• Mac copying to ntfs disk. How to make Mac friends with the Windows file system

    OS X is great for everyone, until someone brings you an external drive formatted as a file drive. NTFS system. And since everything Windows users, as a rule, format their external drives in NTFS, this will happen sooner or later. This will also happen to those who use both OS X and Windows on the same computer in different sections - when working with an Apple OS, you will encounter this one day.

    OS X can only read volumes formatted in NTFS, but it cannot write data to them. That is, the user has no opportunity to either record a video for someone or edit his own created for Windows documents- absolutely nothing.

    The fact is that when developing a standard driver for NTFS, Apple company I encountered extremely unstable operation of it in data recording mode and decided, out of harm’s way, to disable this function in the system completely, since there is a possibility that something will go wrong and you will lose the files written to the disk (they either disappear completely or are not read correctly ) is very large. IN command line You can enable writing to NTFS volumes, but it’s better to never do this, especially since there are wonderful solutions in which everything works fine.

    We compared three different third-party drivers: Paragon NTFS for Mac, Tuxera and NTFS-3G, using hard Seagate drive 500 GB connected to MacBook Pro(end of 2013) through USB controller 3.0 on Asmedia ASM1051 chip. In the description of utilities we will go from simple to complex.



    The program icon appears in system settings. The number of settings is minimal, you can only automatically check whether there are updates or not, but the driver just works and ensures that files are written at high speed - we got about 50-60 megabytes per second. And, perhaps, speed is the most important advantage of Paragon NTFS for Mac, since modern world on external drives large volumes still store large volumes of files, recording several tens of gigabytes at a time.


    And here the performance of the driver begins to matter, because the difference is not a second or two, but tens of minutes. Anyone who, hurrying somewhere, mentally shouted: “Crawl, crawl!” while the data was being copied, will now understand us.

    Paragon NTFS can also format disks in NTFS, and also make them bootable, so that with this driver the computer can be used to restore the functionality of a Windows PC, or partitions on the hard drive of a PC in which the Microsoft operating system is installed.



    There is also a file system check and repair function that was available by default in previous versions OS X, but with the release of OS X El Capitan “disappeared somewhere.”

    Tuxera is a cross-platform driver for Unix-like operating systems, which includes OS X. The cost of Tuxera NTFS for Mac is $31 (at current exchange rates - 2,124 rubles), there is a free 15-day period during which the program works fully functional.






    The interface is somewhat more complicated, divided into two parts: one in system settings, the other in applications. The functionality is standard: checking and restoring the file system, as well as formatting the disk into different file systems. But it’s better not to touch the settings, because ordinary user It is not clear what they are responsible for. For example, do you need to “store extended attributes in the original format”? Or do you always need to mount partitions after an incorrect eject? And what happens if you answer “no”?


    The driver speed is 25-30 megabytes per second. Interestingly, after installing Tuxera, the reading speed from NTFS media also drops. The developers explain this by caring about stability and reliability.

    NTFS-3G is also a project of Tuxera developers, only free and open source code. That is, Tuxera is actually built on the same core. Problem free version is that you will have to compile and install all the code on the system yourself using console commands and downloading from repositories missing libraries. Management then also takes place using the command line.


    If you’re lucky and the driver works the first time, that’s good, because if you receive an error message during installation, you’ll have to scour a bunch of forums and spend many unforgettable minutes with console commands: during this time you could probably earn enough for several licenses paid software. However, this is always the case with “free” software: it itself is free, and money is earned from technical support.


    Actually, Tuxera takes money for GUI and the possibility of installation by a living person, and not by an android robot: the speed of NTFS-3G is the same as paid version, the same 25-30 MB/sec for writing and the same amount for reading.

    Any user operating system OS X sooner or later faces the need to write something to the drive with file system NTFS. This could be an external drive or a partition with Windows installed along with macOS. The result will be predictable: Apple computers They perfectly read information from these media, but are helpless when it is necessary to write something down. However, this problem is quite simple to solve.

