Can OS X read NTFS disks?

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Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
Hi guys. Still waiting for the updated PowerMac line so I can switch to the Mac platform. My question is this: I have a lot of video stored on a firewire hard drive (formatted as NTFS) as DVD quality MPEG2 and I would like to know if there is a software solution or workaround for getting the video off the disk and onto a Mac hard drive for editing and burning to DVD. Thanks in advance.

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  • Reply 1 of 9
    dstranathandstranathan Posts: 1,717member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by JohnnyBravo

    Hi guys. Still waiting for the updated PowerMac line so I can switch to the Mac platform. My question is this: I have a lot of video stored on a firewire hard drive (formatted as NTFS) as DVD quality MPEG2 and I would like to know if there is a software solution or workaround for getting the video off the disk and onto a Mac hard drive for editing and burning to DVD. Thanks in advance.



    No. I dont think so. NFS, HSF, HSF+, UDF.
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  • Reply 2 of 9
    alcimedesalcimedes Posts: 5,486member
    no, it cannot.



    some folks were looking into making software that would allow it, but it never went anywhere.
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  • Reply 3 of 9
    netromacnetromac Posts: 863member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by dstranathan

    No. I dont think so. NFS, HSF, HSF+, UDF.



    And FAT / FAT32.
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  • Reply 4 of 9
    chuckerchucker Posts: 5,089member
    [wohba:~] chucker% mount

    mount mount_devfs mount_msdos mount_udf

    mount_afp mount_fdesc mount_nfs mount_volfs

    mount_cd9660 mount_ftp mount_smbfs mount_webdav

    mount_cddafs mount_hfs mount_synthfs mountd





    That's devfs (for devices in the way UNIX handles them), FAT 12 / 16 / 32, UDF (for CD-RW, DVD, etc.), AFP (AppleShare mounting), fdesc (no idea), NFS (UNIX share mounting), volfs (dunno either), ISO 9660 / Joliet, FTP, SMB (Windows share mounting), WebDAV, CD-DA (audio CDs), HFS / HFS+ and synthfs (?).



    No NTFS, for a simple reason: Microsoft didn't publish any NTFS specs, and reverse-engineered NTFS drivers (sysinternals has one for Windows 9x) aren't free.
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  • Reply 5 of 9
    gargoylegargoyle Posts: 660member
    Are you guys sure?



    I can install linux and mount my ntfs partition READ-ONLY (mount /dev/hda1 /windows). This means that the filing system specs are there in my linux install somewhere!
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  • Reply 6 of 9
    pesipesi Posts: 424member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Gargoyle

    Are you guys sure?



    I can install linux and mount my ntfs partition READ-ONLY (mount /dev/hda1 /windows). This means that the filing system specs are there in my linux install somewhere!




    there is limited NTFS support in some linux distros. it is read-only, and still very much a hack.



    http://linux-ntfs.sourceforge.net/
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  • Reply 7 of 9
    tulkastulkas Posts: 3,757member
    From Apple's website:

    Warning: NTFS formatted drives cannot be used in a Macintosh. If you attempt to use a NTFS formatted disk, upon starting up the Mac OS will prompt you to format the drive. Do not format the drive, doing so will erase the contents of the drive. If you have an NTFS formatted disk, you must use another method to transfer the data from the PC to the Macintosh.



    I know it would be a bitch, but I think your only solution is going to be to hook your PC up to you Mac and copy the whole drive over. If you want to use the drive then between Mac and PC or just on Mac, then reformat the whole thing as a compatible fs, like fat32.
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  • Reply 8 of 9
    Thanks for the info. I had hoped there would be an easy way out. Oh well, another reason Windows sucks...
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  • Reply 9 of 9
    chuckerchucker Posts: 5,089member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by JohnnyBravo

    Thanks for the info. I had hoped there would be an easy way out. Oh well, another reason Windows sucks...



    Well, what you can do is connect your FireWire drive to the PC, then connect the Mac to the PC, then boot the Mac in FireWire Target disk mode (hold down 'T' during bootup) and then copy from one to the other. Or transfer using SMB. Or...
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