HFS no journaling formatting question

Question

HFS no journaling formatting question

I have a Western Digital Media Player. The hard drive can be Fat32 (which doesn't support files of 4gig) or NTFS (which I am trying right now from my pc), but it can also take HFS no journaling. I have always formatted my mac external drives as mac os extended so i can transfer larger files. Two questions: does HFS no journalling allow for files over 4 gig and how do i do this because i can't find it under disk utility.

tx

macbook aluminum, 2.4, 4 gig, 320, imac dual core, 1.8, Mac OS X (10.5.6), sony HDC-HC3, appleTV, ipods, hard drives, WDMP

Posted on May 16, 2009 12:50 PM

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Answer 1

Kappy

Level 10

362,007 points

May 16, 2009 1:35 PM in response to Sheryl Kingstone

Current versions of OS X only use Mac OS Extended, Journaled by default. An HFS+ formatted drive can handle files larger than 4 GBs, but Windows cannot read or write an HFS+ formatted drive. OS X can read but not write to an NTFS formatted drive and OS X cannot format a drive with NTFS - only FAT32. However, there are third-party utilities for Windows (MediaFour's MacDrive) that enable it to read/write an HFS+ formatted drive. There are also third-party utilities that enable OS X to read/write an NTFS formatted drive - NTFS for Mac OS X or NTFS for Mac 1.0.

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Answer 2

May 16, 2009 1:42 PM in response to Kappy

Wow this is more complicated than i thought! thanks...guess i have some reading to do....

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Answer 3

May 16, 2009 1:44 PM in response to Kappy

do you have an opinion on which utility?

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Answer 4

May 16, 2009 1:48 PM in response to Sheryl Kingstone

one more question--do you know if USB sticks can handle files over 4 gigs...basically i am trying to get my 7 gig movie off my mac and onto a playable drive for my Western digital media player. WDMP can't handle mac os extended journal. It will only use NTFS and FAT32 (FAT 32 is a waste since it can't handle files over 4 gig)

Or i can just use the utility and it should be able to write to the NTFS drive. Just curious if a USB stick will work. I only have a 4 gig in the house.

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Answer 5

Kappy

Level 10

362,007 points

May 16, 2009 2:09 PM in response to Sheryl Kingstone

First, no I have no opinion on what utility to use. I don't use any of them because I do not use Windows. You can try demos of the commercial products. NTFS for Mac 1.0 is freeware. I have used it, and I can tell you it works but that's all.

Any device can handle large files if properly formatted. But if you format a flash drive to use FAT32, then 4 GBs is the largest file you can write to it. FAT32 is what you would use if you wanted to exchange files between Macs and PCs without the use of third-party utilities. Otherwise you would need to decide whether to use a Windows utility to enable use of HFS drives on a PC or the OS X utility to enable NTFS read/write on a Mac.

You could also use a utility to split your large file into two smaller files then transfer them to the other machine where the two splits are reassembled. You would of course need to use software that has versions for both hardware. For example, Stuffit Deluxe (not the free version) can archive a large file into smaller chunks to be reassembled elsewhere. Stuffit is available for both Macs and Windows. There are likely other such utilities but I am not familiar with them.

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Answer 6

May 16, 2009 2:17 PM in response to Kappy

I think I will spend the 40 dollars and be done withit! I don't really use PC's except for work. I love my macs! But the stupid WDMP will only take NTSF, FAT32 or HFS not journaled. I can't figure out how to make the drive HFS NOT journaled. I never ran into an issue until I made a 45 minute video of my brother in laws wedding! Now I can't get it off the mac at full HD resolution.

I took a look at the first option you recommended. It looks like it will work perfectly. It seems to allow me to read and write NTSF drive--which will allow me to put my 7 gig movie on the drive. Before i buy it, I want to make sure the WDMP player will recognize the new NTFS formatted Drive!

VERY THANKFUL!

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Answer 7

Kappy

Level 10

362,007 points

May 16, 2009 3:53 PM in response to Sheryl Kingstone

You can disable journaling on a non-startup volume. Open the Terminal application in your Utilities folder. At the prompt enter and press RETURN:

df

You should see something like this:

Filesystem 512-blocks Used Available Capacity Mounted on
/dev/disk0s2 324779648 176462256 147805392 55% /
devfs 210 210 0 100% /dev
fdesc 2 2 0 100% /dev
map -hosts 0 0 0 100% /net
map auto_home 0 0 0 100% /home
/dev/disk0s3 65008352 27592336 37416016 43% /Volumes/Snow

You are interested in an entry like the one I have set in bold. At the end you should see a "/" followed by the name you have assigned to the disk you want to modify. In the above example it's /Volumes/Snow. Now, select the disk you are going to modify on your Desktop, then select Eject from the Finder's File menu. Next enter the following pressing RETURN at the end:

sudo diskutil disableJournal force /dev/diskID (from df output, such as disk0s3)

You will be prompted to enter your password which will not be echoed. If the operation succeeds you should receive a line of output indicated that journaling is now disabled on the selected drive.

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Answer 8

May 16, 2009 4:09 PM in response to Kappy

Well...the saga ended. However, what worked in the end was reformatting the drive without checking the journaled. I guess i didn't realize just plain macos would work. I tried the NTSF, while the drive was recognized with the WDMP and the files transfered.....for some reason, they wouldn't play! I knew they would play because I had a file playing while it was fat32! The new software works great, but i guess i didn't need it! thank god it was only $40. lol. Well now i can write to another drive i have for my pc!

Anyway, you are right. no journaling worked the best. I have my files and my movies. I am a happy camper. Figures what works is staying all mac!

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Answer 9

tomik

Level 1

0 points

Jun 2, 2009 10:38 AM in response to Kappy

The best and free solution to read/write an NTFS formatted drive is to use the standard open-source NTFS-3G drivers (ntfs-3g.org). The drivers are well tested and their liability is proved by the users of all the mainstream Linux distributions.

The NTFS for Mac 1.0 drivers you mentioned seem to be unmaintained or at least poorly maintained (undocumented etc.) though they seem to use NTFS-3G. And there is a far more better free alternative:

http://macntfs-3g.blogspot.com/ - The MacNTFS-3G bundle runs out of the box and seems to be well documented and maintained. The bundle provides some Mac-specific features like System Preferences pane etc.

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Answer 10

JoeyR

Level 6

8,305 points

Jun 2, 2009 11:57 AM in response to Sheryl Kingstone

Another option for moving large files (up to 8GB) is just to burn them to a dual layer DVD. 🙂

It's not an ideal solution if you need to do it often... but if you're in a bind and just need to do it once in a while, it's an option that doesn't require any additional software.

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Answer 11

tomik

Level 1

0 points

Jun 5, 2009 1:13 PM in response to tomik

Now I have installed and used NTFS-3G under Mac OS X for a few days. It 'just works' but at least twice as slow as with native HFS+ filesystem.

So I've searched more deep on the subject and I've found some good articles (and especially comments) here:

http://www.tuaw.com/2007/11/19/ntfs-on-your-mac-two-ways/

http://tzechuen.wordpress.com/2008/02/02/tech-tip-readwrite-both-ntfs-and-hfs-vo lumes-on-both-windows-and-mac/

Hope this will help you decide which way you want to go.

Cheers,
Tomas

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