Reading/Writing to NTFS?

[micrors4racer]

What programs do you guys use to enable writing to ntfs drives? I recently converted but still have many windows based machines and drives to maintain.

Will osx ever have native NTFS support?

 

[Intell]

Snow Leopard and newer has native NTFS read/write, but it is unstable and can cause data corruption. I use NTFS-3G. While not the fastest, it's free and hasn't failed me yet.

 

[maflynn]

Snow Leopard and newer has native NTFS read/write

Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think the writing of NTFS in Snow Leopard was enabled. There was a hack to get it to work.

I use dropbox as a work around. Syncs my data to all computers I need without worrying about NTFS. I also own a NAS which is another solution if your budget and needs fit the NAS option

 

[pdjudd]

No version of OSX has a driver to natively read and write to NTFS. THey can do it for FAT32 but not NTFS. The most that you can do natively is read NTFS.

Now there are packages that allow for this - 3GNTFS is a free implementation that is included with (I think) Parallels. The most common product is by Paragon called NTFS for MacOSX. They claim to be the only guys to offer full native speed of NTFS and full support for NTFS. They use a proprietary driver though. It’s a commercial product that costs about $20. I can tell you that the free option is not known for speed.

 

[Intell]

No version of OSX has a driver to natively read and write to NTFS. THey can do it for FAT32 but not NTFS. The most that you can do natively is read NTFS.

Snow Leopard and newer does.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think the writing of NTFS in Snow Leopard was enabled. There was a hack to get it to work.

It is disabled by default. I forgot to include that part in my post.

 

[CylonGlitch]

If you're using Windows 7 or newer, you can format the drive eFAT and then both OS' will be able to read and write them without issue. I think you can get eFAT for XP as well; but I haven't looked into it that much.

 

[pdjudd]

Snow Leopard and newer does.



It is disabled by default. I forgot to include that part in my post.

That’s not native then. If you have to modify the OS it’s not native. And if it were native than 3gntfs would be cream of the crop and Paragon would be free. They aren’t which means that any support is sketchy at best.

 

[Intell]

That’s not native then. If you have to modify the OS it’s not native. And if it were native than 3gntfs would be cream of the crop and Paragon would be free. They aren’t which means that any support is sketchy at best.

It is native because it's an Apple included driver. To enable them you just have to change a false to a true in a property list. Non-native is anything that is made by a third party like NTFS-3G.

 

[GGJstudios]

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.