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    NTFS on Mac/Hard Drive Question...

    Discussion in 'Apple and Mac OS X' started by Lencias, Oct 22, 2008.

  1. Lencias

    Lencias Notebook Consultant

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    Hi!
    I heard that Mac has issues with the NTFS file system? I have an external hard drive with tons of stuff on it - most importantly music and various large sample libraries - and since I made it in Windows, it's in NTFS. Will I be able to transfer over files from my hard drive to a Mac once I get it? Thanks.

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    Lencias, Oct 22, 2008
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  2. X2P

    X2P COOLING | NBR Super Mod

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    I believe you cannot natively do it, but if I am not mistaken there is third party software that can read it.
     
    X2P, Oct 22, 2008
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  3. Lencias

    Lencias Notebook Consultant

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    Do I need alternative solutions for just reading/copying off of the NTFS drive - I think I read somewhere that reading an NTFS drive was possible, just not writing?

    Thanks

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    Lencias, Oct 22, 2008
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  4. sulkorp

    sulkorp Notebook Deity

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    You can read the NTFS drive out of the box.

    To write to you it need to get ntfs 3g

    was a pain for me to install, but coulda just been bad luck, maybe its better now
     
    sulkorp, Oct 22, 2008
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  5. Lencias

    Lencias Notebook Consultant

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    So if I plug in the external hard drive into the USB port, the Mac will recognize it and let me copy files off of it/mount disc images located on it/install apps from it, but not write to it?

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    Lencias, Oct 22, 2008
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  6. sulkorp

    sulkorp Notebook Deity

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    yea. should work
     
    sulkorp, Oct 22, 2008
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  7. sysphile

    sysphile Notebook Enthusiast

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    I have a similar setup and am running NTFS for Mac OS X from Paragon Software. It's been rock solid and has some nice features you can enable/disable like "Last access time stamp".

    Do a search for "Paragon NTFS for Mac OS X" and should get you to their site. I can't post the link here...not enough posts :-(

    Hope this helps...
     
    sysphile, Oct 22, 2008
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  8. Lencias

    Lencias Notebook Consultant

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    I did some searches and some people were getting corrupt data on v6.0? Do you have 6.5 and is it any better?

    But I dont HAVE to have it to copy stuff over from the external to the Mac, do I? Only need it for vice versa?

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    Lencias, Oct 22, 2008
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  9. sysphile

    sysphile Notebook Enthusiast

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    I am running v6.5 and have not had any data corruption. You would only need the software if you are trying to write from your MAC to the external drive and not vice-versa.
     
    sysphile, Oct 22, 2008
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  10. Lencias

    Lencias Notebook Consultant

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    Would I need the software if, say, I hooked up the drive to the Airport Extreme and tried to access it through that?

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    Lencias, Oct 22, 2008
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  11. newfiejudd

    newfiejudd Notebook Deity

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    How about acessing your mac files while in your Bootcamp Partition. IE Windows Vista.
     
    newfiejudd, Oct 22, 2008
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  12. sysphile

    sysphile Notebook Enthusiast

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    You would not need the software if you are connecting via Network. For example, when trying to get to files on my windows PC, I can connect via smb and write to a NTFS partition on my PC from my mac.
     
    sysphile, Oct 22, 2008
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  13. sysphile

    sysphile Notebook Enthusiast

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    I have not tried to do it via Bootcamp since I am only running Vmware.
     
    sysphile, Oct 22, 2008
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  14. Lencias

    Lencias Notebook Consultant

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    I went to the Apple Store today, and talked to one of the guys there, and I asked him "If I have an external hard drive loaded with stuff from Windows, can I connect it to a Mac and read and write to it?" and he said "As long as it was moved on to the drive by drag-and-drop, not backup software, you should be able to read and write"...

    ***?

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    Lencias, Oct 26, 2008
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  15. sysphile

    sysphile Notebook Enthusiast

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    If he was thinking you had a FAT 32 drive then yes, but NTFS will not work in that manner without third-party software like the one I mentioned earlier.
     
    sysphile, Oct 26, 2008
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  16. chrixx

    chrixx Product Specialist NBR Reviewer

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    You don't need Paragon. Use the free open source ntfs-3g library to write to NTFS.
     
    chrixx, Oct 27, 2008
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  17. Lencias

    Lencias Notebook Consultant

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    By the by, peeps, I did some poking around on the Apple site, and it turns out that only OSX 10.3 and 10.4 are capable of accessing NTFS drives as read only - and the article was updated just 4 months ago, well after the release of Leopard, so its not out of date. Apparently 10.5 (Leopard) can't access NTFS as read only?

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    Lencias, Oct 29, 2008
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  18. StrongerThanAll

    StrongerThanAll Notebook Deity

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    yes you can, ive been doing it for over a week
     
    StrongerThanAll, Oct 29, 2008
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