Sep 21, 2020 • Filed to: Solve Mac Problems • Proven solutions

NTFS (New Technology File System) is the file system used for depositing and recovering files on a hard disk. If you want to write a Boot Camp partition on your Mac system, you should use exFAT since Mac’s operating system is already wired to read that.

Part 1: Free Ways to Write to NTFS Drives on a Mac

NTFS-3G for Mac OS X brings NTFS read/write support to Mac OS X, along with additional advanced features. It is based on NTFS-3G, an open source NTFS driver that is ported into numerous platforms, but also includes other software projects to build a complete toolset for managing NTFS volumes. IBoysoft NTFS for Mac features. Microsoft’s NTFS drive is a stranger to your Mac. However, there’s an app that can make them friends. IBoysoft NTFS for Mac is an easy assistant with a full read/write support for NTFS drives. Mount and unmount, manage disks, and share NTFS drives across Windows and Mac.

Mac can read but not write to NTFS drives on a Mac, however, there are solutions.

Read or Write NTFS Drive on Mac with Easy Driver (Safe & Fast) Your Windows NTFS drive is not. Format the External Drive to FAT32. This method is not very coinvent. Not at least for me. Apple macOS can read the Windows-formatted NTFS drives, however, they cannot be able to write them out of the box. To Read/Write the Western Digital (WD) NTFS formatted file without reformatting it with exFAT, you must install the Paragon NTFS Driver for Mac. NTFS drives are generally reformatted with exFAT, to access it on the macOS and Windows.

1. Third-party drivers (FREE):

Although this method requires some involving activities, you can get it to work.

• Download and install osxfuse.

• If you don’t have Homebrew yet you will download and install it next.
• Install command-line tools. Go to applications and navigate to utilities from there. Run the command 'Xcode-select –install'. You will see a pop up with the option to install. Choose install.

Open a terminal window and enter the command 'brew install homebrew/fuse/ntfs -3g'.

• After this, you will move on todisable system integrity protection.
• Once system integrity protection is disabled you should reboot your Mac. As the system begins to reboot, press, and hold command+R. The system will enter into a recovery mode.
• While in recovery mode, open a terminal from utilities and enter the command 'csrutil disable'.

• After that command, you will now reboot your system in the usual way to take it out of recovery mode.
• Once fully operational, open a terminal and run these commands 'sudo mv / sbin/mount_ntfs / sbin/mount_ntfs.original' and 'sudo 1n –s /usr/local/sbin/mount_ntfs /sbin/mount_ntfs'.

• Enable system integrity protection. After this, repeat the same process to press and hold command+R while rebooting the system to enter into recovery mode.
• Enter the code 'csrutil enable'.
• Reboot your Mac to normal mode and you should be able to write to NTFS drives on a Mac now.

If you ever wish to reverse the entire process, you would need to disable system integrity protection ad run these commands right after 'sudo rm /sbin/mount_ntfs' and 'sudo mv /sbin/mount_ntfs.original /sbin/mount_ntfs' and 'brew uninstall ntsf-3g'.

You can uninstall osxfuse from the system and remove it completely from the system panel. Enable system integrity protection after the uninstall.

The operating system of Mac has experimental support for writing NTFS but this is automatically off and has to be turned on by some steps. This method is the least tried and the least stable. It is in no way guaranteed and if it does not work it is not the fault of the instructions. It just does not work sometimes. Also if does not work, it could generate an issue for you in the future with writing NTFS.

• To make the process easier you should change the drives word label to single word label if it has not been done already
• Open a terminal by going to applications then utilities and open a terminal. Enter the command 'sudo nano /etc/fstab'

• Add the command 'LABEL=NAME none ntfs rw,auto,nobrowse' to nano and name the file what you want by replacing NAME. If you want to write more than one ntfs file you can do so by adding a different command for them like the one above.
• Press and hold control+O to save the file or files and control+X to close nano.
  (If you want to write to multiple NTFS drives that you have, just add a new line for each drive.)

If the drive is connected to your Mac, then disconnect it and connect it again. Go to the finder, click on go then select go to folder and type '/Volumes'.

If this was Windows, you would find your missing USB drive in Windows by now. But Windows writes on NTFS automatically without these steps so it will be easy to find your missing USB in Windows.

Part 2: How to Recover Data from NTFS Drive

If your data in NTFS file is lost during any of the above-mentioned processes, you can recover it using a hard drive data recovery software. We recommendRecoveritData Recovery. This data recovery tool will recover data from NTFS drives. If you connect your USB device and you cannot see it you can follow our steps to find your missing USB drive in Windows and follow the simple steps to recover data from NTFS drives.

Download and launch Recoverit on your Mac and follow the next simple steps to perform Mac hard drive data recovery.

Step 1To recover lost data from your NTFS hard drive on Mac, select your Mac hard drive where your data gets lost and click 'Start' to have a scan on your NTFS drive.

Step 2The scan will require a little time to finish searching for lost files. The scanning procedure will be displayed in real-time.

Step 3After scanning, you can preview the recoverable files, select the desired ones, and click on 'Recover' to get them back.

Write To Ntfs Mac Os

A Mac can read NTFS files but cannot write on them. This can be changed by using some free third-party apps that can easily be downloaded, installed, and used on a Mac to write NTFS. Apple also has experimental NTFS write support. You can make use of this for writing NTFS on Mac.

Paragon Ntfs For Mac

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