• Apple OS X

  Read AND write with an external NTFS HD

  Posted by Lokidrummer on December 30, 2005 at 2:18 am

  Hi, i have a like 110 GB external hard drive that i used to use with a windows PC, i want to use it on my mac but it will only let me read from it and not write and delete. I’ve checked the “get info” on it and it won’t let me change the read/write settings. So what do i do to get this external hard drive working on my macintosh? Thanks!

  -Will

  Chuck Reti replied 20 years, 4 months ago 3 Members · 3 Replies
• 3 Replies

• 

  Lokidrummer

  December 30, 2005 at 4:47 am

  Hey, I put it back on a windows pc, and formatted it into like 4 seperate partitions with fat32, but what’s really annoying and i can get over it is that i now have 4 seperate icons and stuff to deal with….is there any way to put them all back as one but keep it read/writable? Thanks

  -Will
• 

  Tony! Hulette

  December 30, 2005 at 8:28 am

  The way to make it work is to think in reverse. You need to get the PC to be able to use Mac formatted drives (the only choice you really have). Go here: https://www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive6/ and buy their product. It will make your life much easier.

  Tony!
• 

  Chuck Reti

  December 30, 2005 at 4:49 pm

  Write to NTFS volumes has never been available in OS X. IIRC, NTFS read-only capability was added in either Jaguar or Panther.
  From Apple document How to transfer data from a PC to a Macintosh (also applies to Tiger 10.4):

  Mac OS X 10.3 Panther works with local NTFS-formatted volumes. The volume will be read-only.

  Warning: NTFS formatted drives cannot be used in a Macintosh (except as read-only … as noted above). If you attempt to use a NTFS formatted disk, upon starting up the Mac OS will prompt you to format the drive. Do not format the drive, doing so will erase the contents of the drive. If you have an NTFS formatted disk, you must use another method to transfer the data from the PC to the Macintosh.

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