    The NTFS file system was developed by Microsoft for the Windows NT family of operating systems and was supposed to replace the “old lady” FAT. Moreover, the morally and actually outdated file system is still alive today, and OS X works great with it. Difficulties in the operating room Apple systems arise exclusively when encountering NTFS. There are several solutions:

    • use “Terminal” to activate NTFS recording for each individual drive;
    • install a free driver that adds NTFS writing support to OS X;
    • use paid solutions from Tuxera or Paragon.

    In general, all solutions have the right to life and are arranged from the most complex to the simplest. You can actually manually enable write support for each individual NTFS drive. This method is the least practical and will require at least minimal skills in working with the Terminal. For this reason we will omit it.

    Instead, let's look at much more complex and universal solutions, capable of solving our problem once and for all. Let's start with free driver called NTFS-3G. Let's make a reservation right away: it works unstable with latest version OS X - El Capitan. Therefore, you should not expect that support will appear in the fall macOS Sierra. NTFS-3G is suitable for users who use OS X 10.10 or older Apple operating systems.

    You can download the NTFS-3G driver. We also need MacFUSE.

    After downloading everything you need, install MacFUSE, and then NTFS-3G. When installing the latter, you will need to specify the caching method: select No caching. After installation, you need to restart your computer.

    NTFS-3G settings will be available in system settings. It's better not to change anything here. Note that you can uninstall the driver from here. All, NTFS support implemented.

    Now let's look at paid solutions. There are two of them: Tuxera NTFS and Paragon NTFS.

    Tuxera NTFS can be downloaded from the official website of the developer. A trial version is available for 15 days. Price full version is $31. A reboot will be required after installation, and the settings are also available in system parameters. In general, the solution from Tuxera will work immediately after installation and restart of the system, additional settings not required.

    The analogue and main competitor of Tuxera NTFS is Paragon NTFS. This popular driver will cost a little less (990 rubles), but the validity period trial version less by 5 days. You can download Paragon NTFS. The installation process is very simple, do not forget to restart the computer. You can access driver parameters in a similar way, only their number is significantly smaller than that of a competitor. On the other side, to a simple user I don't care about that.

    The most interesting thing awaits at the testing stage: Paragon NTFS turns out to be slightly faster than Tuxera NTFS. In addition, both paid solutions put NTFS-3G on both blades. Thus, choosing a solution for writing to partitions with the NTFS file system should be based on your needs.

    If you work with such drives very rarely, then there is no point in purchasing drivers from Paragon or Tuxera, because the writing speed will probably not be critical.

    If you have to work with NTFS partitions on a regular basis, then you should look away paid solutions. At the same time, Paragon NTFS is cheaper, but has less configuration flexibility. Tuxera NTFS is a little more expensive, but has a large number changeable parameters. In addition, Paragon's solution has more high speed records.

    Not long ago, a couple of articles were published on the blog about enabling the ability to write to partitions in the NTFS file system standard means operating system Mac OS X 10.6 - 10.7. The notes turned out to be extremely popular and in demand by many. Who doesn't remember: for and for. But I did not take into account one nuance: many novice mac users, of course, wanted to activate this “feature”, but in the wrong hands, Terminal + Instructions turned out to be a disastrous mixture for the system NTFS driver. User errors were often of the same type: they executed one of the commands incorrectly or forgot to assign the correct access rights or attributes to modified system files. There were other problems too. For example, some users who had the Paragon NTFS driver version 6 on Snow Leopard and then updated to Lion received a completely non-working system NTFS driver. And neither for reading nor writing. These are, of course, Paragon errors. But who will fix them? Many readers on own experience know how I'm through remote access“shamanized” in their Terminal to restore the consequences of his own articles :) But sometimes I had to solve problems for the Paragon company. Of course, it’s not difficult for me to connect and spend 5-10-15 minutes fixing the NTFS driver. But what to do if a person is from the outback? — The speed of the Internet connection there, to put it mildly, is not very good, and the remote desktop is not a help here. In general, I present to everyone for testing the installation packages I created, which will help solve problems related to NTFS on Mac OS X Lion instead of me.

    So, NTFS Tools... By downloading and mounting the image NTFS Tools for Mac OS X you will be greeted by the following window:

    What does this kit consist of, what is it and what is it for?

