Windows NT filesystem formatted disk???

barrowman · #1 November 29th, 2005, 10:32 AM

Hi

I've recently been given a Windows NT filesystem disk that does not allow me to write to it, only read? What can I do? Why is this the case? I always thought OSX was the best OS for being able to work with all formats.

Is there anyway around this?

bobw · #2 November 29th, 2005, 11:08 AM

OS X will only read NTFS, won't write to it. Format it in Fat then you will be able to write to it.

nixgeek · #3 November 29th, 2005, 11:14 AM

As bobw mentioned, this is the case with OS X, but not just OS X. Any other operating system that's not Windows NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista will not be able to write to an NTFS formatted diskette or hard drive. FAT or FAT32 would be your best bet for cross-platform compatibility.

barrowman · #4 November 29th, 2005, 12:30 PM

Thanks for the information.

jh2112 · #5 November 29th, 2005, 01:48 PM

However, Fat32 does have a 4gb file size limit, so if you are transfering large files there isn't a viable solution for cross platform use.

nixgeek · #6 November 29th, 2005, 01:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jh2112

However, Fat32 does have a 4gb file size limit, so if you are transfering large files there isn't a viable solution for cross platform use.

That is true, but there isn't any other solution other than to just use HFS+, but that rules out Windows machines (Linux can read HFS/HFS+ partitions with the appropriate module loaded).

dmetzcher · #7 November 29th, 2005, 02:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bobw

OS X will only read NTFS, won't write to it. Format it in Fat then you will be able to write to it.

When you say that it will not write to NTFS, this does not include NTFS volumes that are on a Windows PC on my network, right? I can get to shared folders on my Windows PC, and I read and write files to those folders all the time. In fact, I use one of the shares specifically to store backup disk images created on my Mac.

nixgeek · #8 November 29th, 2005, 02:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dmetzcher

When you say that it will not write to NTFS, this does not include NTFS volumes that are on a Windows PC on my network, right? I can get to shared folders on my Windows PC, and I read and write files to those folders all the time. In fact, I use one of the shares specifically to store backup disk images created on my Mac.

When you access a share, it's being accessed through SMB (through the use of Samba on the Mac), and that doesn't necessarily care about the filesystem type. This is the only workaround I know, but of course it requires a network which is no good when you are just dealing with volumes and not network shares.