Paragon NTFS for Mac OS X Public Beta Testing

[LinhMy]

VMware and Parallels VMs

Further testing with VMware and Parallels indicates that DOS will run as a VM. Win98 and up will not. I must have been loading VMs from the wrong external disk.

 

[CLuv]

Anatoly,

I look forward to your update, and look forward to providing feedback. Especially since I did an Archive and Install of Mac OS X.

-CLuv

 

[Jack Flash]

I installed the beta but unfortunately, none of my NTFS drives even mount anymore.

 

[fwhh]

In Finder, column view, when highlighting a file on an NTFS drive, the information summary on the most right column stays at "Last opened: loading....*spinnigwheel*"

 

[fotism]

Installed and used to access my bootcamp partition that is now NTFS.
Minor problem: the bootcamp partition doesn't show in startup disk preferences.

Setup: macbook pro 2.2 (SR) OSX 10.4.10

 

[fotism]

Another problem: highlighting the bootcamp partition in Finder (column view) makes the volume unrecognisable as a volume by Finder. Disk Utility says it cannot unmount the volume. After restart, everything is normal.

 

[fotism]

Another problem: highlighting the bootcamp partition in Finder (column view) makes the volume unrecognisable as a volume by Finder. Disk Utility says it cannot unmount the volume. After restart, everything is normal.

... well, until I select the volume again while in column view...

 

[GuidoN]

FSUtil Behaviour

For devices with a huge amount of files, is it possible to do something similar as with Fsutil? Like...

fsutil behavior set disable8dot3 1
fsutil behavior set disablelastaccess 1

...to disable 8.3 Name creation, and to disable writing of the last access date?

Although the maximum number of files on a NTFS volume is something like 2^32-1, you can sometimes get problems if you have more than maybe 500.000 files on a volume. Using these two options helps to improve the performance, if you do not need 8.3 Names and/or the LastAccess Date.

I usually use this on external drives, when using those with a lot (500K++) of small files.

Best Regards,
Guido

 

[phampton81]

Anatoly

Sorry for the delay. The files were written to the root directory of my bootcamp partition, the files were approximately 100mb apiece, and were par2 files, with some others mixed in. When the same files were written to a folder on the desktop of the same partition /documents and settings/my name/desktop I was able to see and work with the files fine under windows. I was also able to see the files in os x (original root directory files), but not windows. I have found just placing files anyway other than root works for me. Thanks

 

[SDAVE]

In Finder, column view, when highlighting a file on an NTFS drive, the information summary on the most right column stays at "Last opened: loading....*spinnigwheel*"

I get the same

 

[Anatoly]

Dear Forum Visitors,

We just uploaded Beta 2 version that is our first release candidate. Please uninstall the Beta 1 and then install Beta 2. We are looking forward to hearing your feedback.

Dear phampton81,
Please try to reproduce the problem you have faced with Beta 1:

The weird part is that the folder that they are in and that was created in os x is there, but the files are not.

Dear ScienceMac,
Please update your Parallels and try to reproduce the problem.

You cannot copy '2006-04-22 - Tokyo - 008.JPG' to the destination, as another object with the same name already exists, which only differs in uppercase/lowercase writing.

We should have been fixed the problem when copying a huge directory with files, please check it.


Dear dtdrpepper,
The problems you have reported should be fixed, please check it.

Dear Cluv,
If you don’t be afraid , please install the beta 2 (before install the beta 1!) and let us know how the startup time is changed.

Another issue now, is that Finder now opens up after start up automatically showing the drives on my computer. It's never done that before.

Finder automatically restores opened finder windows after restarting. Please check if there is no opened finder window before your computer is restarted.

Dear LinhMy,
In this beta 2, the issue with running vmware fusions's virtual machines from NTFS has been fixed. Please check it.

Dear fwhh,
I would recommend you to upgrade your Parallels to the version number 3.

The NTFS volume is not showing up in the StartUp Disk Preference Pane.

– we are fixing this problem now, thanks.

Disk Utility is showing "0 Files, 0 Folders".

Unfortunately , we are not going to fix this issue, because it will take a considerable time (slow down your system) to count all files and folders on a NTFS partition.

And: When bringing up the info dialogue (CMD+i) the "More Information" field stays at the spinning wheel...(saying: Loading...)

Fixed.

In Finder, column view, when highlighting a file on an NTFS drive, the information summary on the most right column stays at "Last opened: loading....*spinnigwheel*"

Fixed.

Dear Jack Flash,
Please send us your “profile file”: go to “About This Mac”, Press the “More Info...” button and select “Save As…” in the File menu.

