any1 ever plug NTFS external HDD on mac?

anyone ever plug an external HDD NTFS formatted on mac os x 10.4? if so, what happened? can mac os x read file off of it? can i copy files?

 

OS X can read NTFS volumes; it just can't write to them - although with MacFuse, it's possible for OS X to write to them as well.

But if you just need to copy files off an NTFS-formatted HDD, you should be fine.

 

My dad has an external hard drive formatted as NTFS. I plugged it into my Mac, and it recognized it. I could open all the files on it, and I copied some photos onto my Mac. However, when I tried to edit a file name or add files to it, I wasn't allowed to.

So all in all, my Mac recognized NTFS just as it was supposed to, and it prevented me from writing to NTFS, as it was supposed to .

 

So can we say that it's like a CD-R?

 

hey, great to hear it works like it supposed to what does it says when you want to write to it? an error message?

btw i know that 'supposedly' mac os x can read NTFS volume, but never actually see/read other people doing it or done it myself.

 

Yes, it reads perfectly =)
And you can enable writing with MacFuse - but keep in mind that for some reason you get usb1 speeds max... So it kinda defeats the purpose

 

so say if you want to backup files onto an external HD, you cant do it on a mac or on osx? can i copy files over to the HD if i use parallels or bootcamp or you need to get MacFuse to enable write functions for everything.

 

Well, you couldn't to an NTFS formatted drive (since it would be read-only). You would probably want to use a FAT32 formatted drive or something (which is typically how most external hard drives you buy these days are formatted), if the purpose was to be able to read it on PC's as well.

You could also just format the drive with HFS+, and use something like MacDrive on the PC to read it.

But yeah, you'd want to use something like MacFuse if you wanted to do it with an NTFS formatted drive.

 

my external HD is formated as NTFS. guess i can always change it to FAT32 (but no files larger than 4gb then) or use macfuse (not interested really if it uses usb1 speeds). :|

 

In all honesty, MacFuse and ntfs-3g sucks. You can read from NTFS drives really well without those two, but once you install them your read speeds go down while you gain write capability.

For example, i used to be able to run video files from my NTFS drive and view them but now with MacFuse the video lags periodically, now im at a point where i can't view video files properly without copying them to my HFS+ drive. It is very annoying.

 

Yeah, I agree with zadillo. If you want to "share" the drive between Windows and OS X, best way to go is to format the external hard drive as FAT32, unless you know you work with files larger than 4 GB.

 

cant you take off macfuse and solve the problem/? or its because you want the write functions so youre keeping it on.

 

say if i used parallels on osx, wouldnt windows on parallels read the drive properly with read and write functions so that you can drag files into parallels and then onto the ntfs hd. thats what i wanted to know, or a way to read your osx drive from bootcamp with windows on it and then drag files from that into your ntfs hd because if i want a mac i want to be able to move files onto my external hd now and then to save space which i normally do all the time oh and yeh i sometimes have files larger than 4gb.

 

Id still like to be able to write to it so i have to have MacFuse. Oh well, its free so i can't complain too much.

 

Yes you can read and write within the Parallels virtual image itself, and Parallels Explorer is just a fancy name for MacFUSE and ntfs-3g.

You'll need to use MacDrive to read HFS partitions from within Windows/Boot Camp. MacDrive will automatically be disabled while running Windows in Fusion or Parallels, which works out well.

Of course, don't expect to see incredibly fast write times with any of the above methods, so that 4GB file will take a while longer than you might be used to.