why i got paragon to read and write on the ntfs drive.

 

[macenied]

Sorry for the confusion, guys. I read and write files to NTFS ( even from OSX on the same machine ) using Bootcamp W7. On OSX I only read the files. I am using W7 as my primary OS on the MBP and am used to work like this.

 

[macenied]

Interesting read:

http://osxdaily.com/2013/10/02/enable-ntfs-write-support-mac-os-x/