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NTFS for Mac® OS X

  • Paragon NTFS for Mac® OS X beats down the barriers between Windows and Mac® OS!
  • Effectively solves the communication problems between the Mac® system and NTFS. Providing full read&write access to Windows NTFS partitions under Mac® OS X.
  • Excellent solution for end users, SOHO and the Enterprise.
$39.95
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The Best Recovery Solution for Mac

 

 

 


 

 

Pre Sales FAQ

1 What is NTFS File System?
2 Is NTFS File System better than FAT 32?
3 What exactly is Paragon NTFS for Mac® OS X?
4 Why do I need to use this product?
5 What are editions of the software?
6 What does Paragon NTFS for Mac® OS X software include?
7 What is the “Mac® UFSD Module”?
8 What is Paragon UFSD Technology?
9 What is UFSD SDK?
10 How does UFSD work?
11 What file systems does UFSD support?
12 What UFSD products does Paragon Software Group offer?
13 Can I check/repair a partition with NTFS File System for errors using this software?
14 What is the “Check NTFS Utility”?
15 Can I create a NTFS partition using this software?
16 What is the “Make NTFS Utility”?
17 The NTFS file system is proprietary technology of Microsoft. Is the NTFS for Mac® OS X driver absolutely legal?
18 Why does the first release of the software have the version number - 6.0?
19 What are the main benefits that Paragon NTFS for Mac® OS X offers to customers?
20 What NTFS versions are supported?
21 What external storage media are supported?
22 Does Paragon NTFS for Mac® OS X support USB/Firewire drives?
23 What performance is available for the NTFS access?
24 Distribution of Paragon NTFS for Mac® OS X driver
25 How to use the driver?
26 How to install NTFS for Mac® OS X?
27 Do I have to install anything else to use the product and to get full read and write access to NTFS partitions?
28 What architectures are supported?
29 What Mac® OS X are supported?
30 What languages will Paragon NTFS for Mac® OS X support?
31 Can I access huge NTFS volumes?
32 Can I access huge files on NTFS volumes?
33 Does non-Roman (non-English) languages are supported?
34 Will Paragon NTFS for Mac® OS X give me write access so that I can change the icon of my windows drive?
35 Does Paragon NTFS for Mac® OS X driver offer full permissions/ownership support?
36 What if my NTFS partitions are indexed by Spotlight and the system become slow and sluggish?
37 Can I use Paragon NTFS for Mac® OS X driver along with Boot Camp?
38 Can I access several NTFS partitions simultaneously?
39 Does the driver care about Resource Forks?
40 How does the NTFS for Mac® OS X driver handle compressed files?
41 How does Paragon NTFS for Mac® OS X driver copy files with NTFS security attributes?
42 Does the driver support Microsoft Dynamic Volumes?

1 What is NTFS File System?

    NTFS is an acronym for New Technology File System. NTFS comes with Windows NT and is much more up-to-date, stable and reliable than FAT or FAT 32. This file system designed for use specifically with Windows OS. It supports long file names, huge disk partitions and files, full security access control, the ability to recover files/directories and its structure in case of a hardware failure, etc.
    NTFS File System is available in Windows NT, 2000, XP, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Vista.

2 Is NTFS File System better than FAT 32?

    Yes. The NTFS File System is a replacement for the FAT (File Allocation Table). It gives many advantages over the other file systems such as the ability to restore files/directories and its structure in case of a hardware failure, improved security, support of huge files/partitions, etc.
    The main disadvantages of FAT 32 file system that any Mac® user may encounter are:
    1. FAT 32 partition can’t be greater than 32GB;
    2. FAT 32 partition can’t store files greater than 4GB.

3 What exactly is Paragon NTFS for Mac® OS X?

    Paragon NTFS for Mac® OS X is a low-level file system driver specially developed by Paragon Software Group from the ground up. The driver is based on the unique Paragon Technology - Universal Files System Driver (UFSD). It provides reliable, fast and full read/write access to Windows NTFS file system under Mac® OS X like to native file systems and completely supports Mac® OS X 10.4 Tiger and 10.5 Leopard with G4, G5 and x86 architectures and all NTFS versions - from Windows NT 3.1 up to Windows Vista.

4 Why do I need to use this product?

    Mac® OS X doesn’t provide write access to NTFS partitions at all. Paragon NTFS for Mac® OS X is intended to provide full read and write access to all your NTFS volumes.
    There are two basic use cases:
    1. The customer needs to carry over its data (huge files) between Windows and Mac® PCs using an external hard drive. Even though both operating systems have apt files systems (NTFS and HFS+), neither of them can properly work with non-native files systems without additional software. FAT32 file system, that is supported by both operating system, can’t be used for this purpose because this file system doesn’t support (can’t store) files greater than 4GB in contrast to NTFS where the max file size is limited by volume size only.
    2. The customer uses a dual-boot system with Mac® OS X and Windows OS and needs to use data on Windows’ NTFS partition with full write and read access when running Mac® OS X.

5 What are editions of the software?

    There is one edition only – Paragon NTFS for Mac® OS X 6.0.

