MakeUseOf » file system

How To Reformat Your FAT32 Drive To NTFS – And The Advantages Of Doing It

Danny Stieben — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 16:00:08 +0000

You may not know it, but choosing the right filesystem for your drives is actually pretty important. Although the main idea of all filesystems is the same, there are many advantages and disadvantages with each one.

While there are lots of filesystems out there, we’ll be looking at the most popular two, FAT32 and NTFS.

About the Filesystems

FAT32

FAT32 used to be the default filesystem for many of the older, non-NT versions of Windows, such as Windows 95, 98, and ME. The original FAT specification was introduced in 1980, while the compatible FAT32 specification was introduced in 1996. More recently, an incompatible exFAT specification has been introduced that is meant to replace the use of the old FAT.

NTFS

Meanwhile, NTFS (or “New Technology File System”) was introduced in 1993, but has received many improvements over the years along with newer operating systems. While it is not used for removable storage (where FAT-type filesystems are prevalent), it is the best choice for hard drives because of the many features that it offers. The only reason NTFS is not used on removable storage is because it generates a lot of write operations to keep track of. Removing the storage device before those writes complete could potentially corrupt the data on the storage device.

NTFS Advantages Over FAT32

So what is it exactly that makes NTFS better? Unlike FAT32, NTFS is a journaling filesystem. The “journal” keeps track of changes before they actually happen, so in case the system crashes in the middle of a disc operation, disks with journaling filesystems are easier to recover.

NTFS also includes improved support for metadata; it uses advanced data structures to improve performance, reliability, and disk space utilization, and includes security access control lists.

NTFS is also capable of holding files larger than 4GB, and larger partitions can be created with NTFS instead of FAT32. FAT32 is relatively simple, and doesn’t do much for the user except hold files and some metadata. Any other differences between the two are highly technical and I won’t mention them here.

How to Reformat your Hard Drive

So how can you reformat a hard drive to NTFS? There are three different ways you can do this.

First, you can go into Computer/My Computer, right click on the drive you want to reformat (make sure your data is backed up somewhere else), and click on Format. Change whatever settings you would like as long as you have NTFS selected as the filesystem, and hit Format.

You can also right click on Computer/My Computer and click on Manage. Then, in the open window, click on Disk Management under Storage in the left pane, and wait for the service to load. From here, you can shrink, grow, delete, and reformat your partitions as you wish. Just remember to choose NTFS when you do.

Finally, you can use a third party software to do the partitioning. Often, you’ll need to burn them onto a CD if you don’t have it in CD form already, and boot off of it. From there you’ll have a lot of partitioning options to choose from. If you need one, let me suggest GParted‘s LiveCD.

Conclusion

Choosing the right filesystem is important not only for optimal functionality but also performance and piece of mind. With NTFS, you’re making a great choice for permanent storage devices that should let you use your computer to the fullest. In addition to the benefits of NTFS, many various operating systems including Mac OS X and Linux can work with NTFS, so why not use it?

Which filesystem do you prefer the most? Why? Let us know in the comments!

Elyse – Keep Your Filesystem More Organized By Tagging Everything [Mac & Windows]

Angela Alcorn — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 19:31:17 +0000

Once you’ve played around with tags for a while, you’ll really begin to wonder why user data in file systems isn’t organised by tag. For the bulk of the file system, folders make sense, but for user data it can quickly become a nightmare of aliases and folders which don’t actually contain what you’re looking for.

Mac’s Spotlight can help you to find what you’re after eventually, but for those of us who actually try to stay organised, we’re keen to make it simple to find exactly what we need when we need it. Elyse is able to help here, by providing a free tag-based file management solution for Mac and Windows.

Why Tag Files?

If you’re not already on the file system tag bandwagon, think about things we habitually tag online. Photos, blog posts and music genres are all generally tagged online rather than placed in folders. Can you imagine sites like Last.fm placing all classical music in a folder called “Classical” rather than tagging with other useful genres such as “Choral” or “Baroque“? Things would get out of hand pretty quickly and it would be very difficult to be able to find the exact music you wanted to listen to.

It’s the same with your file system. On sites like Flickr you can tag your photos with the city you were in, some detail of the subject of the photo and many other things you find useful. On a regular file system you’re stuck using folders, so most people wind up with photos arranged by date taken as it’s one of the only ways the photos will ever be found again. If only you could tag all those photos…

However, it’s not just photos. What about essays? Letters? Spreadsheets? Once you start thinking about it, tags make much more sense than folders and will go a long way toward improving filesystem organization.

