Only given Read Access When Plugging in External HD

[QueHuong]

I'm succumbed to the Apple Halo effect, and finally fully transitioned over to an Apple-only setup (iPhone, iPad, MBA, and the newest addition, Mac Mini). I saved my data from several Windows PCs onto an external HD. When I plugged it into my new Mac Mini, I can't delete, rename, or otherwise change files. I went into File Info and it says my permissions are only read-only. How can I obtain write access?

On a side note, my MBA is my first foray into SSDs which I've gotten used to. But my Mini only has a 5400rpm HD. It's painful.

 

[BlueWeasel]

Is the external drive formatted as NTFS?

http://ntfsonmac.com/

 

[QueHuong]

Yes, thank you.

It's crazy that OS X can't write to Windows formatted drives :-\

 

[TheStu]

Yes, thank you.

It's crazy that OS X can't write to Windows formatted drives :-\

Seriously?

You know that Windows can't even read HFS+ drives, right?

 

[Oyeve]

Seriously?

You know that Windows can't even read HFS+ drives, right?

Sure they can. Apple released drivers. Granted its in bootcamp, but apple is being stingy.

 

[TheStu]

Sure they can. Apple released drivers. Granted its in bootcamp, but apple is being stingy.

With drivers, so natively it can't, and if you aren't using a Mac, you can't do it either. Just like how OS X cannot natively write to NTFS. Which was my point.

Apple provided the drivers to bootcamp users, how is that them being stingy? Because they didn't release them to everyone, forever? How is it Apple being stingy for allowing their paying customers to have access to it?

 

[Oyeve]

With drivers, so natively it can't, and if you aren't using a Mac, you can't do it either. Just like how OS X cannot natively write to NTFS. Which was my point.

Apple provided the drivers to bootcamp users, how is that them being stingy? Because they didn't release them to everyone, forever? How is it Apple being stingy for allowing their paying customers to have access to it?

because its apple that is blocking these file systems from being able to be read on osx and vice versa. Thats why I said stingy.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Yes, thank you.

It's crazy that OS X can't write to Windows formatted drives :-\

NTFS is a proprietary format. Blame Microsoft.

(Also, HFS+ is a proprietary format. Blame Apple. Vive l' Open Standards)

Third party solutions are reverse-engineered, and haven't always worked super-well. If you can get one (like NTFS-3G + FUSE) to work, well, more power to you.

I still format external drives as FAT32. Heheheh.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

because its apple that is blocking these file systems from being able to be read on osx and vice versa. Thats why I said stingy.

No more or less than Microsoft.

 

[Oyeve]

No more or less than Microsoft.

Not really. Apple deliberatley turned off NTFS on its os. its pretty common knowledge.

 

[TheStu]

Not really. Apple deliberatley turned off NTFS on its os. its pretty common knowledge.

Apple rolled out, unexposed to the user, experimental NTFS write support, and then pulled it. That isn't the same as turning it off, as if it has always had full read/write and then they pulled it. For as long as I can remember, you have had read access to NTFS drives in OS X out of the box, which is more than you can say about HFS+ and Windows.

NTFS is MS's proprietary file system, and it is somehow Apple's fault that you don't have write support in OS X, when the opposite is equally true in Windows? Is it still Apple's fault that you can't read/write to HFS+ in Windows? How about ext4, is that Apple's fault too? ReiserFS? If I want to read/write Reiser on Win95, should I complain to Apple that there is no support for it?

Listen, if you want to say that Apple is being a jerk for not offering up their HFS+ driver to MS for them to build into the OS, but instead only offer it to their paying customers running Boot Camp, then I cannot wrap my head around why the onus to provide NTFS support would still fall to Apple, and not MS. That's my point.

And if you somehow think that Apple should be expected to do both sides, then that just backs up the point made in the 128GB iPad thread, where it doesn't matter in the least what Apple does, it will apparently not be enough, and it will piss people off.

They could offer free MacBook Airs to everyone in the US (seriously, they probably could) and people would be pissed that they were MacBook Pros.

 

[Oyeve]

Apple rolled out, unexposed to the user, experimental NTFS write support, and then pulled it. That isn't the same as turning it off, as if it has always had full read/write and then they pulled it. For as long as I can remember, you have had read access to NTFS drives in OS X out of the box, which is more than you can say about HFS+ and Windows.

NTFS is MS's proprietary file system, and it is somehow Apple's fault that you don't have write support in OS X, when the opposite is equally true in Windows? Is it still Apple's fault that you can't read/write to HFS+ in Windows? How about ext4, is that Apple's fault too? ReiserFS? If I want to read/write Reiser on Win95, should I complain to Apple that there is no support for it?

