Safe to use Paragon NTFS & HFS+ on journalled drive?

[pjny]

Hi,

I am using OS X Mountain Lion(10.8.2) & Win 7(on another laptop) and want to access data off both NTFS and HFS+ formatted drives. I read some generally positive reviews about Paragon NTFS but not sure about Paragon HFS+ app.

Anyone uses the latest versions of these programs and did it corrupt your drive? Is Macdrive better?

I am using a Newertech Guardian RAID 1 setup that's HFS+ formatted and was wondering if HFS+ app might mess things up.

Thanks.

 

[GGJstudios]

Hi,

I am using OS X Mountain Lion(10.8.2) & Win 7(on another laptop) and want to access data off both NTFS and HFS+ formatted drives. I read some generally positive reviews about NTFS but not sure about HFS+ app.

Anyone uses the latest versions of these programs and did it corrupt your drive? Is Macdrive better?

I am using a Newertech Guardian RAID 1 setup that's HFS+ formatted and was wondering if HFS+ app might mess things up.

Thanks.

This may help you sort out the details:

Format A Hard Drive Using Disk Utility (which is in your /Applications/Utilities folder)

Choose the appropriate format:

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

• Read/Write HFS+ from native Mac OS X
• Required for Time Machine or Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper! backups of Mac OS X system files.
  [*]To Read/Write HFS+ from Windows, Install MacDrive
  [*]To Read HFS+ (but not Write) from Windows, Install HFSExplorer
• Maximum file size: 8EiB
• Maximum volume size: 8EiB
• Mac OS X: Mac OS Extended format (HFS Plus) volume and file limits
• You can use this format if you only use the drive with Mac OS X, or use it for backups of your Mac OS X internal drive, or if you only share it with one Windows PC (with MacDrive installed on the PC)

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 ($19.95) (Best Choice for Lion and Mountain Lion)
  • For Mac OS X 10.5 and later, including Lion, FUSE for OS X
  • 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), which is an enhanced version of NTFS-3G with faster performance.
  • Native NTFS support can be enabled in Snow Leopard and later versions, 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.

 

[pjny]

Thanks for the reply. I wanted to know about Paragon apps called HFS+ and NTFS. Heard some people complain that files disappeared when copying using Paragon NTFS.

 

[GGJstudios]

Thanks for the reply. I wanted to know about Paragon apps called HFS+ and NTFS. Heard some people complain that files disappeared when copying using Paragon NTFS.

HFS+ refers to a format. While one may exist, I haven't heard of an app called HFS+. Paragon is the most reliable option available. I haven't heard of any problems copying files with Paragon.

 

[macimby]

I want to know if Paragon's "HFS+ for Windows" is safe to use for read+write access to HFS+ drives when running Windows [8] via Boot Camp.

Drivers that came with Apple Boot Camp (or maybe Parallels [8]) enable "read-only" access to HFS+ formatted drives from Boot Camped Windows, but I want to be able to write to the drives, too. I'm worrying about whether something in those Apple (or Parallels) drivers for Windows that makes that possible might also conflict with other software like "HFS+ for Windows," maybe even make a risk of corrupting the disk so bad everything on it becomes lost.

So I'm looking for people's experiences with using "HFS+ for Windows" with Parallels Desktop [8] for Mac. Is it safe?

Thanks.

 

[GGJstudios]

So I'm looking for people's experiences with using "HFS+ for Windows" with Parallels Desktop [8] for Mac. Is it safe?

I would imagine it would be, but haven't tested it. As my earlier post indicates, MacDrive will do what you want, but it's more expensive. As the Paragon product for Mac is reliable, I would expect the Windows app to be the same.

 

[ixthy]

Unfortunately paragon hfs+ for windows corrupted my drive. I am very disappointed that I spent money for a piece of software that kills my hdd. I will try to contact paragon for this... I used hfs+ for windows version 10

 

[GGJstudios]

Unfortunately paragon hfs+ for windows corrupted my drive. I am very disappointed that I spent money for a piece of software that kills my hdd. I will try to contact paragon for this... I used hfs+ for windows version 10

As recommended in my first post, use MacDrive to read/write to HFS+ drives from Windows.

 

[MrNomNoms]

IMHO I'd skip either one and jump straight for using exFAT when using a hard drive with both Windows and Mac. The format is a lot simpler (thus a lot less that can go wrong) and natively supported on Mac OS X and Windows plus the performance on Mac OS X is pretty good as well when compared to NTFS.

 

[Vcsanad]

I've just had to reinstall Mountain Lion, the system got corrupted while using bootcamp win 7 with paragon HFS installed... I could still reach the Mac partition from windows, so I could backup some directories... (Thnx God!!!) The Mac system couldn't not be repaired, it seemed to be booting for a prolonged time, then the whole computer turned off... I tried a couple of times... After each time, I had to reinstall HFS paragon software to access my HFS+ formatted external drive to do the backup...

What happened after reinstalling ML... Now my external Drive (HSF+) is not recognized by ML, The disk utility shows the same error message as with the ML partition previously... If I reinstall HFS+ paragon (btw also version 10) on Win7 I can access the external drive (which is my backup drive 2TB almost full) I am a "little" scared, will buy another 2TB disk tomorrow and will try to make a copy of the whole drive (by using paragon HFS????? -the only way I can reach the drive now)...
So be very careful with this software...

 

[lezouave]

Not safe to use. The product damaged my system.

Using Paragon HFS+ for Windows resulted in two HFS+ devices being corrupted.

In the Windows System with Paragon HFS+ installed the Mac volumes are still available read and write, but none of the devices' volumes are available in Mac. Disk Utility sees the devices, the volumes are grayed out, and Disk Utility cannot repair them.