Get Elyse

Download a free copy of Elyse for Mac or Windows. We’ll be taking a closer look at the Mac version in particular. Installation for Mac is straight-forward – all you do is open the .dmg download and drag the application to your applications folder.

The first thing you’re faced with is the need to create a default database. Once “Create Default Database” is clicked, you’ll be presented with a beginner guide to Elyse and instructions to create a fresh database to start your file tagging.

Add & Tag Files

Adding your files is easy – all you do is drag and drop the files you want to tag into Elyse. Elyse then automatically creates tags based on your folder names, so you’re halfway organised already!

Add new tags by clicking on the “New Tag” button in the menu. New tags can be dragged and dropped throughout the tag tree as you wish. You can also rearrange these tags and hierarchies without disrupting the original location of the file on your filesystem.

Alternatives

Mac users can also use Quicksilver to tag files, while Windows 7 users can tag photos and office documents natively. However, Elyse is a solution which will allow you to tag any files you like and keep track of things in one place. There’s also a few other tools you could try, such as Tagged Frog for Windows or Tag It for Mac.

Does file system tagging work for you? Do you use Elyse or some other program? Let us know in the comments!

What A File System Is & How You Can Find Out What Runs On Your Drives

Tina Sieber — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 23:31:25 +0000

When you format a hard drive or a flash drive, you prepare it for its use as a storage medium by an operating system. During this process a file system is set up and all information previously stored on the drive is removed.

You may have heard of computer file systems like FAT or NTFS before, but do you actually know what they do and which ones you are using? This article explains how they work and what their differences are. I also show you how to find out which file systems run on your drives.

What Is A Computer File System?

Hard drives are divided into sectors of about 512 bytes each. Sectors in turn are grouped into clusters. Clusters, also known as allocation units, have a defined size of 512 bytes to 64 kilobytes, so they usually contain multiple sectors. A cluster represents a continuous block of space on the disk.

Operating systems rely on a file system to organize the clustered storage space. The file system maintains a database that records the status of each cluster. In essence, the file system shows the operating system in which cluster(s) a file is stored and where space is available to store new data.

Which File Systems Should I Know Of?

The prevalent Windows file systems are FAT (File Allocation Table), FAT32, and NTFS (New Technology File System).

Briefly, NTFS supports a file size of more than 4 GB, partitions can be larger than 32 GB, it better manages available space than FAT or FAT32 and thus causes less fragmentation, and it comes with a number of security-related features including on-the-fly file encryption.

Compared to NTFS, FAT file systems take up less space, they perform less write operations to the drive which makes them faster and a better fit for small flash drives, and they are cross-platform compatible. The biggest drawbacks of FAT and FAT32 are a partition size limit of 32 GB and a file size limited to 2GB or 4 GB, respectively.

A new file system predominantly used for flash drives is exFAT (Extended File Allocation Table), also known as FAT64. Like NTFS it supports files larger than 4 GB, partitions larger than 32 GB, and its file management avoids fragmentation. At the same time it is fast and optimized for mobile personal storage and handling media files.

Which Operating Systems Can Handle These File Systems?

While FAT and FAT32 are recognized by almost all operating systems, formatting a drive with NTFS used to be a sure way to make the device unusable outside Windows. Meanwhile, NTFS read/write is supported natively by most Linux distributions. A hack is available to enable NTFS read/write on the Mac OS X version 10.6, however, it appears to be unstable, hence the use of MacFuse is recommended. exFAT on the other hand requires drivers for both Windows XP and Linux, while it is supported in the latest versions of Windows Vista (SP1), Windows 7, and Mac OS X.

Why Is Cluster Size Important?

If you have ever formatted a drive, you will know that you can choose the allocation unit size, also known as cluster size.

Depending on the cluster size (from 512 bytes to 64 kilobytes) a single file can be stored in one or across hundreds or thousands of clusters. When a file is smaller than the actual cluster size, the remaining space is lost, a phenomenon known as wasted or slack space. Thus a large cluster size will lead to a lot of slack space, if lots of small files are stored on that drive. Choosing a small cluster size on the other hand means that large files are split up into many small pieces. This in turn can slow down the drive as it takes longer to read the respective file. In other words, choose the cluster size wisely.

How Can I Find Out How My Drive Is Formatted?

The file system is listed in the drive properties. Go to > Computer, right-click on the drive you wish to examine, and select > Properties from the menu. The > General tab shows the > File system.

