Q: solution for NTFS formatted drives that works

The command does that already: >> APPENDS the line to the file, so if there is already a line there, a new line is created at the end of the file.

I suggest, you get the computer and try it out for yourself, then it will become clear. I think your original question is answered: yes, you can write to NTFS drives on a mac (either using 3rd party software or the method described above).

Tha major drawback of the method I described is this part:

1. the disk will not show up in your finder or on the desktop. [...] To access the disk, you need to open a terminal and type (replace Data with the name of your drive):
   open /Volumes/Data
2. voila, a finder window showing your disk will open and will allow you to write to the disk.

 

this means, that after plugging in, the drive will not show up in finder until you access it via a terminal window. But you can always use another file manager like muCommander which will show the drive.

I hope you will enjoy your new mac (which despite the NTFS hiccup is imho still a better product than a windows pc).

One more remark: to eject the drive, you also need a terminal window and type (replace Data with the name of your drive):

diskutil eject /Volumes/Data

Message was edited by: thawn1

Once you have mounted the drive, you can make an alias of the drive to any location of your choice. The alias will only work when the drive is mounted. To do this, click and drag the drive in the Volumes folder, and then hold the Option and Command keys while you are still dragging, and you will see the mouse cursor change to a small curved arrow. In this mode, drop the alias wherever you would like (e.g., your Desktop) and you can then access it from there.

The commands you've been describing only set the system up to recognize that one drive as a read and write NTFS filesystem. Once set up, whenever you attach that drive the system will be able to read and write to it, but it simply will not show in the Finder sidebar or on the Desktop.

Creating the alias like I mentioned is a workaround to this limitation, and you should be able to access the drive directly through the alias. You can make the alias also by dragging the drive to your sidebar, but there will be some differences, such as the alias staying even when the drive is unmounted, and not being able to right-click the alias and unmount the drive.

Topher Kessler wrote:

 

Creating the alias like I mentioned is a workaround to this limitation, and you should be able to access the drive directly through the alias.

That is a neat trick. Thanks!

What works best for me is creating a shortcut to the drive in the sidebar with Cmd+t. That way, I even get the button to eject the drive. The only difference now is that the link stays there even if the drive is ejected.

I don't have windows pcs or an apple tv to test this, sorry. I'll test whether the SMB network sharing works with linux as soon as I have time.

Patience, young padawan. I'll test it in a few hours. I can set up the external drive for sharing in the sharing options, but I cannot test if it acually works at the moment.

Yes

XDvenom wrote:

 

have u done this before on ur own mac computer with a NTFS drive