external hard drive and bootcamp...

[narreth]

So, I have some large files (>5gb) that i want to transfer from my mac partition to my windows partition. I have a 1TB external HDD, but if I format it as fat32, it can't hold the large files... if I format it as a mac drive, windows can't see it... and if I do NTFS... osx can't write to it.... so what are my options? is this just impossible?

 

[secretanchitman]

install macfuse + ntfs3g - this will let you read and write to ntfs drives. i used it a few years ago and it was running fine for me. i uninstalled it because i was always copying/writing files over the network to my pcs and since the other pcs were doing the real work, i didnt need it anymore.

you can also enable experimental write support for ntfs in snow leopard, but its not recommended because it might corrupt your drive.

macfuse and ntfs 3g is your best bet IMO

 

[TheStu]

Second the recommendation for MacFUSE. The only drawback to this approach is that it cuts your transfer speeds in half. So if the drive could do an 80MB/s transfer you will really be getting 40MB/s. But, something is better than nothing.

 

[KeypoX]

paragon ntfs, not sure if its native speed but its pretty fast. Same as in windows...

also enabling native write in snow not only corrupts drives it makes snow very unstable.

Also windows can read and i think write hfs drives. There is a driver around and a program (macdrive) 2 solutions. I have used macdrive, its not that great so far.

 

[VinylxScratches]

http://hem.bredband.net/catacombae/hfsx.html

 

[TheStu]

paragon ntfs, not sure if its native speed but its pretty fast. Same as in windows...

also enabling native write in snow not only corrupts drives it makes snow very unstable.

Also windows can read and i think write hfs drives. There is a driver around and a program (macdrive) 2 solutions. I have used macdrive, its not that great so far.

MacFUSE is free whereas Paragon and MacDrive are not, which is why it was recommended first. But you are right, Paragon is a fine choice in OS X, gives you full speed writes to the drive and works wonderfully. I replaced MacFUSE on my system with that and it is great.

MacDrive which costs $30 for 1 system, and $10 for each additional system, gets the job done, no doubt about it, but I am reticent to spend $30 on a driver.

HFS Explorer lets Windows be on parity with OS X in the sense that now both of them can just READ the other's hard drives. The Snow Leopard disk includes a driver for Windows that enables HFS+ Read support. It is part of the latest version of Boot Camp. BUt you are still stuck with Read support.

Based on that information and the improvements that Boot Camp has seen, I would not be surprised if we have Apple supplied full Read/Write NTFS support in the near future, so why waste money now? Just use MacFUSE.

If the OP decides that slow transfer rates are crimping his style, then he should buy Paragon (which for $30 is also steep for a driver, but the latest version includes an HFS+ driver for Windows)

 

[KeypoX]

MacFUSE is free whereas Paragon and MacDrive are not, which is why it was recommended first. But you are right, Paragon is a fine choice in OS X, gives you full speed writes to the drive and works wonderfully. I replaced MacFUSE on my system with that and it is great.

MacDrive which costs $30 for 1 system, and $10 for each additional system, gets the job done, no doubt about it, but I am reticent to spend $30 on a driver.

HFS Explorer lets Windows be on parity with OS X in the sense that now both of them can just READ the other's hard drives. The Snow Leopard disk includes a driver for Windows that enables HFS+ Read support. It is part of the latest version of Boot Camp. BUt you are still stuck with Read support.

Based on that information and the improvements that Boot Camp has seen, I would not be surprised if we have Apple supplied full Read/Write NTFS support in the near future, so why waste money now? Just use MacFUSE.

If the OP decides that slow transfer rates are crimping his style, then he should buy Paragon (which for $30 is also steep for a driver, but the latest version includes an HFS+ driver for Windows)

I was trying both for free trials, it seems neither is worth the price. Especially mac drive. Its horrible. I will try Catacombae. I have used macfuse, its not bad just slow.

Also for the OP you could just use fat and split the large files... to much work though