I am a Windows XP user, and I am planning to buy my first Mac very soon. I have decided to wait for OS X Leopard to come out first. I have several external USB hard drives, some of which are formatted in the NTFS file system. From what I have looked up, OS X can read and write to FAT32 drives, but only read (not write) NTFS drives. Will Leopard have support for NTFS write?
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Will OS X Leopard support NTFS?
- Thread starter muah
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I don't know the answer to your question, sorry.
But is it an option for you to convert you NTFS drives to FAT32, or even better, Mac OS X Extended (HFS+)?
If you still needed to access the drives from XP, then you could use MacDrive.
SL
Leopard will most likely be HFS+, it's just that it will support ZFS from Sun Microsystems.
OS X can read and write to and from a NTFS partition if that partition is networked. So, an external USB NTFS drive which you just plug into your Mac will not be writeable, but if you plug that HD into a Windows box which you then connect to your Mac via LAN or something, your Mac will be able to write to that HD.
OS X can read and write to and from a NTFS partition if that partition is networked. So, an external USB NTFS drive which you just plug into your Mac will not be writeable, but if you plug that HD into a Windows box which you then connect to your Mac via LAN or something, your Mac will be able to write to that HD.
The reason Macs can't write to NTFS is that MS won't release the specifications, and the Linux guys haven't made it reliable enough yet, once (if) they do Apple will undoubtedly bundle it.
It could be a long wait as the read access isn't perfect. If write screws up the entire disk could become unwritable.
It could be a long wait as the read access isn't perfect. If write screws up the entire disk could become unwritable.
check to see if macFuse works for you
http://www.linux.com/feature/114931
its a work in progress, so at this stage, I see no hope for leopard to have it, but you can always try for yourself.
http://www.linux.com/feature/114931
its a work in progress, so at this stage, I see no hope for leopard to have it, but you can always try for yourself.
However, if you have enough room on your new machine you can copy the data off your NTFS drive and then copy it back after reformatting. Or use Bootcamp to run XP on your new Mac and continue to use your NTFS drive for your Windows work.