This tutorial goes out to all those too lazy to reformat that NTFS external drive, or for those dualbooting OSX and Windows.
The key to this tutorial is MacFUSE, a FUSE file system ‘enabler’ for OSX. It was released a while ago, and is now in version 0.4.0.
Let’s jump into this.

  1. Download the Tutorial Ninjas MacFUSE Pack (includes NTFS3g, a required component to make NTFS RW possible
  2. Install the packages, MacFUSE Core first, then install NTFS3g.
  3. Plug in your external HD (if you have one)
  4. Open Disk Utility
  5. Click the partition you want to mount with read/write capabilities and unmount it if it is mounted by clicking the button up top.
  6. Click info up top and look for Disk Identifier. It should be something like disk0s* if it is a partition on your mac or disk1s* if it is an external. Write this down somewhere.
  7. Open the Terminal
  8. Enter the following (copy and paste) “sudo ln -s /System/Library/Filesystems/fusefs.fs/mount_fusefs /usr/bin/mount_fusefs”
    The ln utility creates a new directory entry (linked file) which has the same modes as the original file. (man)
  9. Enter “mkdir /Volumes/<name you want of volume>” This creates the directory where you can find your files.
  10. Enter “sudo /usr/local/bin/ntfs-3g /dev/<diskID> /Volumes/”<volume>” -o ping_diskarb,volname=”<volume>”” If this gives you problems, add “,force” right after <volname> to make it go. I had to do this.

If you had troubles with this, type ntfsfix /dev/<diskID> to repair the disk.

–Corbin
Credit: lots of material from Lifehack.org and ShadowOfGed

23 Responses to “NTFS Read/Write on a Mac!”
  1. University Update - Macintosh - NTFS Read/Write on a Mac! says:

    [...] Link to Article macintosh NTFS Read/Write on a Mac! » Posted at Tutorial Ninjas on Sunday, [...]

  2. Reza says:

    I did it! ! thank you ninjas for that package u already have that makes life easy!
    it didn’t work for me first time, but second time it worked GREAT =) i have no idea what i did wrong first time or what I did right this time…so for me it was a matter of luck..for those of u that get the error mac_fuse required… check out
    http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?s=4b6384c8555e3e20b050a08d43ab9f5c&showtopic=38394&st=40&p=278080&#entry278080

  3. Corbin says:

    Any time, ninjas are always here to help.

  4. Czeslaw says:

    Wow simplement Wow Work very good, thank’s

  5. Corbin says:

    Thanks for the compliment, any requests for mac related tutorials?

  6. Reza says:

    not at the moment sir…i am a new mac user changed to it for couple of months from windows…if I think of anything i’ll be more than rude to ask you,

    thanks hehe

  7. Corbin says:

    thanks, have any questions?

  8. Evan says:

    It seemed to work fine, and I watched the bar fill up as I transferred a file to the NTFS drive, but before completing I’m told I don’t have sufficient privileges and it fails.

  9. Jas says:

    I had the exact same problem as Evan. Persmissions on the drive say Read & Write but when i try and copy something over, the transfer bar fills up before ultimately telling me I do not have sufficient priveliges for some of the items. However i was able to save a new file directly to the drive via Save As…

  10. Boasel says:

    I do not have sufficient priveliges for some of the items

    Same problem but in Terminal I can copy any thing to NTFs volumes

  11. Jas says:

    how do you copy in terminal?

    (sorry, i’m a complete novice mac user!)

  12. Corbin says:
  13. Evan says:

    I still can’t figure out why I don’t have sufficient privileges, but going through terminal does work. For anyone who’s a little rusty with UNIX like I am, ten minutes at http://www.osxfaq.com/tutorials/LearningCenter/ should be more than enough time for everything you’ll need to know to do this. Thanks for all the help, getting past this hurdle has been my saving grace.

  14. Reza says:

    Yes, I don’t have sufficient privilages either…

  15. Zzbog says:

    Just found a fix on another sire (think it’s Lifehack) and it worked!

    Just change your user priviledges to root

    To do this go to Applications/Utilities/ Open a program Netinfo

    Choose user

    Find your user there

    Change uid to 0

    Reboot

    Don’t know the downsides of it except that it kills some custom alterings to the system (”open on startup” flags are wiped, custom layouts don’t work etc.)

  16. Corbin says:

    Thanks for the fix Zz! I couldn’t reproduce that error because i am root (heh)

  17. Dave says:

    Anyone have a fix for the priviledges problem that will not effect anything else? I tried changing uid to 0 and it messed up too many things.

  18. Corbin says:

    use an account with admin privileges?

  19. Dave says:

    Yes, I am using an account with admin privileges. It works when I “save as”, but I can’t drag and drop.

  20. Corbin says:

    Hmm….. try logging in as root just for a minute, be sure to log out after testing. Otherwise, repair file permissions. I’m not sure what would cause that though…

  21. owen says:

    okay, I´ve done this:

    #8 Enter the following (copy and paste) “sudo ln -s /System/Library/Filesystems/fusefs.fs/mount_fusefs /usr/bin/mount_fusefs”
    The ln utility creates a new directory entry (linked file) which has the same modes as the original file. (man)
    # 9 Enter “mkdir /Volumes/” This creates the directory where you can find your files.
    # 10 Enter “sudo /usr/local/bin/ntfs-3g /dev/ /Volumes/”” -o ping_diskarb,volname=””” If this gives you problems, add “,force” right after to make it go. I had to do this.

    but it´s not working. I have given up, and all I want to do now is UNDO what I´ve done. My external hard drive no longer auto mounts, and it´s leaving icons saying “woxter” whenever I unmount the external HD.
    Can anyone tell me how to undo this? - what do I need to type into terminal? please?
    Owen

  22. Corbin says:

    If you backed up with timemachine to the ext hard drive, boot from the leopard dvd and restore from there.

  23. owen says:

    alas, I didn´t back up. I have tiger, not leopard… looks like I have to save my files and reinstall the operating system?

Leave a Reply