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General discussion

NTFS for Mac (free?)

by Smolderbox8 Jan 9, 2010 5:19AM PST

(Disclaimer: I am a newbie to these more complex computer issues)
My wife and I just inherited a Seagate External Hard Drive; she uses a Mac and I use a PC. I've been searching web forums for a way to format the HD so we can both use it, and have not found any solutions. It looks like the best solution is to use some sort of "NTFS for Mac" program. I'm hoping you more educated folk can help me out with 2 questions: 1) what sort of NTFS program would you recommend? and 2) I've seen a number of freeware "NTFS for Mac" programs on the web: are these effective and safe? Thanks.

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4 Posts

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What MACOSX?

by r. proffitt Forum moderator Jan 9, 2010 5:35AM PST

You didn't say but the newer versions can deal with NTFS natively.

Tell more.

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Mac OS X 10.5.8.

by Smolderbox8 Jan 9, 2010 9:51AM PST

Mac OS X Version 10.5.8 - we've had the machine for a couple years. Is this new enough? And (here I'm revealing my ignorance) just to be sure: to say that newer Mac operating systems can deal with NTFS "natively" is to say that such a machine wouldn't have a problem syncing with an NTFS formatted external drive, yes?

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No problems.

by r. proffitt Forum moderator Jan 9, 2010 11:26AM PST

http://www.tool-box.info/blog/archives/1193-On-NTFS-readwrite-support-in-Snow-Leopard.html notes the native method. You can also try NTFS-3G as noted at http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/macnifying-os-x-introduction-and-working-with-ntfs-drives/

You won't spend a dime.
Bob

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No problems

by Smolderbox8 Jan 11, 2010 5:06AM PST

Many thanks.

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