To find the cluster size of a NTFS drive, use the keyboard shortcut > [WINDOWS] + [R] and the Run window will open. Be sure you run the task with administrator rights. Type > cmd into the text line and click > OK. Then run the command > fsutil fsinfo ntfsinfo [drive letter] and hit > Enter.

In Windows XP and Windows 7 you can also view and change the cluster size using third party applications, such as Easeus Partition Master.

If you enjoyed this article, you might also be interested in these:

Which file system do you prefer on your storage devices and why? Did you ever run into trouble using NTFS and how were you able to fix it?

Image credits: ionuticlanzan, iQoncept

How To Fix A Corrupted Windows NTFS Filesystem With Ubuntu

Tim Brookes — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 23:31:25 +0000

How many of you have had that sinking feeling as your PC boots up? You know, a slight niggle in the back of your mind that says “this is taking longer than usual” before Windows drops dead in front of you, and refuses to play ball.

Me too, and much of the time the original Windows CD/DVD/USB you used in your original install can’t fix the problem. You need something else. Something like a whole operating system, either installed on a separate partition or in Live CD/USB format. Enter Ubuntu!

There’s a good few reasons to have Ubuntu on a CD or USB stick somewhere in a draw. It’s free, to start with. You don’t need to install it to use it, and it’s great for accessing a butchered Windows partition ““ even if it’s just to get your precious documents back before a format.

When it comes to fixing your broken Windows install then Ubuntu has its uses there too. If you happen to break your registry or master boot record, then fear not ““ all is not lost. This technique should work on any Ubuntu-based Linux distributions.

Download, Install & Boot Ubuntu

Those of you who already have a dual-boot Ubuntu and Windows machine can skip this step.

If you’ve not got a Live USB stick then you’re going to need to get hold of one. UNetbootin is a useful tool which enables you to create a USB stick with a bootable version of your favourite open source operating system preloaded. If you’d prefer to use a CD, download an Ubuntu disk image and burn it with ImgBurn.

If you’re dual-booting, then this is a simple step of choosing Ubuntu over Windows at boot. For Live USB sticks and CDs you’re going to need to enter the BIOS setup as your PC boots (usually by pressing F2 or Del) and arrange your boot devices to prioritize your USB device or CD drive to boot before your main hard drive.

If you’ve done everything correctly you’ll see the UNetbootin bootloader appear. From here you’ll want to boot directly into the operating system. After a minute or two you’ll see the desktop appear, and we’re ready to begin.

Fixing A Corrupted Windows NTFS Partition

Luckily you can schedule an NTFS consistency check within Ubuntu to attempt to repair your tattered Windows partition, but you’re going to need to install a couple of things. It is worth mentioning that this should work with any NTFS drive that refuses to mount in Ubuntu too. Open a Terminal window by clicking Applications, Accessories and then Terminal.

First install NTFS-3G by typing this command:

sudo apt-get install ntfs-3g

Enter your password and hit Enter on your keyboard. Next install NTFSProgs in the same way:

sudo apt-get install ntfsprogs

Now with both of those tools at your disposal, you can set about fixing Windows. First locate your Windows partition. In the Terminal type:

sudo fdisk -l

You’re looking for an entry that looks like this:

/dev/sda2   *         638       12312    93773824    7  HPFS/NTFS

The important bit is the /dev/sda2 which tells us where the Windows partition is mounted. HPFS/NTFS lets us know that the partition is a Microsoft Windows formatted device, and that little star denotes that this is a bootable partition.

So in my case /dev/sda2 means that Windows is on sda (my internal hard drive) and that it’s partition 2 that I want to play around with.

Armed with this information you want to use NTFSProgs to attempt to fix the partition. In your Terminal window type:

sudo ntfsfix /dev/

Replace with your Windows partition (e.g. /dev/sda2) and enter your password followed by Enter. Your drive will now be mounted, checked for consistency and any errors found should be fixed. Restart your PC to assess the situation, if all goes well you’ll see Windows.

Fixing A Corrupt Master Boot Record

If you’ve got a problem with Windows’ oh-so-important boot record then you can also fix that from within Ubuntu too. Assuming you’ve already booted into Ubuntu, open up Terminal and install lilo by typing:

sudo apt-get install lilo

Enter your password to proceed with the installation, you’ll get a few warnings pop-up along the way.
If you followed the first part of this tutorial you’ll know which partition Windows is installed on, if you missed it type:

sudo fdisk -l

Find the HPFS/NTFS partition that relates to your Windows install, and type:

sudo lilo -M /dev/ mbr

Replace with your Windows partition (e.g. /dev/sda2) and hit Enter. Ubuntu will attempt to restore your master boot record. You’ll probably want to restart your machine now, just make sure you take any Live CD/USB devices out as you do.

