NTFS Write support: What method are YOU using?

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Level 4

1,094 points

NTFS Write support: What method are YOU using?

I recently attempted to use the fstab method to activate NTFS write support in Snow Leopard. Didn't work... likely user error. Then again, I think you need to modify the fstab file every time you introduce a new NTFS partition into the system, so it's not exactly convenient. So, I thought about MacFUSE and ntfs3g. But I figured I'd check here to see what others are using and what good/bad/indifferent experiences people have had with such methods and/or applications.

MacBook Pro 17" Core 2 Duo, 4GB DDR3., Mac OS X (10.6.2)

Posted on Jan 7, 2010 5:21 PM

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Answer 1

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V.K.

Level 9

56,174 points

Jan 7, 2010 5:46 PM in response to liquidmice

I suggest you stay away from the built in method of writing to NTFS drives. there is a reason it's not official and apple has never mentioned it. it's still very buggy. I tried it out. inside the first half hour it gave me a kernel panic and my windows partition became unreadable. I was able to fix it with chkdsk but i sateyed away from this method from then on. if you must use something use either NTFS-3g (or its recent commercial successor Tuxera) or NTFS for Mac by Paragon.

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Answer 2

Asatoran

Level 4

2,532 points

Jan 7, 2010 6:22 PM in response to liquidmice

I've been using NTFS-3G for many moons now. Daily on my 2008 MBP and my early 2009 Mini. Quite reliable for me. At the moment, I have multiple external drives attached to the mini, two of which are formatted NTFS. I write to both NTFS drives daily for the past 6 months or so with an upgrade from Leopard to Snow Leopard during those 6 months.

NTFS-3G uses Macfuse, so really, you can choose either.

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Answer 3

liquidmice Author

Level 4

1,094 points

Apr 23, 2010 8:36 PM in response to liquidmice

MACFuse and NTFS - 3G being used to write to a 1TB external. When dealing with large data sets/files, this solution is NOT by any means stable. As a matter of fact, this is the only thing that has ever crashed this MacBookPro. And it has crashed it several times. I will soon be putting a nice fat (no pun intended) HFS+ partition on the drive for the bulk of my work.

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