I have bought an external hard drive with NTFS. How do I transfer files to this drive from my Macbook Air, and write files on it? I also would like to use the hard drive for a pc as well so any suggested solutions that allows me to use across my mac and a pc would be greatly appreciated.
MacBook Air (13-inch Mid 2012)
Purchase and install Paragon NTFS for Mac.
Thanks Kurt. I saw elsewhere NTFS 3G was recommended as well, any experience you can share with that? Also another post suggested reformatting the disk drive to FAT32, but I dont know the significance and therefore which route to go. Will the paragon option allow me to view/write all files on both Mac and PC? (apologies for all the questions but I am a new mac user and not an expert on these things...)
marshalltimd wrote:
I saw elsewhere NTFS 3G was recommended as well
Now is Tuxera NTFS for Mac.
You can download a Try & Buy version of both Paragon & Tuxera and decide for yourself.
But you can save some extra money if you format the drive as exFAT
Thanks Alberto. Will try those you suggest. Never seen the term exFAT in a post previously - is that an enhanced version of FAT32?
marshalltimd wrote:
Never seen the term exFAT in a post previously - is that an enhanced version of FAT32?
Yes it is. Here's an abstract from this Microsoft KB page
The exFAT file system is the successor to FAT32 in the FAT family of file systems. The exFAT file system is a new file system format that addresses the growing needs of mobile personal storage on different operating systems. The exFAT file system handles large files, such as those that are used for media storage, and it enables seamless interoperability between desktop computers and devices, such as portable media devices. Because of this functionality, you can easily copy files between the desktop and external devices or between the desktop and other operating systems.
Tuxera NTFS does do the same thing, but Paragon's offering is much cheaper.
To expand a little on Alberto's post:
exFAT can handle huge files, so the 4 GB file size limit of FAT32 isn't an issue. You can format a disk as exFAT right from within OS X with Disk Utility, but it's a known issue that Windows computers can't always read, or mount a drive formatted as exFAT on a Mac. Best to do the formatting in Windows. Lastly, you of course need to copy all data off the drive first before formatting it to exFAT, and copy your data back afterwards.
Move the files off and use Disk Utility to reformat the drive as ExFAT and then move them back. This will allow you to read and write from both Mac and Windows and doesn't require any extra software.
Thanks all for your posts - really helpful. Think I am going to go the exFAT route first and if that doe not work will go with the Paragon option as it seems a better solution should I need to use my hard drive with other macs as well as my own.
No worries. It will work. I use my ExFAT drive everyday specifically to share between PC and Mac.
thanks so much! took about 6 googles to find your CLEAR post and answer.
You're welcome.
How do I make an NTFS external hard drive compatible with my Macbook Air?
