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Snow Leopard's Boot Camp Includes HFS+ Windows Drivers

SirOmega said:
I really wish there was some universal file system that I could use from all OSes... maybe the one Oracle was working on to replace ext3, ext4, etc.
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There are more "universal" network file systems. The premise of most operating systems is that the machine they are on is for that operating system.
Mac OS X does NFS. However, windows doesn't do that out of the box (at least the home/workstation versions). Mac OS X does SAMBA. If you have both partitions running at the same time you can share.

If you have lots of files to share between multiple computers looks into a dedicated file server. However, for very large ones and one OS at a time can see why might want to just pull them straight off the disk.

The overhead for the more modern versions of file systems is that they are journaled and not trivial to implement. ( there is no simple "driver" that is going to get you a correctly functioning journaled FS . If all doing is reading that can blow off the journaling and correctness aspects. ).

By the way, no hope in the Linux ones, including BTRFS (the ZFS-like file system lead by Oracle) is Linux only (like ext3, ext4, etc. ). Besides BTRFS is seriously not ready for prime time. It somewhat works, but not ready for critical data. Probably won't be for a while. (Sun worked on ZFS for years. ). Potentially even more cloudy once the deal closes with Sun and Oracle owns ZFS. How many clones of ZFS do you need when you own the original?
 
0SXPERT said:
There is a way to read and write ntfs drives on your Mac partition and it isn't that hard. You can find info about it on the top post here: www.osxpert.blogspot.com


(I didn't really know the rule about posting outside links, but I feel that this can be very helpful. If I'm breaking a rule just tell me and I'll edit it out.)
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we already know that, this thread is discussing the reverse, reading HFS (mac formatted) from Windows.
 
Now if they could only add tap to click and two finger tap to right click on the Macbooks (and the gestures on the newer Macbooks), we would be in business.
 
Apple is smart enough to know that if it allows for full read/write support then one of the entire company's biggest selling points (no viruses) goes down in flames. I really don't think they would allow any kind of write capability. Even if it is for only specific places viruses can replicate themselves and spread to the entire system. So I would think (and hope) that it is only read support for this simple fact
 
kastenbrust said:
we already know that, this thread is discussing the reverse, reading HFS (mac formatted) from Windows.
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I already understand that, but there was alteast one post on the front page that said that he wished now that now the only thing lacking was being able to do the same thing from your mac partition, so clearly he didn't know about it and there may be others who don't either.
 
Some of you are just hysterical. Here are some handy tips for those of you who are upset that Apple just saved the rest of us some serious aggravation and increased our productivity at the expense of your virgin Mac experience;

1) Install antivirus and spyware protection on your Bootcamp Windows install. You should be doing this anyway. I shouldn't need to have to tell you this.
2) Just don't bother installing the HFS+ driver.
3) Just remove your Bootcamp partition as you're clearly not doing anything useful with it.
 
illegallydead said:
a) I have had numerous windows machines and bootcamp installs over the past 4 years, and the only time I have ever found a virus was when my machine scanned another computer on the network and found one on another computer
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The days of infecting machines to destroy things and/or be disruptive are passing. More and more folks are creating vectors to steal and make money. That destroying/disruptive stuff is counter productive to being a professional thief.

For the folks who are ahead of the curve of the microsoft patches, you are wide up. Granted most of the stuff that makes the widespread news comes after the Microsoft patches. However, the notion that a static version of Windows, on the bad internet, over several years is safe is an overstatement.

If you have been picking up the steady stream of critical patches for the last couple of years... not sure why want to spin it is "safe".
 
This is good news. Now if Apple can be bothered to include better fan support (i.e. turning them on AT ALL) in Boot Camp in the newer MacBook/MBPs, I'll be a happy customer.
 
deconstruct60 said:
The days of infecting machines to destroy things and/or be disruptive are passing. More and more folks are creating vectors to steal and make money. That destroying/disruptive stuff is counter productive to being a professional thief.

For the folks who are ahead of the curve of the microsoft patches, you are wide up. Granted most of the stuff that makes the widespread news comes after the Microsoft patches. However, the notion that a static version of Windows, on the bad internet, over several years is safe is an overstatement.

If you have been picking up the steady stream of critical patches for the last couple of years... not sure why want to spin it is "safe".
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All I'm saying is that in years of running these supposedly "unsafe" environments, I have never had an issue. And obviously I have gotten patches and updates, arguing over a static machine is not what we are doing here :rolleyes:. OSX ain't infallible either. Are you saying that Apple releasing updates and patches from time to time also means that OSX is unsafe?

Patches or no, I am saying that Windows is, in my experience, not the plague that many holier-than-though fanboys on here make it out to be. Please, give me the option of full read/write. If you are scared of Windows getting it's "dirty hands" on you OSX drive, than turn it off.
 
