NTFS (short of new technology file system) is a default file system for Windows. It was first introduced in Windows NT and over the years it has only got better. It supports all the modern features like encryption, journaling (reduce data loss), file permission, compression etc etc.
NTFS-3G for Mac is a stable, full-featured, read-write NTFS driver for Linux, Android, macOS, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenSolaris, QNX, Haiku, and other operating systems.It provides safe handling of the Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows 2000, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 10 NTFS file systems. Tuxera NTFS for Mac builds on the reliable NTFS-3G code base, but has several premium enhancements. The most important one is the new high performance caching layer which makes Tuxera NTFS at least twice as fast as cached NTFS-3G, but in many cases boosts.
Since Windows is still the most popular desktop OS, most external HDD comes preformatted with NTFS. This means you can use them on Windows with no problem.
But on MAC, NTFS volume becomes read only i.e. you can only copy data from external HDD to your MAC but not the other way around.
Now you can always format your hard drive to FAT32/exFAT and make it compatible on both platforms or even use samba server to share file between MAC and Windows. Chrome for mac os x.
But, if you are going to use your external drive mostly on Windows, then it does make sense to keep NTFS and sometimes when you want to use it on MAC, use a software.
So here are three workarounds, on how to use an NTFS volume with MAC
Ntfs For Mac 3g Software
Use NTFS Drive on MAC
#1 Terminal
Now you may not know, but modern MAC OS support NTFS volume (both read and write) However, this feature is disabled by default. Why? We will come to that later,
If you want to enable the support for NTFS, you can easily do it by editing a small file.
1. Simply insert your hard drive, in your MAC note down its drive name.
2. Now press cmd + space to launch spotlights then type in terminal and hit enter.
3. In terminal copy paste the following command.
sudo nano /etc/fstab
With this command, you are telling the super user to open the fstab file using the nano text editor. You will have to enter the login password.
4. Next, a new window will open, though you won’t see anything on it. Simply paste the following command.
LABEL=DRIVE_NAME none ntfs rw,auto,nobrowse
Replace the drive name with the hard drive name. And save changes. To do that, first type CTRL + o (o for orange) to write data and CTRL + x to exit. And that’s it.
Dvd video converter for mac. 5. Restart your MAC and under finder, go to the “Go -> Go to Folder” and type in /Volumes. You will your NTFS drive.
Verdict: This is the most simple method. However, I don’t prefer it, neither it’s recommended by apple (and that’s why it’s hidden) because it’s experimental and people who have tried this, reported an error. Also, since there are other solutions, why to take the risk.
#2 NTFS -3g (recommended)
This is the most popular method, and also the one I am using right now. Instead of tinkering the core system settings via terminal, you can install a free software like NTFs-3g.
The development of NTFS 3g has been stopped from a long time. But, you can still get it work by installing few extra packages.
Well precisely, you have to install 3 program one by one. I have this guide on MACbreaker, and here is the summary of the process, for details check out the original article.
First, start with fuse for OS X — this provides a framework for NTFS support.
Download it from here and install it like you normally do. Under the installation type make sure to check the “MacFUSE Compatibility Layer”. Once done restart the system.
Second install the NTFS 3g. This is the actual software that will be responsible for providing write support to your file.
Finally, install fuse Wait. Since NTFS-3g has not been updated from 2010, you will see an error like this, when the system boots up. So it will remove that.
So basically you download all this 3 software and install them one by one in the same order. It’s recommended you restart your system after every install. And once you’re done, plug in your hard drive and now you can use it both read and write access.
Verdict: The good part is it’s free, safe and stable. Using it for a while, never had any problem. And the bad part is, you have to install three different packages thus making it impractical if you want to try it on your friends computer.
#3 Paragon or Textra (Paid)
It’s similar to NTFS-3g, but you only have to install one software. Also, since this is paid version, bugs are fixed regularly and software is more stable than NTFS-3g.
But this stability do come with a price. Paragon ($19) and Textra ($24) are expensive and comes with a license for a single computer. Though there is a trial version which you can try for free.
Verdict: Me personally, I didn’t try their service as I had no problem with NTFS-3g. However judging from the reviews online, for professional use these are better.
Conclusion
For general use, NTFS-3g is a good solution. NTFS is the most stable file system for windows and with drivers like NTFS-3g you can get it work easily on MAC.
However, if you work with multiple MAC computers then it’s not a good idea to install NTFS-3g on your friends computer. Neither is paying each time or using a terminal. So in such cases, you may want to look towards another file system like exFAT — which is like NTFS but work with both MAC and Windows.
| Developer(s) | Tuxera Inc. |
|---|---|
| Stable release | |
| Written in | C |
| Operating system | Unix-like, Haiku |
| Type | |
| License | Dual-licensed GNU GPL/Proprietary[citation needed] |
| Website | www.tuxera.com/community/open-source-ntfs-3g/ |
NTFS-3G is an open-sourcecross-platform implementation of the Microsoft WindowsNTFS file system with read/write support. NTFS-3G often uses the FUSEfile system interface, so it can run unmodified on many different operating systems. It is runnable on Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenSolaris, illumos, BeOS, QNX, WinCE, Nucleus, VxWorks, Haiku,[1]MorphOS, Minix, macOS[2] and OpenBSD.[3][4] It is licensed under the GNU General Public License. It is a partial fork of ntfsprogs and is under active maintenance and development.
