If you’ve ever tried transferring files between a computer running Windows and one running Macintosh OS X, chances are high that you’ve sweet-faced the issues arising thanks to NTFS and FAT formats. Windows, by default, prefer exploitation NTFS formats on its drives, and if you’ve got formatted external onerous disks and pen drives on Windows, you most likely have used NTFS to format those.
What we will Do?
The most common answer you may hear to the present is to format drives in FAT. whereas this works, we are going to provide you with 2 explanations why you may not wish to try to this:
Your disk may already contain valuable knowledge which will be lost if you format it into FAT.
You might Be Taught to transfer files larger than 4GB into your disk, and FAT doesn’t enable this.
So, a way to bridge this obvious gap between Windows and OS X?
We discover the possible solutions to the present hassle today. But, previous you’ll be able to perceive what to try to, you wish to know what it’s so much that you just are attempting to revive. a trifle heritage is therefore as:
NTFS and FAT area unit 2 of the foremost ordinarily used file systems to format drives. These area unit abbreviations for a brand spanking new Technology classification system and File Allocation Table, severally. These formats govern however disks prepare knowledge.
The usage of FAT will truly fix most of your troubles with the employment of an equivalent memory device between windows and raincoat, but, there’s the caveat that files giant than 4GB can’t be saved within disks formatted the usage of FAT.
Using FAT can actually fix most of your problems with using the same external storage between Windows and Mac, however, there’s the caveat that files larger than 4GB can not be stored inside disks formatted using FAT.
How to Enable NTFS Write Capabilities on OS X
OS X natively supports reading capabilities for disks in the NTFS format. This means that you can use your NTFS formatted disks with OS X to read files from. However, you can not transfer files from your Mac to the disk in question.
So, you’re flummoxed? Don’t worry, we have the fix, and we are going to explain it to you. As it turns out, there are two possible solutions to this problem.
1. Third Party Applications
Obviously, you were not the first to encounter these limitations, so problem solvers have come out with solutions in the form of third party apps. These come in both paid and free variations, but before you skip ahead to the free section, be warned, the free one takes a lot more hard work and is generally not as reliable as the paid ones.
Paid Applications
The awesome people at Paragon Software Group and Tuxera have created utilities that bridge the NTFS gap between Windows and OS X.
All you need to do with these apps is download them (and install, obviously.) and you’re all set. Well, almost. You do need to restart your computer for the changes to take effect, and then you can freely read/write on NTFS drives without any hassle.
“Paragon NTFS for Mac” is priced at $19.95 and has a 10 day trial if you want to be sure that it works out for you.
“Tuxera NTFS for Mac” is priced at $31 and has a 15 day trial.
Both of these apps come with the added functionality that allows you to format a drive using NTFS or create partitions. We have tried Paragon’s offering and it’s well worth the price.
Also, note that if you’re using a Seagate drive, Seagate offers a free license for “Paragon NTFS for Mac”, with the limitation that it only works with Seagate drives, or with drives that are manufactured by Seagate. I could use it with a Samsung external HD that was manufactured by Seagate.
Check out Paragon and Tuxera for an easy, hassle free NTFS experience on your Mac.
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Free Applications
“osxfuse” is an open source application hosted on GitHub that also allows users to write to NTFS drives on Mac. The process is tediously long, and not recommended if you’re not comfortable with using the Terminal, or rebooting your Mac into recovery mode.
Nevertheless, we have outlined the steps here.
1. Download osxfuse and install it.
2. Download Homebrew (a command line package manager for Mac), if you don’t have it already.
3. Open Terminal, and type the following command:
brew install homebrew/fuse/ntfs-3g
4. Now, you’ll have to disable System Integrity Protection (SIP, or “rootless”). To do this, you need to reboot into recovery mode.
- Turn your Mac off and press Command + R while starting it up again. This will boot up your Mac in a recovery environment.
5. Launch Terminal and type the following command:
csrutil disable
- This will disable System Integrity Protection on your Mac.
- Reboot your Mac normally.
6. Open Terminal and type the following commands:
sudo mv /sbin/mount_ntfs /sbin/mount_ntfs.original
sudo ln -s /usr/local/sbin/mount_ntfs /sbin/mount_ntfs
7. Next, you to re-enable System Integrity Protection.
- Reboot your Mac into recovery.
8. Launch Terminal and type the following command:
csrutil enable
- This will enable System Integrity Protection on your Mac.
9. Reboot your Mac.
10. NTFS should now be working on your Mac.
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2. Apple’s Experimental Feature
As it turns out, Apple themselves have an experimental feature that can be enabled to allow NTFS writing capability on the Mac. This method also requires the use of command line, but it does not require you to disable System Integrity Protection.
Note: Being an experimental feature, this might not work well, it might corrupt your data, your disk, or cause data loss. Proceed with caution, and at your own risk.
The steps you need to take, in order to enable this feature are given below:
1. Fire up Terminal on your Mac.
2. Type the following command:
sudo nano /etc/fstab
- You need to add the following line to the file:
LABEL=DRIVE_NAME none ntfs rw,auto,nobrowse
- Replace the DRIVE_NAME with the name of your disk.
- Make sure the DRIVE_NAME you are using does not contain any spaces as this might cause issues.
3. This will enable write support for your drive.
If your drive has a complex name with spaces and the like, you can use the device UUID to enable write support for that drive as well. To find the UUID for your disk, you need to run the following command on the Terminal:
diskutil info /Volumes/DRIVENAME | grep UUID
Replace the “DRIVENAME” with the name of your disk.
Once you have the UUID for your disk, you need to follow these steps:
1. Open Terminal on your Mac
- Type the following command:
sudo nano /etc/fstab
- Add the following line to the file:
UUID=DEVICEUUID none ntfs rw,auto,nobrowse
- Replace “DEVICEUUID” with the UUID for your disk.
The limitation with this experimental method is exactly that; it’s experimental. There is no guarantee that it will work properly. It might corrupt your data, or even corrupt your entire disk. Also, this method requires you to add one line “per disk” for it to work. So if you have more than one disk that you want to write to using this method, it’ll be unnecessarily tedious.
Start exploitation NTFS on Your Macintosh
You have been armed with the essential data that you just want so as to create writing to NTFS files on your Macintosh reality. seek the ways we’ve printed during this article and allow us to realize your expertise with the tools you utilize to realize these results on your computers.Make certain you produce backups of vital information before making an attempt out things that you just don’t seem to be entirely sure concerning. higher safe than sorry. Let us Know your expertise with NTFS on Macintosh within the comments below.
