NTFS Support Local and Network

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Level 1

6 points

NTFS Support Local and Network

Hello all, I'm new to Mac - loving it and won't go back now (well maybe to play Command and Conquer). I know that OSX Lion only has read support for NTFS on Hard Drives, USB Firewire 800 etc. I can pull data off but when I try to copy to the device is does not let me which is fair enough.

My question is that I'm running a simple file server with a number of NTFS drives that I share to various PC's over the office. I formatted a new drive in ExFat which both Windows and Mac can read/write to.

Whenever I access the NTFS share over the network I can read and write to the NTFS share, is this becasue its using a network share protocol and ignoring the file system in a simular way that a NAS would?

This probally sounds stupid but I've copied loads of files to a NTFS share and they copied fine, Confirmed I can open the files on windows without any issues, don't know if I'm missing something, hopefully someone can shed some light on it for me.

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.2)

Posted on Dec 3, 2011 9:14 AM

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Answer 1

Niel

Community+ 2025

Level 10

741,293 points

Dec 3, 2011 10:02 AM in response to darkcooleo

Yes, it is. Basically, Lion isn't writing to the NTFS drive. It's telling the Windows computer to write to the drive, and that's why it works.

(62006)

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Answer 2

darkcooleo Author

Level 1

6 points

Dec 3, 2011 11:00 AM in response to Niel

Hello,

Thanks for the quick reply, it's all part of smb samba share is it?

So will that way be 100% safe to read and write without any data loss or corruption. I know you can use program's to add this to any USB drive with software but I'm wary of this as I've read bad things.

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Answer 3

darkcooleo Author

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6 points

Dec 3, 2011 11:01 AM in response to darkcooleo

P.S What does the 62006 mean? Lol

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Answer 4

Niel

Community+ 2025

Level 10

741,293 points

Dec 3, 2011 11:42 AM in response to darkcooleo

Yes. It's also true with AFP and other file sharing protocols. If a drive is shared over a network, all of the computers on the network have the capabilities of the computer sharing it with regards to reading and writing its content, and file transfers are checked for file corruption as part of the process.

(62016)

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Answer 5

etresoft

Level 9

56,320 points

Dec 4, 2011 4:33 PM in response to darkcooleo

darkcooleo wrote:

P.S What does the 62006 mean? Lol

I believe Niel is tracking his post count.

If you want direct access to NTFS from your Mac, look at Tuxera NTFS. There are some additional file system plug-ins available via the MacFUSE project.

Most USB Thumb drives are FAT so you can read and write to that with no problem.

MacOS X Lion no longer includes Samba. Apple had to re-write their own implementation of the SMB protocol because the Free Software Foundation added some shady conditions to version 3 of the GPL license.

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Answer 6

darkcooleo Author

Level 1

6 points

Dec 6, 2011 7:54 AM in response to darkcooleo

Thanks to the both of your for all your help, NTFS network drive it is then !

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