OSX Lion and NTFS

[Dark_Blu]

Take note, OSX Lion doesn't like NTFS on external drives.

This wasn't an issue for Snow Leopard. When I upgraded to Lion, I could see my external drive that was previously used with a Windows Laptop and formatted to NTFS but could not right to it. Since I'm clearly the owner of the drive, I couldn't understand why, when I click "Get Info", permissions were greyed out. I found by searching forums online that many people had this problem. The only solution that seemed to work for anyone was to reformat the drive to Fat32, thereby erasing the data on it. Luckily, I had already copied the data to my Macbook and didn't lose anything. After reformatting to FAT 32, I was able to read and right to the external drive.

It's entirely possible that this problem only happens with older external drives like my 80GB and wouldn't happen with newer drives. I'll test that out when I come back from vacation next week and post the results of that test here.

 

[Rene Ritchie]

I've never had much NTFS support in OS X, always had to use something like Tuxera NTFS.

 

[GibMcFragger]

Ah crap! Really? I just ordered an i7 iMac to make the switch from windows and all my files/music/movies are on an ntfs external USB drive that I used with Windows. Will the iMac not read it? It's the only copy I have of most of the files so I need to be able to at least copy it all off onto a Mac formatted drive.


Beamed over the interwebz from my iPhone 4S using Siri.

 

[bonesb]

No NTFS support in Lion. Tuxera works OK, I prefer Paragon's NTFS for Mac - $20, with a try and buy option. Paragon's always been current with their drivers, and NTFS for Mac is current for Lion.

 

[GibMcFragger]

I just got my iMac last night and it reads/copies NTFS off my backup drive fine. There is just no write support. That's fine as I am just moving everything to a new backup drive anyways.


Beamed over the interwebz from my iPhone 4S using Siri.

 

[Fausty82]

It also depends on how the drive is connected. If you can run it through a router (Airport Extreme or TimeCapsule) with a USB connector, the network protocols will handle the access and it won't be a problem. If it's a direct USB connection between the Mac and the drive, then, yes, it will be a problem.

 

[BradM73]

Back off everything onto a non-NTFS drive, then reformat it using the Mac after the drive is clean. Simple enough.