Maybe, maybe not

kastenbrust said:
Are you insane? Macs cant get Windows viruses! A windows virus simply wont work on a Mac because they're in the DLL or .EXE format which Mac's cant, and will never be able to run :rolleyes:

Im sorry but this warrants a facepalm.
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Remember, windows executables are recognized by mac os x as such. Mac OS X can't run windows binaries now, but who knows what they're planning... think wine-ish stuff written by apple. Could be interesting.
 
tongteh said:
so now under leopard, if i want to read and write a windows format harddisc? what are the workarounds?
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Google it. I've got a R/W NTFS driver on my Mac Pro, but I've had it so long I have no Idea where I got it.
 
zorinlynx said:
Nope, check out NTFS-3g. Free NTFS filesystem driver for Mac OS X, no license required.

It can even create NTFS filesystems from scratch!

I think NTFS-3g is good enough and don't really need Apple to build it in. But it would be nice for everyone to have NTFS write support without having to download anything extra, of course. :)
Click to expand...


Last time i tried that about 3 weeks ago, i formatted a drive with that driver to ntfs, to get a windows friend to be able to put some files on it from his windows machine, and his machine did not recognize the drive at all, het had to reformat it from within XP, so i am very happy that apple will now take care of the ntfs compatability ;-).
 
I wonder how much this will hurt MediaFour. It will be nice not having to rely on an app to mount my HFS, but it did do a great job...

Can't wait for this update!
 
For those that are complaining about getting viruses on your Mac drive...

I've been using PCs (IBM-compatible / DOS / Windows) for over 20 years, and I don't believe my systems have been infected more than perhaps 5 times, and not once within the past 5 years. Granted, I've *received* far, far more, typically through email attachments, but that's what "internet security" and "anti-virus" software is for. If you're not running that, then you have *no* reason to complain. Get Kaspersky Anti-Virus or one of the other quality anti-virus products on the market.

I've been using MacDrive for a while now, and unsurprisingly discovered zero viruses on my Mac. Nor has it received a virus from any of the many network-stored files shared by other PCs on my home network.

Oh, and virii is *not* a word. The only plural form of virus is "viruses".
 
Your Partition Was Fine

Data said:
Last time i tried that about 3 weeks ago, i formatted a drive with that driver to ntfs, to get a windows friend to be able to put some files on it from his windows machine, and his machine did not recognize the drive at all, het had to reformat it from within XP, so i am very happy that apple will now take care of the ntfs compatability ;-).
Click to expand...
32-bit Windows doesn't, so far as I know, work with GUID partition tables (GPT - the way new Intel Macs format partitions). Were the disk using an MBR partition table his XP machine would have instantly recognized your NTFS partition. Nothing is inherently wrong with MBR, as it works fine for "normal" Windows installations that typically have a single partition containing all user and system data. GPT is fairly well-suited to the filesystem hierarchies of *NIX operating systems that can nest multiple filesystems symbolically within each other - sometimes it is nice to separate user data from applications, logs, caches, etc. rather than putting all of one's eggs in one basket.
 
TheStonepedo said:
32-bit Windows doesn't, so far as I know, work with GUID partition tables (GPT - the way new Intel Macs format partitions). Were the disk using an MBR partition table his XP machine would have instantly recognized your NTFS partition. Nothing is inherently wrong with MBR, as it works fine for "normal" Windows installations that typically have a single partition containing all user and system data. GPT is fairly well-suited to the filesystem hierarchies of *NIX operating systems that can nest multiple filesystems symbolically within each other - sometimes it is nice to separate user data from applications, logs, caches, etc. rather than putting all of one's eggs in one basket.
Click to expand...

32 bit vista can read GPT but can't boot from GPT only x64 by the way a virus can delete HFS+ files if they have access to read/write.

A control panel with the option to enable read/write would be cool.
 
mryan said:
For those that are complaining about getting viruses on your Mac drive...

I've been using PCs (IBM-compatible / DOS / Windows) for over 20 years, and I don't believe my systems have been infected more than perhaps 5 times, and not once within the past 5 years. Granted, I've *received* far, far more, typically through email attachments, but that's what "internet security" and "anti-virus" software is for. If you're not running that, then you have *no* reason to complain. Get Kaspersky Anti-Virus or one of the other quality anti-virus products on the market.
Click to expand...

And what's that got to do with anything? What YOU did with YOUR machines? Got any other statistics than the couple of computers YOU owned? If not, then better don't make generalisations.

enb141 said:
A control panel with the option to enable read/write would be cool.
Click to expand...

Sign!
 
I'd prefer Read Only HFS+ driver for windows and a Read/wright driver for NTFS under Mac OS X

Maybe the windows driver would have an option with boot-camp if you would like the driver to be Read only or not, for those that need it.
 
cuestakid said:
Apple is smart enough to know that if it allows for full read/write support then one of the entire company's biggest selling points (no viruses) goes down in flames. I really don't think they would allow any kind of write capability. Even if it is for only specific places viruses can replicate themselves and spread to the entire system. So I would think (and hope) that it is only read support for this simple fact
Click to expand...

err... no.

This is a fantastic addition. It makes dual-booting Windows and OSX much more user friendly. I could see Apple trying to push HFS+ as a standard compatible filesystem.

Any convoluted potential security issues are all a result of using Windows. If something like this does happen and I discover that this policy was responsible, what would I do? I'd certainly have to stop dual-booting, but it'd be Windows that I drop.
 
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