NTFS-3G was introduced by one of the senior Linux NTFS developers, Szabolcs Szakacsits, in July 2006. The first stable version was released on February 21, 2007, as version 1.0. The developers of NTFS-3G later formed a company, Tuxera Inc., to further develop the code. NTFS-3G is now the free 'community edition',[1][failed verification] while Tuxera NTFS is the proprietary version.
Features[edit]
NTFS-3G supports all operations for writing files: files of any size can be created, modified, renamed, moved, or deleted on NTFS partitions. Transparent compression is supported, as well as system-level encryption.[5] Support to modify access control lists and permissions is available.[6] NTFS partitions are mounted using the Filesystem in Userspace (FUSE) interface. NTFS-3G supports hard links, symbolic links, and junctions. With the help of NTFS reparse point plugins, it can be made to read chunk-deduplicated files, system-compressed files, and OneDrive files.[7] NTFS-3G provides complete support and translation of NTFS access control list (ACL) to POSIX ACL permissions. A 'usermap' utility is included to record the mapping from UIDs to Windows NT SIDs.
Driver for seagate free agent goflex mac os. NTFS-3G supports partial NTFS journaling, so if an unexpected computer failure leaves the file system in an inconsistent state, the volume can be repaired. As of 2009, a volume having an unclean journal file is recovered and mounted by default. The ‘norecover’ mount option can be used to disable this behavior.[8]
Performance[edit]
Benchmarks show that the driver's performance via FUSE is comparable to that of other filesystems' drivers in-kernel,[9] provided that the CPU is powerful enough. On embedded or old systems, the high processor usage can severely limit performance. Tuxera sells optimized versions of the driver that claims to have improved CPU utilization for embedded systems and MacOS.[10]
The slowness of NTFS-3G (and FUSE in general) on embedded systems is attributed to the frequent context switching associated with FUSE calls. Some open-source methods provided to reduce this overhead include:[11]
- The underlying FUSE layer has an option called
big_writesto use larger blocks when writing. Using a larger block means fewer context switches. This is in fact a solution recommended by Tuxera.[12] A patch is available to use an even larger block.[13] - There is also a Linux kernel option called
lazytimeto reduce the writes on file access. - Synology Inc. uses a modified NTFS-3G on their NAS systems. It replaces the ntfs-3g inode caching
CACHE_NIDATA_SIZEwith a different mechanism with unsure benefit. (It also includes an alternative Security Identifier translation for the NAS.)
History[edit]
- NTFS-3G forked from the Linux-NTFS project on October 31, 2006.
- On February 21, 2007, Szabolcs Szakacsits announced 'the release of the first open-source, freely available, stable read/write NTFS driver, NTFS-3G 1.0.'
- On October 5, 2009, NTFS-3G for Mac was brought under the auspices of Tuxera Ltd. and a proprietary version called Tuxera NTFS for Mac was made available.[14]
- On April 12, 2011, it was announced that Ntfsprogs project was merged with NTFS-3G.[15]
- NTFS-3g added TRIM support in version 2015.3.14.
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ abc'STABLE Version 2017.3.23 (March 28, 2017)'. Tuxera. Tuxera. 2017-03-23. Retrieved 2017-03-23.
- ^NTFS-3G for Mac OS X ('Catacombae')
- ^'OpenBSD adds fuse(4) support for adding file systems in userland'. OpenBSD Journal. 2013-11-08. Retrieved 2013-11-08.
- ^'ntfs_3g-2014.2.15 – FUSE NTFS driver with read/write support'. OpenBSD ports. 2014-01-05. Retrieved 2015-02-14.
- ^NTFS-3G FAQ
- ^NTFS-3G: NTFS Driver with Ownership and permissions
- ^André, Jean-Pierre (March 1, 2019). 'NTFS-3G: Junction Points, Symbolic Links and Reparse Points'. jp-andre.pagesperso-orange.fr.
- ^'NTFS-3G 2009.2.1 changelog'. Archived from the original on 2009-03-23. Retrieved 2012-09-10.
- ^Comparing NTFS-3G to ZFS-FUSE for FUSE Performance
- ^Performance at Tuxera
- ^Gothe, Markus. 'On Linux NTFS Performance'. Retrieved 3 October 2019.
- ^'NTFS-3G Questions'. Tuxera.
Workaround: using the mount option “big_writes” generally reduces the CPU usage, provided the software requesting the writes supports big blocks.
- ^Wang, M. 'linux - Disadvantages of ntfs-3g `big_writes` mount option'. Unix & Linux Stack Exchange. Retrieved 3 October 2019.
- ^NTFS-3G for Mac OS X is now Tuxera NTFS for Mac
- ^Release: NTFS-3G + NTFSPROGS 2011.4.12
External links[edit]
Ntfs-3g Mac Format