Listen, if you want to say that Apple is being a jerk for not offering up their HFS+ driver to MS for them to build into the OS, but instead only offer it to their paying customers running Boot Camp, then I cannot wrap my head around why the onus to provide NTFS support would still fall to Apple, and not MS. That's my point.

And if you somehow think that Apple should be expected to do both sides, then that just backs up the point made in the 128GB iPad thread, where it doesn't matter in the least what Apple does, it will apparently not be enough, and it will piss people off.

They could offer free MacBook Airs to everyone in the US (seriously, they probably could) and people would be pissed that they were MacBook Pros.

Stu, chill dude. I know you are a huge proponent of apple but relax. No one is bashing them.

 

[TheStu]

Stu, chill dude. I know you are a huge proponent of apple but relax. No one is bashing them.

Don't presume to know my level of chillitude, for I am in no way not chill. I am just trying to figure out how Company A is being 'stingy' for providing support for Company B's product to their customers.

If someone said 'it's crazy that Sony doesn't let me play Wii games on my PS3', would you only blame Sony, but let Nintendo off the hook? And, to take it further, take Sony to task for their games not working on the Wii, but again, letting Nintendo off the hook?? Because that is what you are doing. Is saying that not only is Company A responsible for their product on someone else's system, but that they are ALSO responsible for someone else's product on theirs! That's like saying that any time Photoshop crashed you should call Dell.

Like Dave said, blame Apple for not offering drivers for HFS+, and blame MS for not offering drivers for NTFS. Anything other than that, is just crazy talk, and that was my point.

 

[Eug]

Just use exFAT. Apple licenced exFAT from Microsoft.

 

[TheStu]

Just use exFAT. Apple licenced exFAT from Microsoft.

That's what I did. Heck, I even formatted some of my internal drives to exFAT (you have to do it from OS X though) when I was dual-booting. Windows doesn't seem crazy about exFAT internal drives though, I had weird issues with it.

 

[TheStu]

Also, for Oyeve:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=8C-8cGCuE8Q#t=18s

 

[bearxor]

I also had some weirdness with 7 not recognizing exFAT drives occasionally so I stopped using it.

 

[Tegeril]

Stu, chill dude. I know you are a huge proponent of apple but relax. No one is bashing them.

Really? You're arguing from the logically flawed position and telling someone to chill?

 

[Oyeve]

Really? You're arguing from the logically flawed position and telling someone to chill?

Really what? Whos arguing?

 

[Tegeril]

Really what? Whos arguing?

Wrong definition of argue, I'd wager - I don't mean bickering back and forth, I mean that you're just furthering a negative impression of Apple in this context. "Deliberately turned off NTFS" (experimental feature, unannounced, enabled via the commandline, unsupported, possibly buggy), "stingy".

 

[Eug]

That's what I did. Heck, I even formatted some of my internal drives to exFAT (you have to do it from OS X though) when I was dual-booting. Windows doesn't seem crazy about exFAT internal drives though, I had weird issues with it.

Hmmm... I don't think I'd use exFAT on any boot drive. Or was this an internal data drive?

I also had some weirdness with 7 not recognizing exFAT drives occasionally so I stopped using it.

Really? Weird, considering it's Microsoft's own file system. I've only used it for external data drives, although not a lot... because it turns out my (older) Blu-ray players read only FAT32 +/- NTFS, and NOT exFAT. Some of the new ones do read exFAT though IIRC.

P.S. I do have HFS+ drivers on my PCs. In a pinch, it's nice to be able to plug in an NTFS drive into a Mac and an HFS+ drive into a Windows PC, even if it's just read only.

 

[TheStu]

Hmmm... I don't think I'd use exFAT on any boot drive. Or was this an internal data drive?

It was a data drive that i wanted both OSes to be able to share without having to worry about extra drivers on either side.

 

[Oyeve]

how does Parallels handle file formats? I am using Parallels 8 on my Macbook pro (mid-2009) running 10.8.2 with win 7, win 8 and Ubuntu. I can read and write pretty much to anything, HFS+, NTFS, fat32...and so on, between OSX and the VMs. What is Parellels using that allows this?

 

[TheStu]

how does Parallels handle file formats? I am using Parallels 8 on my Macbook pro (mid-2009) running 10.8.2 with win 7, win 8 and Ubuntu. I can read and write pretty much to anything, HFS+, NTFS, fat32...and so on, between OSX and the VMs. What is Parellels using that allows this?

I think that Parallels installs their own driver. So does VMWare IIRC.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

I thought Parallels used SMB/CIFS for shared folders?