Conclusion

If you’re still having problems with a Windows install, and you’ve tried everything then don’t forget you can mount the partition and rescue as much data as you think you’ll need. Using the terminal, enter:

sudo mkdir /media/windows

sudo ntfs-3g -o force,rw /dev/ /media/windows

Replace with your Windows partition location and the drive should pop-up on your desktop.

Has Ubuntu saved your bacon recently? Do you dual-boot with Windows? Thinking about making a Live CD just in case? Let us know below.

TotalFinder – A Finder Alternative With Some Cool Extras [Mac]

Jeffry Thurana — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 16:31:06 +0000

Ask any Mac user to make a list of applications that opens the most on their machine and you’ll definitely see Finder there.

Then someone would say that it’s unfair to allow Finder to be on the list because Mac users don’t even have a choice. Finder always starts automatically with Mac OS X, and there’s no way to close it.

I think that’s not a valid statement. Most users wouldn’t want to close Finder even if they can (And FYI, you can close Finder as long as you know the Secret). That’s because Finder is one of the most useful applications on the Mac. You do your daily copy, move, launch and other kinds of file management there.

So it’s a bit strange that if you compare it with other native Mac apps, Finder seems to get less attention. It gets small tweaks here and there over time, but in general it’s still the same old Finder that we know and love from back then. At least, that’s the way it appears to our non-techie eyes.

Not For The Faint Of Heart

The state of Finder as it is today might be fine for most users, but I know many power users who wish to be able to do more with Finder. That’s why there are Mac finder alternatives out there.

One of the alternatives is TotalFinder. This SIMBL plugin will bring your Finder to a new level. If you are truly a power user, I think you would want to try out this app.

However, there are a few things that should be noted up front about this Mac finder alternative:

TotalFinder is Snow Leopard only. This is due to the fact that SIMBL plugins like Afloat and SizeWell only work for Cocoa applications and unlike its previous Carbon version, Snow Leopard’s Finder has been re-written in Cocoa.
It is also still in the early Alpha stage. Trying it means preparing yourself for bugs and crashes. You should back up often (that’s why it’s not for the faint of heart).
This app will stop being a free app after it goes out of Alpha.

So why bother trying? Why recommend this app despite the disadvantages? I’ll tell you why.

It’s For The Fun Of It

There are several cool things that make this so-called still-buggy app worth a look. But before we get to that point, let’s start from the very beginning, shall we?

The installer comes with many words of warnings: about the free Alpha period, about SIMBL, and about the need to finish all Finder activities before proceeding. Click continue only if you are ready.

Please also note that there’s an uninstaller inside the disk image, should you need it.

After the installation, Finder will be restarted and you’ll quickly notice two different changes: a new icon of Finder (wearing shades), and… the tabs! Yes Sir! Your Finder can do tabs now. Can you guess what the tabs appearance is similar to?

However, the slider which usually sits at the bottom right of the Finder window in icon view mode is missing. So you can’t adjust the icon size.

You will also notice the TotalFinder icon in the menubar. Clicking on it will bring out the information about the expiration date, and also the Preferences – the place where you can adjust the app’s behavior.

There are four tabs there:

Visor: Gives you the ability to assign shortcuts to summon (or hide) Finder from within any application, and whether to stick Finder to a specific Space or make it available to all Spaces.
.DS_Store: If you move your data around a lot between Mac and Windows, you must be familiar with .DS_Store files. These useful clutters are everywhere, but visible only if we view the storage under a Windows machine. This tab gives you the ability to control the behavior of .DS_Store files.
Tweaks: You can choose whether you want to show hidden files or not from here. There’s also the option to put Folders always on top.
Purchase: This is where you can update TotalFinder to the next version (or make the purchase when it’s not free anymore).

The Conclusion Is….

TotalFinder might still be in Alpha, but I’ve survived the first few days of normal usage without crashes. Lucky me.

Personally, I think the coolest feature of TotalFinder is the Tab, and that feature alone should earn this little app a little bit of your time.

But is it worth whatever money that the developer will charge in the future? I honestly don’t know. All I know is that at this moment TotalFinder is still a free Mac finder alternative and I’m making use of that.

But I do hope that the developer would consider at least providing a free version (with less features, maybe?) of this app in the future so that more users could experience how great Finder could be.

