Jump to content

[How To] Make Mac OS X automount NTFS Drives in read/write mode

Laik

By Laik,
in Multi-booting and Virtualisation

 Share
49 posts in this topic

Recommended Posts

Greg134
Greg134
Posted
Posted

Hi,

 

Thank you very much for this very usefull HowTo !

 

With the original mount_ntfs script, I ran into two problems: it did not work for external drives, it did not work when there was space in the volume name.

 

I solved my problems with the mount_ntfs script below. This may be helpfull to other having similar problems.

 

Cheers.

 

#!/bin/sh
# 
# Example of how the script is called by MacOS
# External HD: /sbin/mount_ntfs -o nodev -o noperm -o nosuid /dev/disk3s1 /Volumes/WD 320 GO
# Fixed HD : /sbin/mount_ntfs /dev/disk0s1 /Volumes/WINDOWS XP
#

args=$#
MOUNTPOINT=${!args}
VOLNAME=${MOUNTPOINT##*/}
args=$((args-1))
DEVICE=${!args}
/usr/local/bin/ntfs-3g $DEVICE "$MOUNTPOINT" -o default_permissions -o locale=fr_FR.UTF-8 -o volname="$VOLNAME"

Link to comment
Share on other sites
antoinef
antoinef
Posted
Posted

Just a correction about my last post:Even if 'ntfslabel' fails it doesn't make my script abort, but the string returned is an error message, which is not parsable for ntfs-3g.AntoineGreg,Thanks for pointing out that this script won't work with label containing spaces. You only think about it when you run into the problem.I adapted my script to prevent this problem.You totally ignore all the other arguments passed to the script, but do we really need them anyway...I like the way you find the label of the disk not using perl, your way will work for more people. I also tested you script, it works fine for me with my Windows partition and with my external hard drive as well.Antoine

Link to comment
Share on other sites
fredperes
fredperes
Posted
Posted

Question:

 

I can read and write in my ntfs partitions. But...

 

Sometimes, when I try to copy/paste some files I get the error message: "You don´t have permission do this action" or something like that.

 

Is there any solution to this? Do I have do start the process again?

 

Thanks!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
MB-switcher
MB-switcher
Posted
Posted

There has been a minor update.

iMountIt has the new app icon designed by susumu now and is wrapped in a dmg file (thanks to susumu).

I'm not sure when I'll be able to add new features to iMountIt yet but as soon as there are improvements I'll post here.

 

Thanks for using iMountIt.

 

MB-switcher

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Laik
Laik
Posted
  • Author
Posted

fredperes

This seem to happen sometimes to some people. The only solution I have by now is reinstall latest macfuse and ntfs-3g packages.

 

Greg134

Thank you! Used your method to update the guide to rev 2.1. And its only 11 steps now :)

 

I'm already thinking of making an installer, so everything is done much with a single double click. That would be great, I think.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 1 month later...
onizuka
onizuka
Posted
Posted

You can use the usual technique to change the icon, command+I to get info on the hard drive, select the icon (it turns blue) and paste whatever icon in place. So just copy one from another hard drive and it will be fine. Works like a charm here.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
lekany
lekany
Posted
Posted

Hi everybody,

Thanks to Laik for all this tuto.

If you still want to use MacFuse and Ntfs-3g, I found this complete french installer on a french site, 2 months ago and used it since.

It will install updated versions of MacFuse + Ntfs-3g, and will automount your ntfs volume. No more terminal code. :D

 

This is how i did it:

1- Open the Pack_NTFS-3G_v2.dmg

2- Install the MacFUSE Core package

3- Install the NTFS-3G package

4- Do a Repair Disk Permissions in Disk Utility

5- Then Reboot

6- Unmount your NTFS volume in Disk Utility

7- Restart on a Windows PC (Xp or Vista)

8- Do a "chkdsk" in the cmd (like this: chkdsk g: /f /r ) where g: is your NTFS volume.

9- Unmount your volume with the windows unmonter if it is an external HD, never unplug it as is

10- Reboot on OSX with your Volume plugged

11- and that's it, your volume should appear like a network volume (grey sphere in a cube)

 

*If you want to uninstall:

- Open the Uninstall NTFS-3G.command in the Pack_NTFS-3G_v2.dmg

- To Uninstall MacFuse type this in the terminal:

sudo /System/Library/Filesystems/fusefs.fs/Support/uninstall-macfuse-core.sh

- and Reboot

 

Doing all this of course, as Laik said at the beginning is "at your own risk".

Yes, but nothing is perfect and I think it should be OK. Good luck :pirate2:

Link to comment
Share on other sites
lekany
lekany
Posted
Posted

I found another great solution for those who don't want to use MacFuse and Ntfs-3g, or having problems and slow downs with NTFS-3G.

- Go here at ntfs-mac.com

- Register and download that latest version.

- Open the .dmg file

- Install the Ntfs for Mac OS X package

- Reboot and there you are.

 

You can get an older version with this direct one.

