Windows NT External Hard Driv

Question

Windows NT External Hard Driv

Hello,

I have an external USB hard drive that I am trying to use with my Mac. This drive is formated as "Windows NT Filesystem". I can only read items on the hard drive, I can not write to the drive. When I Get Info, the Ownership & Permissions say I can only read. However, when I open up the Terminal, it says I have read/write/execute permissions. I also noticed that Disk Utility won't let me repair permissions or even verify permissions on it.

Does anyone know how I can copy information to this hard drive from my Mac?

Thanks.

2 x 2 GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon Xserve, Mac OS X (10.4.8), 4 GB 667 MHz DDR2 FB-DIMM

Posted on May 28, 2008 6:22 AM

Reply

Answer 1

May 28, 2008 7:03 AM in response to Simeon Miller1

The Mac OS can *only read* NTFS-formatted drives, despite the readout you're seeing in Terminal. You can use 3rd party software (e.g. Paragon NTFS) to write to NTFS-formatted drives, or you can reformat the drive as FAT32 (which both Macs and PCs can read/write access, but has a limitation that single files cannot be larger that 4 GB). Or, if the drive will primarily be used with the Mac, you can format is as Mac OS Extended (Journaled), and use something like MacDrive to access it from Windows. +Note that reformatting will erase the drive, so you'll need to copy data that you want to save off of the drive first.+

You can't Verify/Repair Permissions on anything except your Mac OS X boot disk. In any case, those "permissions" are not the same thing as general ownership/read/write permissions, but instead are really Unix-type "privileges" associated with applications installed using the Apple installer. Read this kbase article for more details.

Hope this helps...

Reply

Answer 2

May 28, 2008 7:17 AM in response to neuroanatomist

Wow, you are quick.

It looks like I'm going to be using Paragon, or MacFUSE. Thanks a bunch for the suggestions!

Reply