How to Enable NTFS Writing Support on Mac Without Formatting?

Apple’s products are one of the best in the world. One of the top products it offers to its users is the Mac Notebooks. They are considered the epitome of perfection. They not only have that premium design and outer look but also have a machine beast inside that delicate hood.

If you will ask anyone about the MacBook, everyone has something good to say. However, despite being an almost perfect product in the consumer industry, it has one area of concern, accessing NTFS file formatted hard drives. Apple’s managed it support services can be helpful for making things easy regarding the NFTS files formatting.

We all know that NTFS is a windows file system and is exclusively limited to windows. So, when a windows hard drive is connected to a Mac operating system, it restricts the access to read-only. This issue can be solved only with an NTFS for Mac software.

What Is NTFS?

NTFS is the new file system that is considered to be a standard file system for windows. Today, most of the operating system is supported by the NTFS file system. One of the major advantages of the NTFS is its reliability in storing and accessing data.

In addition to that, you get fault tolerance with the NTFS file system. This means it automatically repairs any hard drive errors w without showing any error messages. The process is so smooth that you will never come to know about the errors.

How NTFS Works?

When a new operating system is installed, the system asks for a file system to support the system. The process of formatting SSD and HDD might be different, but both are compatible with NTFS.

When you format a hard drive, it is divided into several partitions. Partition plays a major role and effective data storage and data access. With each partition, the operating system considers them individual storage, and the system tracks them individually.

NTFS helps the system store files into small clusters ranging from 512bytes to 64KB. Cluster size matters a lot as they play an important role in allowing smooth access to the data.

Features Of NTFS

One distinguishing feature of NTFS that makes it light-years apart from the FAT is that it offers users encryption of data. Other notable features are listed below.

• Uses b-tree directory to keep track of all the data.
• Support larger files.
• Allow administering control over the data.
• Compress the original data for better risk management.
• Offer security to all the stored data.

Why macOS Can’t Write to NTFS Formatted Data?

NTFS is the proprietary file system used in the Windows operating system. Mac operating systems cannot access NTFS data because Microsoft is not providing the full specification of the NTFS as an open-source standard. Apple tried buying the license, but Microsoft charged a price that even they could not afford.

How to Enable NTFS Writing on Mac?

Before we can start with this process, ensure that you have the command lines tools for Xcode and homebrew package manager installed. Once you are already with these two things, we are all set to start.

Start with downloading macFuse. Install the software and then reboot your mac operating system. Once the reboot is completed, install NTFS-3G from the terminal.

While moving forward with methods, your system will warn you about system security protocol; ignore the protocol. Now restart your system. The moment your system starts, press COMMAND + R. This will take you to recovery mode.

You need to navigate to the terminal application and disable system protection with the following command: csrutil disable.

Restart your Mac again and go to the normal operating system. Press COMMAND + R and go to the terminal. Now type: sudo mount -uw /.

Once the command like is entered, we can replace the old file format with the new one. Now type the following command line:

sudo mv /sbin/mount_ntfs /sbin/mount_ntfs.original

sudo ln -s /usr/local/sbin/mount_ntfs /sbin/mount_ntfs

And save the setting. Now enjoy writing an NTFS formatted file on your Mac.

Take Away

Who would have thought that making your mac operating system access NTFS hard drive can be such a drag. If these steps make you nauseous, try using iBoysoft NTFS for Mac. It’s not a free NTFS for Mac but it can certainly offer more convenience while accessing NTFS hard drives.