 

Now I'm using it after a Complete Uninstall of the NTFS-3G package;

It really works great : Recognize my NTFS volumes like Windows NT ones, twice as fast as Ntfs-3g, no directory problems,...

And I'm still testing it because it's a beta version.

Try and report.

Have a good day folks. :)

 

I don't know if this reply needs to be a new topic.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
BeleiuR
BeleiuR
Posted
Posted

I have tried it and it DOES NOT work. For some reason now, I cannot even see my external drive and trying to remove the application it give me and error stating:

 

Uninstallation Failed

"NTFS for Mac OS X 6.0 is not installed."

 

Do we have any solutions? :P

 

 

I found another great solution for those who don't want to use MacFuse and Ntfs-3g, or having problems and slow downs with NTFS-3G.

- Go here at ntfs-mac.com

- Register and download that latest version.

- Open the .dmg file

- Install the Ntfs for Mac OS X package

- Reboot and there you are.

 

You can get an older version with this direct one.

 

Now I'm using it after a Complete Uninstall of the NTFS-3G package;

It really works great : Recognize my NTFS volumes like Windows NT ones, twice as fast as Ntfs-3g, no directory problems,...

And I'm still testing it because it's a beta version.

Try and report.

Have a good day folks. ;)

 

I don't know if this reply needs to be a new topic.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Laik
Laik
Posted
  • Author
Posted

BeleiuR & lekany

Doesn`t work for me also, even after completely removing MacFuse and NTFS-3G :)

Same symptoms.

 

Uninstallation Failed

"NTFS for Mac OS X 6.0 is not installed."

 

I`ll try to see what we can do now. If I have any solution, I`ll post here.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Laik
Laik
Posted
  • Author
Posted

Since I couldn't remove NTFS Driver lekany suggested, I just reinstalled the french pack of NTFS-3G he gave a link to. It worked fine without any terminal magic, but I couldn't see any of the folders with cyrillic names (in Russian). Patching it with my mount_ntfs didn't help. Seems like it automounts drives some other way, not the way Mac OS X originaly does it, so replacing the default mounter doesn't work.

 

So I just removed MacFuse and NTFS-3G from the pack and followed my own guide completely again. Now everything is working :)

 

If anyone has success with the installer lekany showed, please post here also.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Force Quit?
Force Quit?
Posted
Posted

Laik,

 

With the release of Leopard, your original script/instructions work, even for volumes with spaces in the name.

 

Also, instead of rebooting, one can unmount then remount the disk as root and it will be writable immediately.

 

use these commands to do so...

 

sudo diskutil umount /dev/diskXsY

sudo diskutil mount /dev/diskXsY

 

making sure to replace X and Y with the appropriate numbers.

 

Thanks for the script!

 

—FQ?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
nightwalker
nightwalker
Posted
Posted

ok i got this working to view ntfs drives but it seems like, it's having trouble shutting down my computer now...also some icons on my drives sometimes misses a letter or crunches all the characters into one corner now :P

 

sometimes when you create folders, you won't be able top open the folder until you restart your computer as well

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Laik
Laik
Posted
  • Author
Posted

I'm installing leopard tonight, and will see everything myself, but thanx for the info, Force Quit?

 

nightwalker

Mounting and unmounting with NTFS-3G takes some time, so after replacing automounter, shutdown will be a bit slower. On my hackintosh its about 20 seconds with NTFS-3G, and 2 seconds without. I have 5 NTFS partitions mounted.

 

What problems with shutdown do you have? It just got slower or doesn't shut down at all?

 

To solve your problems with folders and icons please upgrade to 10.4.10 and reinstall latest macfuse and NTFS-3G. Hope it helps.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Force Quit?
Force Quit?
Posted
Posted

Okay, after quite a lot of fretting, I have determined that read-write support on Leopard is rather shady at best so far.

It seems that permissions support is spotty at best, thus, copying files to and from an NTFS volume is only accomplishable by using Terminal.

 

If you have upgraded to Leopard and absolutely need to copy stuff to and from an NTFS volume, then use the cp command in conjunction with the -X option.

 

For example:

 

cp -X "/Macintosh HD/Users/Username/Documents/Test.rtf" "/Volumes/Vista/Users/Username/Documents/Test.rtf"

 

If you're copying over large files (like copying HD movies to an NTFS external) you'll have to let the Terminal sit around and do it's work without a progress bar, just be patient! :rolleyes:

 

Hope that helps!

 

—FQ?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Laik
Laik
Posted
  • Author
Posted

:-/

I refuse to call this a "working ntfs mounter",FQ :)

I'll get to the script right after I finish installing Leo. Currently cloning my Vista/Tiger drive to a new 500Gb hdd, so i have a full drive for Leopard install. That's taking ages :(

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 4 months later...
MiJKa
MiJKa
Posted
Posted

Actually, I got it working with the ntfs-g3 + MacFUSE french installer. Now I just need to figure out how to get the "network" drives to appear on my desktop. Or in my finder without making my life miserable going through the disk utility.

 

Any ideas? :(

Link to comment
Share on other sites
 Share
Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...