Ntfs-3g?

[Mojo]

Hi guys. I have formatted my external hard disk to the NTFS-3G format as I'm on the mac. I was wondering if NTFS-3G is the same as NTFS? As in will the hardware that recognizes NTFS automatically recognize NTFS-3G as well? I'm asking because I read the boxee box will support NTFS but I'm not sure about NTFS-3G? Thanks.

[ezramoore]

NTFS-3G is just a *nix (that is to say in your case, mac specific) implementation of the NTFS file system. Your OS X will mount that drive and Boxee will interact with just as it would with any other drive. I find NTFS-3G to be buggy, slow, and inconsistent. I prefer Paragon, which is just software from a different company that does essentially the same thing, in my opinion it just does it better. Keep in mind the '-3G' part of the name has nothing to do with the format of the drive, its JUST the name of the software.

Just out of curiosity, why did you format your drive with NTFS?

[dan1son]

NTFS-3g is actually a free (open-source) alternative to NTFS. I've seen seagate and WD drives come pre-formatted with it. Basically it has no license requirements from Microsoft that NTFS has.

It is compatible with every major OS out of the box. Windows/Mac/Linux/FreeBSD/etc. It's probably the best choice for external drives right now since it has no partition limits or file size limits (fat32 only supports 4gig files, good luck doing HD with that).

[ezramoore]

NTFS-3g is actually a free (open-source) alternative to NTFS. I've seen seagate and WD drives come pre-formatted with it. Basically it has no license requirements from Microsoft that NTFS has.

It is compatible with every major OS out of the box. Windows/Mac/Linux/FreeBSD/etc. It's probably the best choice for external drives right now since it has no partition limits or file size limits (fat32 only supports 4gig files, good luck doing HD with that).

NTFS-3G may be free and open-source, but it is far from the best choice. Also, it is not an alternative to NTFS, as there is no Microsoft NTFS for Mac. NTFS (Microsoft's New Technology File System) is strictly a file system. It is Microsoft's replacement for FAT32 (File Allocation Table), and it is ancient. Microsoft promised (a long time ago) a new filesystem that supported meta info, etc. in the form of WinFS for Vista. However, WinFS was cut from Vista before Vista even made it into public beta. NTFS-3G is merely an implementation of NTFS that has been coded from the ground up to be both compatible with Windows NTFS and open source, free from licensing. There is no difference in the two, except that NTFS-3G is not optimized for performance like the Windows implementation is. If you want a performance optimized implementation of NTFS for your Mac you need a paid solution like Tuxera, the paid version of NTFS-3G (from the same people) or Paragon, another paid performance optimized version of NTFS support for the Mac. I don't like to have to wait any longer than necessary for huge file transfers, and I like my Mac to uphold its legendary reputation of reliability so I use a paid version. If you buy and use Tuxera you are supporting the developers of NTFS-3G, which is more appropriate software for people who do not need to do huge file transfers.

The only time NTFS-3G is even an acceptable choice, is if the user needs to create files on the drive over 4 GB in size (which, in this application who doesn't?), and use the drive with a Windows computers. In this scenario, it is still a poor solution. Paid solutions, based on the same source, but with significant improvements (like Paragon) are much more reliable. NTFS-3G is known for making drives difficult to mount. Don't use it unless you need to use the drive with a Windows machine, if you're strictly using it on a Mac use HFS+ (Mac OS Extended (Journaled)).

If you DO need to read from/write to a HFS+ drive from Windows there are tools (like NTFS-3G) that work for that too. My limited experience with them has been better than with the OS X implementation of NTFS-3G.

My setup consists of a couple TB of external HDD storage formatted HFS+ for my media repository connected to my Mac Mini, and one 320 external formatted with NTFS that I use for transferring big files from any of my Windows boxes.

[dan1son]

The only time NTFS-3G is even an acceptable choice, is if the user needs to create files on the drive over 4 GB in size (which, in this application who doesn't?), and use the drive with a Windows computers. In this scenario, it is still a poor solution. Paid solutions, based on the same source, but with significant improvements (like Paragon) are much more reliable. NTFS-3G is known for making drives difficult to mount. Don't use it unless you need to use the drive with a Windows machine, if you're strictly using it on a Mac use HFS+ (Mac OS Extended (Journaled)).

If you DO need to read from/write to a HFS+ drive from Windows there are tools (like NTFS-3G) that work for that too. My limited experience with them has been better than with the OS X implementation of NTFS-3G.

My setup consists of a couple TB of external HDD storage formatted HFS+ for my media repository connected to my Mac Mini, and one 320 external formatted with NTFS that I use for transferring big files from any of my Windows boxes.

Well, my 1tb external backup drive is using ext4, because it's just a backup drive for my Linux server. I very much understand the reasons for NOT using ntfs-3g. However, I would never build a drive for someone else running ext4 or even HFS+ due to the inability to plug it into a Windows box or Mac anywhere and read/write data on it. Most people assume the drive will just work wherever they go. HFS+ would give a false expectation of that unless the user is quite knowledgable.

Maybe it's me, but I tend to use external drives as offsite backups or just portable carry around drives. With the exception of my backup drive (using ext4 primarily so it can handle permissions correctly), I find the ability to mount on anything out of the box trumps any performance gains.

While NTFS-3g was somewhat faulty at first, I've never seen a problem with it for the last several years. I have a small 80gig drive I've had for around 4 years running ntfs-3g and it always plugs right in and works.

Either way, in the OPs case, NTFS-3g is the best choice since his mac can format it, write to it, read from it, and the boxee box will do the same. :)

[ezramoore]

I didn't see anywhere that the OP said that he needed to connect it to a Windows box, but if that is the case then we are in absolute agreement.