If you're running Snow Leopard, don't bother with various MacFUSE based solutions - NTFS support is built in, but disabled by default. To enable it,. Snow Leopard has the ability to mount NTFS volumes as read/write, but it's not enabled by default - just read only is supported, as in 10.5. Here's how to get full read/write support for NTFS drives in Snow Leopard. First, uninstall NTFS-3G or Paragon if you're using either one. Here's how to get read/write support for NTFS drives in Snow Leopard:.
In Terminal, type diskutil info /Volumes/volumename, where volumename is the name of the NTFS volume. From the output, copy the Volume UUID value to the clipboard. Back up /etc/fstab if you have it; it shouldn't be there in a default install. Type sudo nano /etc/fstab.
In the editor, type UUID=, then paste the UUID number you copied from the clipboard. Type a Space, then type none ntfs rw. The final line should look like this: UUID=123-456-789 none ntfs rw, where 123-456-789 is the UUID you copied in the first step.
You can use LaCie Setup Assistant to format your LaCie hard drive when it is first connected to. Mac OS can read NTFS volumes but cannot natively write to them. A FAT32 partition can reach up to 32GB when formatted on a Windows PC.
Repeat the above steps for any other NTFS drives/partitions you have. Save the file and quit nano (Control-X, Y, Enter), then restart your system. After rebooting, NTFS partitions should natively have read and write support. This works with both 32- and 64-bit kernels.
Support is quite good and fast, and it even recognizes file attributes such as hidden files. My thanks go to Chrysaor, a MacRumors user who brought this to our attention. Alternately, you could use, for a GUI utility to do the same thing.
Your best plan is to format the drive as NTFS, write your files to it. Then connect the drive to the Mac, read all the files and then use the Mac to reformat the drive to 'HFS+ (journaled)' This assumes you never want to use the drive on a PC again. If you need both a PC and a Mac to both be able to write to the drive then you are stuck using FAT.
But FAT does not preserve file ownership and other file attributes. FAT can become corrupted if unplugged at the wrong time, is slow and needs periodic defraggging. It's only use if if you need to use the same drive with both PCs and Macs. Macs can read NTFS but can't write to it. Macs can read and write FAT.
![For use with mac os fat32 or ntfs software For use with mac os fat32 or ntfs software](/uploads/1/2/5/6/125604854/681904081.jpg)
The best file system for the Mac is 'journaled HFS'. Blame Microsoft for all of this. They purposefully used some bogus patented technology inside NTFS just so no one else could write NTFS format.