How about you? Would you try TotalFinder? Do you know other alternatives to Finder? Please share using the comments below.

How to Work with Linux Partitions from Windows

Blake Elias — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 23:02:54 +0000

Do you dual-boot Windows and Linux? If you do, then you’re probably familiar with the different file systems that the two operating systems use and the difficulty in transferring files between the two. While most modern Linux operating systems can read and write to Windows file systems (NTFS and FAT/FAT32), Windows can’t read or write to Linux file systems (Ext2 and Ext3).

Sure, if you need to access your files from both operating systems you could just save everything to a Windows-readable partition. But even when I tried doing that, I found there would be the occasional file I quickly saved to the desktop and forgot to transfer. Whatever the reason, there’s always some time when you may need files on your Linux file system, but don’t want to take the time to reboot into Linux just to get to the file.

So, How You Can Access and Work on Linux Partitions In Windows

Ext2 IFS solves that problem. Unlike other programs which merely create their own Explorer-type interface to work with Linux partitions, this program seamlessly integrates your Linux drives, making them behave like any native Windows file system type which any program can access. It adds an additional driver for mounting Ext2 file systems (and Ext3 since it’s backwards compatible, although it won’t take advantage of Ext3′s journaling ability).

From the Ext2 IFS homepage,

It installs a pure kernel mode file system driver Ext2fs.sys, which actually extends the Windows NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista operating system to include the Ext2 file system. Since it is executed on the same software layer at the Windows NT operating system core like all of the native file system drivers of Windows (for instance NTFS, FASTFAT, or CDFS for Joliet/ISO CD-ROMs), all applications can access directly to Ext2 volumes. Ext2 volumes get drive letters (for instance O:). Files, and directories of an Ext2 volume appear in file dialogs of all applications. There is no need to copy files from or to Ext2 volumes in order to work with them.

What do you think of this program? Do you use something similar (or better)? Share it in the comments.

(By) Blake Elias is a computer addict, constantly learning about new technologies and figuring out ways to do things better. He writes about his thoughts and activities regarding Linux, Google, useful programs, web development and computers in general on his personal blog, The New Geek.

Visualize your Hard Drive Usage with WinDirStat

Jimmy Rogers — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 21:17:56 +0000

Have you noticed your hard drive has been slowly filling up? If you’ve had your machine for a while, a lot of extra “stuff” can build up over time. Whether it’s temporary files from your browser, old music files in your iTunes library, or something else, it can be tricky to hunt down and delete junk files.

Fortunately, this is help for your bogged-down drive. WinDirStat, one of the least appealingly named pieces of freeware out there, is also one of the most useful. The program rapidly indexes your entire hard drive, creates a visual map of every file, and helps you delete the stuff you don’t need.

Once you start up WinDirStat and select the drive you want to search (you can also select “all drives”), the indexing process begins. Depending on how large your drive is and how much data you have, this CAN be a lengthy process, but compared to some other indexing programs, WinDirStat does a remarkably efficient job. The folders are then organize in a standard drill-down interface. Each one has an indicator of how large it is and how much of its parent (or “higher level”) folder it takes up. This interface alone is enough to make the software worth the download.

Beyond the complex file manager, the most noticeable feature of WinDirStat is their visualization system. Check out my “C” drive’s image below:

You’ll immediately notice there are a number of colors and most of the blocks are different sizes. This is because WinDirStat marks every type of file (determined by file extension) with a unique color. The larger the file, the larger the block. Also, each visible section is part of the same folder. The column on the right, for instance, is the system folder and contains two giant, blue pagefiles (one is the regular pagefile and the other is the hibernation file).

Navigating around the image is fairly intuitive once you understand how it’s laid out. Left clicking snaps the file manager to the file or folder in question. Right clicking on any section brings up a contextual menu including the ability to zoom in as well as the ability to select the parent folder.