    NTFS Enabler. Below the installation package there is a brief description of what it is intended for. I’ll tell you a little more: if you have a “clean” operating system Mac OS X Lion, you did not perform any manipulations with it to activate the “read/write NTFS” mode, then installation of this package activates writing to partitions in the NTFS file system using standard tools of the Mac OS X operating system. I tested the functionality on the operating system Mac system OS X Lion versions 10.7.0 - 10.7.2. With the release of new system updates, packages will be tested and updates will be released if necessary. The installation process of NTFS Enabler is very simple, but I kindly ask you, carefully read what is written in each installer window!

    After launch installation package you will see brief description what this package does. Read carefully and click Continue:
    In the next window I have provided recommendations that it is highly advisable to do. Disconnect or unmount everything external drives and/or system drives (right click on the drive > Extract "Disk Name" Continue:
    The package is supplied as is, meaning I am not responsible for the loss of your information if the driver fails. If you agree to the terms, continue with the installation:
    Almost the final stage. To install, you must grant the installation package system administrator rights, so in the next dialog box, enter the “super-user” password (I guarantee that there are no malicious components in the package). The package will install less than 1 megabyte of information on system partition. Click the button Install
    If at the end the following message appears:
    — Don’t panic :) This message appears when everything necessary components installed, but the NTFS driver was not automatically activated. After rebooting the operating system, the driver will be successfully loaded into memory and will work as expected.

    NTFS Restorer. Below the installation package it is also indicated what this package is intended for, but I would like to tell you a little more about it: if you have already managed to play around with the system and after that received an error mounting NTFS partitions, this package is for you. It will restore the original condition system driver, after which to activate read/write you need to use the package NTFS Enabler. In addition to restoring the original driver, this package allows you to clean the operating system of all traces of the Paragon NTFS driver versions 6 and 9. If you have problems with reading NTFS sections after Mac updates OS X Snow Leopard on Lion and Paragon NTFS was installed on the system, then during the installation process, check the boxes next to the appropriate driver version (you can specify two versions at once) and the installer will first remove all the “snot” after the Paragon NTFS driver, and then install it in system original NTFS driver.

    Same as installing a package NTFS Enabler After running the installation package, you will see a short description of what the package does. Click Continue:
    Disconnect or unmount all external drives and/or system drives ( right click on the drive > Extract "Disk Name") with the NTFS file system. Disconnect the disks, press Continue:
    At this stage, a window describing what will happen in the next step and a warning: the package is supplied as is, that is, I am not responsible for the loss of your information in the event of any failure (although I have never had one). If you agree to the terms, continue with the installation:
    As I already described above, if you have problems mounting NTFS partitions and you have the Paragon NTFS driver installed, then activate the appropriate checkboxes. If you don’t know which version of Paragon NTFS is installed, activate the checkboxes for both versions at the same time. WITH system files nothing will happen, but all traces of Paragon will be completely removed. Set the necessary parameters and click Continue:
    To install, you must grant the installation package system administrator rights, so in the next dialog box, enter the “super-user” password (I again guarantee that there are no malicious components in the package). This package will also install less than 1 megabyte of information on the system partition. Click the button Install to start the installation process:
    Just like when installing the NTFS Enabler package, there is no need to panic when the following warning appears:
    The error appears when all the necessary components are installed, but the NTFS driver is not automatically activated. After rebooting the operating system, the original (standard) driver will be successfully loaded into memory and will work as expected in read-only mode.

    Attention! You do all actions to modify the system at your own peril and risk! A standard NTFS driver can be extremely unstable under uncertain conditions. This can lead to a file system crash and, as a result, data loss. Due to the fact that any NTFS file system solution developed outside of Microsoft is the result of reverse engineering, it is highly discouraged to use the NTFS file system outside of the Windows operating system to store sensitive data. Don't rely on third party solutions, such as Tuxera NTFS, Paragon NTFS or NTFS-3G. Use the NTFS write feature only to exchange files whose loss is not critical, or if you have a backup copy of them.

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