6 What does Paragon NTFS for Mac® OS X software include?

    There are the following components of the NTFS for Mac® OS X software:
    • Mac® UFSD Module – a low-level NTFS file system driver;
    • Check NTFS Utility - checks NTFS partition integrity and fix errors, creates and displays a status report about NTFS file system;
    • Make NTFS Utility - formats any partition as NTFS under Mac® OS X;
    • Installer/Uninstaller – to easily install and uninstall the software;
    • Register application – to easily register the software.

7 What is the “Mac® UFSD Module”?

    Mac® UFSD Module is a low-level file system driver based on a unique Paragon Universal File System Driver Technology.

8 What is Paragon UFSD Technology?

    UFSD (Universal File System Drivers) is a unique technology specially developed by Paragon Software Group to provide full access (read/write, format, etc.) to volumes of the popular file systems such as NTFS, FAT, Ext2Fs, etc. under various platforms Windows, Linux, Mac® OS X etc. in case these file systems are not supported.

9 What is UFSD SDK?

    Universal File System Driver Software Development Kit (UFSD SDK) is intended for development of the Applications providing the following main features:
    • Access to unmounted (drive letter is not assigned) partitions;
    • Access to file systems including none-supported for DOS, Linux, Mac® OS X and Windows OS family;
    • Platform-independent UFSD API.

10 How does UFSD work?

    UFSD provides access directly to the physical devices that is why it can process partitions regardless of their support by the current OS. With UFSD it is possible to mount NTFS partitions under Mac® OS X, thus getting access to its contents, just the way it is realized in the NTFS for Mac® OS X driver, and it also allows direct access via physical device addressing, the way it is realized in UFSD SDK.

11 What file systems does UFSD support?

    UFSD technology provides access to the following file systems:
    • NTFS under Windows 98;
    • NTFS under DOS;
    • NTFS under Linux;
    • NTFS under Mac® OS X;
    • Ext2/3Fs, Reiser under Windows/DOS;
    • FAT under Linux;
    • SCO Unix file systems - EAFS and HTFS under Windows.

12 What UFSD products does Paragon Software Group offer?

    Paragon Software Group offers the following products:
    • NTFS for Linux;
    • NTFS for DOS;
    • NTFS for Win98;
    • Mount Everything;
    • Recovery Tools;
    • UFSD SDK;
    • NTFS for Mac® OS X.

13 Can I check/repair a partition with NTFS File System for errors using this software?

    Yes. Use the “Check NTFS Utility” for this purpose. See the product manual for more information.

14 What is the “Check NTFS Utility”?

    The utility checks NTFS partition integrity and fix errors, creates and displays a status report about NTFS file system.
    After installing the driver, Disk Utility application (the First Aid tab) will provide with a new functionality – check and repair NTFS partitions.

15 Can I create a NTFS partition using this software?

    Yes. Use the “Format NTFS Utility” for this purpose. See the product manual for more information.

16 What is the “Make NTFS Utility”?

    The utility formats any partition as NTFS under Mac® OS X.
    After installing the driver, Disk Utility application (the Erase tab) will provide with a new functionality – erase a partition and format to NTFS (Windows NT File system).
    Please note, if you use Tiger you have to use Terminal application for this purpose. For more information, please see also Manual.

17 The NTFS file system is proprietary technology of Microsoft. Is the NTFS for Mac® OS X driver absolutely legal?

    It is well known that originally NTFS was very close to the HPFS file system developed by IBM. HPFS was much more OPEN in terms of documentation support, data structure and so on. It helped us to gain a better understanding of its nature, architecture and ideology. The knowledge about NTFS we also have got has already been used for years inside our best-seller product – Paragon Partition Manager. We have sold several million copies of Paragon Partition Manager all over the world. The stability of the products as far as NTFS related operations are concerned says for itself about the stability of the NTFS technology at all. Thus, having a pretty good idea about what the HPFS file system is, we may understand the way NTFS functions.
    Applying to the other sources of information like Linux drivers for NTFS (read only drivers) and debugging Windows applications, we’ve documented NTFS structures from within and finally created the Universal File System Driver.
    While developing Paragon NTFS for Mac® OS X driver we always stuck to the following rules:
    1) We never applied to any confidential Microsoft NTFS stuff (docs, codes, etc.) and the reverse engineering approach for MS codes.
    2) Open sources are the only thing we used. E.g. from www.ntfs.com we got the great part of our NTFS knowledge and understanding.
    3) NTFS as a file system as well as on-disk layout is not patented and not documented.

18 Why does the first release of the software have the version number - 6.0?

    Because the technology that was used to develop this software has this version number – Paragon UFSD 6.0.

19 What are the main benefits that Paragon NTFS for Mac® OS X offers to customers?

    • You don’t have to boot Windows to get full access to NTFS partitions;
    • You don’t have to use any complex application like Parallels or VMware Fusion to get full access to NTFS partitions;
    • You don’t have to use HFS+ file system to exchange files between PC and Mac®.

20 What NTFS versions are supported?

    The software supports all NTFS versions:
    • 1.2 – Windows NT compatible;
    • 3.0 – Windows 2000 compatible;
    • 3.1 – Windows XP/2003/Vista compatible.

