Is there any software that allows NTFS write/read on Mac OS 9 and/or Mac OS X 10.2(I'm not sure, but I think that first OSX with NTFS read support is Panther)? I have some files to transfer to my iMac and it can't read external NTFS drive.
This page is a wiki. Please login or create an account to begin editing.
2011, April 25 - 5:15pm
#1
NTFS Support
Comments
2011, April 25 - 6:15pm
#2
Have you a PC that you could connect the external to? Then you could network share it and access it in OS X via samba or FTP.
2011, April 25 - 7:55pm
#3
Sure, I have one which has Windows XP. I will try, but first I have to connect iMac to router by ethernet, WiFI transfer is even slower than USB 1.
Anyway, is there a possibility to read/write NTFS on earlier OSXs' and OS9?
2011, April 26 - 1:19am
#4
I don't know of any, unfortunately. That's why I suggested the network option. Maybe someone else knows of one.
2011, April 26 - 5:28am
#5
I don't think even Mac OS X 10.5 or 10.6 can write to NTFS volumes. Reading NTFS has been available since OSX 10.2.8.
You could help yourself immensely by having some sort of server on the NTFS hosting machine, either FTP or HTTP, otherwise connect to an NTFS volume using the "Connect To" in the Go menu, connect with SMB://
For OS9 you'll definitely need some help from the Window end. Or make things 100x easier for yourself and set up a FAT32 partition, which you can read from and write to.
2011, April 26 - 3:03pm
#6
Oh, great, so Jaguar supports NTFS read! I will make FTP server, it will make my external also compatible with OS9, and write-able(and I could use my favorite FTP client, Transmit!). I thought about reformatting to FAT, but it's 500GB, and it's almost full(I can't move all my files to another safe place, format and move back). To read NTFS on Mac with Snow Leopard I use NTFS-3G, but the oldest OSX that you can install it on is Tiger.
Thanks for help.
EDIT: Jaguar doesn't support NTFS read. First OSX with NTFS read was Panther(i searched Wikipedia, then installed Jaguar, it doesn't recognize my external FireWire disk). However, I found open-source abandoned application which allows NTFS read! It doesn't support write, labels and many other things, but read - yes! Here is link: http://sourceforge.net/projects/ntfsosx/files/ntfsosx/1.0d2/. After downloading, limitations are included in one of .rtf files.
2011, April 26 - 5:27pm
#7
I found PC MacLan very useful for transferring files to and from NTFS volumes with Classic.
A AppleTalk or FTP server can be set up on the XP host in an easy way.
Files archived with PC MacLan will even keep their resource forks, if they stay untouched by the PC.
In demo mode, the server will only run for three hours after XP system start.
2011, April 27 - 2:46pm
#8
PC MacLAN 9 is discounted by Miramar(developer). Another great app, thanks. 
2011, April 27 - 8:51pm
#9
Could have sworn I had an old Dell Lattitude laptop connected to my MDD many years ago before I upgraded it to Panther. No tricks, no third-party software. Some things only worked from one end, ie. the Mac pulling files from the Dell NTFS, rather than the Dell writing to the Mac HFS+.
2011, April 28 - 2:42am
#10
All this talk of PC MacLan, what about Dave?
2011, May 6 - 8:34pm
#11
Dave? I used version 4 on OS9, and I remember, that I had many problems with connecting. It worked until I restarted computer. Then it even didn't wanted to start NetBIOS. At least it has good uninstaller. 
I think that latest version resolved this problems, but I dont want to pay $99 for network software!
2011, May 6 - 9:36pm
#12
So, if PC MacLAN is discontinued... Does that mean it's considered "Abandonware?" If so, I could send you the installer and serial number.
I also have Dave 2.5.2, never really had problems using it in Mac OS 9 IIRC.
2011, May 7 - 5:06am
#13
I've had no dealbreaker problems with DAVE 4 on OS 9. (iMac G3 DV 400, OS 9.2.2) It doesn't work with Windows 7's Homegroup sharing, but SMB shares work fine.
If you're running 8.1 or older, or don't have a lot of RAM, you're probably better off with FTP. In my experience, FileZilla Server on the PC and Fetch on the Mac are easiest to set up.
2011, May 9 - 9:00pm
#14
I downloaded PC MACLan and installed it already. It works just fine.
2011, May 12 - 3:13am
#15
That's the thing with NTFS, i can not even be read in Mac. I have been using exfat but sometimes, it cant be read in cross windows platform. I hope this would be supported soon.
But I do not think this would be in their list of immediate priorities knowing how Jobs work. But that suggestion to use the network would really be helpful and good.