At the top of the screen there are several toolbar options:

From left to right they are:

Open – for selecting a drive to index
Refresh – this can repopulate the map with new changes
Open Item – opens the selected item
Copy Path – a very useful tool to copy the path (address within the computer) of a file or folder
Explorer – opens the selection in Windows Explorer
Command Prompt – opens a command prompt window (pretty handy)
Refresh Selected – repopulates the map of the selection with any new changes
Delete to Recycle Bin – equivalent to hitting the delete key in Windows Explorer
Delete (instant) – immediately deletes the selection, bypassing the Recycle Bin
Properties – Shows the properties of the selection
Zoom In/Out – Enables zooming around the graphic interface (this will highlight the enlarged area in the file manager
Help – opens WinDirStat help

There are more options in WinDirStat, but these particular ones are those that I have found most useful in cleaning out undesirable files. One thing to keep in mind is that while WinDirStat may allow you to access any file on your computer, be careful what you delete. Some of the files will be large and have names you are not familiar with. Deleting them directly might cause irreparable damage to your PC. I suggest Googling anything you aren’t sure about before you delete it.
[rating=4]

If you’ve used WinDirStat, what are some things you use it for? Personally, I use it to quickly navigate my iTunes library because old podcasts sometimes get hung up in the labyrinthic file system it uses.

(By) Jimmy Rogers is a biology major at George Mason University and an avid freelance tech blogger. Check out his blog, Mason Tech Beat.

Macnifying OS X: Introduction and working with NTFS Drives

Jackson Chung — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 18:02:18 +0000

Make Use Of’s Mac section has been growing steadily over the past couple of months and we’ve published a lot of articles about random topics i.e. productivity, music, plugins, etc. So I’ve decided to start a biweekly column dedicated to people who have just started using Macs, a.k.a “Switchers”, focusing on the issues they might face with the operating system during the early transition periods.

Hopefully this will ensure that your switch to Mac is a smooth process with minimal hiccups. So without further adieu, here is the first Make Use Of “Macnifying OS X” column.

NTFS Blues

When I first started using my Mac, the first problem I faced was NTFS drive compatibility issues. Macs run on a different file system called Hierarchical File System (HFS). Windows, on the other hand runs on a NT File System (NTFS). Because of this discrepancy, Macs can only read NTFS-formatted drives and are unable to write on them. This brought up a lot of fussing about when my friends had their portable hard disks over to copy stuff from my Mac, only to find that I can’t write (copy) files on it. They would throw up some unfriendly comments about Macs while I frantically looked for a spare USB thumb drive.

You would expect Apple to plug this miniscule problem by adding NTFS-write compatibility; that was what everyone hoped from OS X Leopard before it was launched. But they didn’t. This is one of Apple’s quirks. They seldom do what you’d expect them to.

Luckily, there were several groups of developers who got together and solved our simple but common problem. I’m going to write about two methods of solving it: one is free and the other isn’t.

How to write on NTFS drives with Mac (the free solution)

If you’ve ever done a search on Google on “How to write on NTFS with Mac”, you’d definitely come across NTFS-3G. NTFS-3G is a driver that is used with MacFUSE in order to create a fully-functional NT file system within OS X. Actually, NTFS-3G works on many other platforms as well but we shall focus on Mac for now.

NTFS-3G is an ongoing effort and its latest update was July 12 so that’s pretty recent. There are 2 versions of the driver:

I’ve tried using both and I can honestly tell you that the non-UBLIO one is truly, dreadfully slow. Also note that I’ve had some problems recognizing some particular unknown brands of hard disk enclosures. More reliable external hard disks like Maxtor and Western Digital read and write with no issues.

Installation is not very difficult. The first thing you need to do is install MacFUSE — get the latest version here (be aware that there are different versions for Tiger and Leopard). Then you’ll be asked to reboot your system. The next step would be to install NTFS-3G, reboot and you’re all set!

The paid solution

Although paying for software just in order to read and write on NTFS may sound grim, this piece of software might very well be worth your money. Paragon NTFS for Mac was very easy to install and use. It managed to detect and write to every NTFS-formatted hard disk I threw at it. If you would rather do away with the hassle of setting up MacFUSE and NTFS-3G, this is the next best thing. However, it comes with a price and $39.95 is hefty but arguably worth it. If you’re not convinced, try it for 10 days and see how it goes. You might find yourself missing it after that trial period is over.

The other solutions

If you still have external hard disks which you need to use back and forth between Windows and Mac systems, maybe you could consider formatting them in FAT32 instead. Macs write on FAT partitions just fine.

Another option is to install virtualization software which will enable you to run Windows on your Mac but you would have to deal with the reduced transfer speeds as the data passes through the USB interface into the virtualization program and back onto your Mac.

To sum up, NTFS-3G coupled with MacFUSE is a great and free way to write on NTFS-formatted hard disks. Paragon NTFS does the same thing, is more convenient but comes with a $40 price tag. These tools will help bring about the sorely-needed NTFS-write capability to your Mac.

(By) Jackson Chung is a full-time medical student attempting to perform a juggling act with relationship, studies and his future.