21 What external storage media are supported?

    All storage media that Mac® can recognize (FireWire (i.e. IEEE1394), USB 1.0, USB 2.0 hard disks,…) are supported.

22 Does Paragon NTFS for Mac® OS X support USB/Firewire drives?

    Yes, of course. All NTFS volumes will be automatically mounted by the driver after connecting a drive.

23 What performance is available for the NTFS access?

    According to the performance/benchmark that was made by IOzone, our driver has the following performance:
    Write performance: 25 - 30, MB/Sec;
    Read performance: 30 – 45 MB/Sec.
    Please note, Paragon NTFS for Mac® OS X has almost the same performance as the native Apple HFS+ driver.
    The performance depends on Mac® performance (CPU RAM and so on), the flow of writing data, etc. However the major factor is an NTFS volume fragmentation. In case of huge fragmentation performance may drop down by 5-10% of the normal one. Also, regardless of the summary data flow, performance for several simultaneous copy processes is 4-5 times slower, but it is normal behavior as well as for Windows.

24 Distribution of Paragon NTFS for Mac® OS X driver

    Paragon NTFS for Mac® OS X comes in one universal binary edition that includes a standard DMG disk image containing an installation package that will automatically replace the Mac® OS X native (read only) driver with Paragon NTFS for Mac® OS X one. Please note, after the driver is uninstalled the native driver will be reverted to the original state.

25 How to use the driver?

    Just install the software like any Mac®-friendly application, that is all! You don’t have to do anything! All NTFS partitions will be mounted automatically like Mac®-native ones.

26 How to install NTFS for Mac® OS X?

    Launch the installation process by clicking on the supplied DMG disk image - NTFSforMacOSXx.x.dmg. After the installation package is extracted you can choose whether to install/uninstall the driver, read the manual or license agreement. Click “NTFS for Mac® OS X x.x” to install the driver. After going through the installation wizard the driver will be installed.

27 Do I have to install anything else to use the product and to get full read and write access to NTFS partitions?

    No! Paragon NTFS for Mac® OS X is the only product you need to install.

28 What architectures are supported?

    Paragon NTFS for Mac® is very reliable providing high performance for Intel-based x86 and PowerPC-based G4 and G5 platforms.

29 What Mac® OS X are supported?

    The following Mac® OS X were tested in the Paragon test lab:
    • Mac® OS X 10.4.6 Tiger and higher;
    • Mac® OS X 10.5 Leopard and higher.

30 What languages will Paragon NTFS for Mac® OS X support?

    At the present moment two languages are available: English and German. We are going to release Italian, French, Japanese and Russian soon .

31 Can I access huge NTFS volumes?

    Paragon NTFS for Mac® OS X driver supports NTFS volume up to 2 TB (Terrabyte) (was tested) and, perhaps, more.
    There is no any limitation to maximum NTFS volume size (but within kernel and NTFS limitations).

32 Can I access huge files on NTFS volumes?

    There is no any limitation to maximum file size (but within kernel and NTFS limitations).

33 Does non-Roman (non-English) languages are supported?

    Yes, all languages and characters are supported (Chinese, Japanese, Russian,…).

34 Will Paragon NTFS for Mac® OS X give me write access so that I can change the icon of my windows drive?

    Yes. Please go to the Terminal application and execute: /Developer/Tools/SetFile -a C /Volumes/NTFS and then create .VolumeIcon.icns on a NTFS partition (in the root directory) which icon you would like to change.

35 Does Paragon NTFS for Mac® OS X driver offer full permissions/ownership support?

    Yes, it is. You can change them as you wish.

36 What if my NTFS partitions are indexed by Spotlight and the system become slow and sluggish?

    Simply add the root of your NTFS partitions to the Spotlight System Preference. That way, Spotlight will not index them.

37 Can I use Paragon NTFS for Mac® OS X driver along with Boot Camp?

    Yes, of course you can. There is no any limitation. Just install the driver under Mac® OS X.

38 Can I access several NTFS partitions simultaneously?

    Yes, it is possible to access several (up to 12 were tested) NTFS partitions simultaneously.

39 Does the driver care about Resource Forks?

    Yes. All files from HFS+ partitions will be copied to a NTFS partition saving their Resource Forks.

40 How does the NTFS for Mac® OS X driver handle compressed files?

    NTFS supports its own compression feature. It is impossible (without a special copy routine) to copy compressed files or directories “as is” - because after the reading step we get the uncompressed file or directory. However, if the destination folder is compressed (on a NTFS partition) than the file or folder will be compressed too.

41 How does Paragon NTFS for Mac® OS X driver copy files with NTFS security attributes?

    NTFS supports its own security attributes for files and folders, and it follows that other files systems can’t recognize these attributes. When one copy a file or folder to non-NTFS partition the file or folder accept default security attributes that are used for this file system. If one copy a file or folder to a NTFS file system (any version) all security attributes will be inherited from the destination folder.

42 Does the driver support Microsoft Dynamic Volumes?

    No, Paragon NTFS for Mac® OS X driver does not support Microsoft® Dynamic Volumes.



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