Dear GuidoN,
Thanks for the remark. Please note, “8.3 Name creation” is disabled by default in our driver. We are planning to make an utility and/or/xor Preference Pane to control parameters of NTFS volumes (like last access time updates disabling, compression, etc).


Dear fotism,
Could you please clarify your issue in more details, unfortunately I can’t understand what do you mean, thanks.


Dear Forum Visitors, please note that beta 1 and beta 2 are 30-days trial versions.
Looking forward to hearing from you soon.
We are going to release the product in 1.5 -2 weeks.
Thank you all!
Anatoly.

P.S.: To download the public beta 2, please fill out a short web form and download it - http://ntfs-mac.com/ .

 

[GuidoN]

Copy & Delete fails

When copying from an external FW800 HDD (connected to FW400 Port), to the internal HDD, I get the following error:

"The Item "/Volumes/OneTouch/Documents" cannot be copied. An unexpected error occured. (osErr: -8089)"

When deleting a folder, I get this error:

"The Finder cannot complete the operation because some data in "Documents1" could not be read or written. (Error code -36)"

In both cases, I used a 90 GB folder with approx. 500.000 files in it.

The external drive is a Maxtor OneTouch III 1.5 TB formatted with a single NTFS Partition (created in XP Pro SP2).

Moving Folders on the external drive works without problems.

Connecting/disconnecting another external drive while the first external drive is doing some work (copying, ...) works without problems (makes problems on certain other operating systems).

Connecting/disconnecting external NTFS drives makes no problems.

No additional delay during startup/shutdown with NTFS for Mac installed.

Browsing the external drive (e.g. in finder) makes no problems and seems to be very fast.

"Calculate folder drive" or similar works without problems (even with an external drive containing 2.500.000 files in 900 GB!) (This makes problems on certain other operating systems).

Best Regards,
Guido

 

[GuidoN]

Still some problems with Beta 2

Uninstall of first Beta worked without problems.

Setup of Beta 2 worked without problems.

Copying a folder with 90 GB/50.000 files from external NTFS hard disk drive to internal hard disk drive worked without problems. Transfer speed was approx. 25 MB/s over a FW400 port.

Deleting a folder with 500.000 files/100 GB from external NTFS hard disk drive resulted in a crash, the machine stopped with this error, and I had to power off the machine:

"You need to restart your computer. Hold down the Power button for several seconds or press the Restart button."

Uninstall of Beta 2 worked without problems.

NTFS read-only access (OS X standard) did work without problems, after uninstall of Beta 2.

Best Regards,
Guido

 

[fotism]

Well, the second bug I reported is that when I highlight the NTFS volume in the Finder in column view, the volume's icon changes into a generic file icon that cannot be opened. If I reboot, the icon is back and the volume can be opened again.
The first bug is the same one reported by some other forum members: the volume doesn't appear in the startup disk preference pane, although it's a Bootcamp volume with WinXP installed and working fine through both Parallels and restarting with option key pressed.

 

[fotism]

Just installed beta 2. The second bug is gone. The first one is still there, though.

 

[CLuv]

Anatoly,

Installed Beta 2, a little faster at startup, but not close to the original startup speed. Everything else seems fine, except that the bug of not being a disk of choice for the Startup Disk in System Preferences.

 

[fucayama]

Beta 2 issue

Hi,

First of all great idea and very good product.

Installed the Beta 2 on a Intel Macbook pro with Bootcamp XP partition and initially worked like a charm.

After the computer was left on for a while though when I returned the drive was continually reading at about ~1Mb/sec and the Finder had stopped working.
"kernel_task" seemed to be the only process using more CPU than normal but only by a couple of %.

Other info, I have Mozy backup installed and this was stuck attempting to perform a backup despite not being online and also in the root directory of the OSX HD a file "mds-crash-state" had been created.

Performing the maintenance scripts and reseting the finder database resolved the problem following a reboot but same thing occured again after a while. Possibly being initiated by Mozy again? (it's set to auto sync after a half-hour)

Uninstalled for now and all back to normal, note when I uninstalled I didn't reset finder but it worked again following the restart.

Thanks

 

[greengreengreen]

Beta 2

Installed this and now Finder locks up each time I go near the NTFS drive in the Finder.
The NTFS volume has 1 folder with 1 folder inside that and 70000 files inside that.

Force restart and uninstalled and now back to normal.
Would be keen for this to work as I want to read and write large numbers of files on NTFS volumes.

 

[paul619LT]

now, how exactly do i use this software? do i just try copying files to an NTFS HDD?

 

[Anatoly]

Dear Forum Visitors,

Thanks again for your feedback.

Dear fotism,
We just fixed the first bug. Thanks. Unfortunately the version is not uploaded yet.

Dear greengreengreen,
Could you please let us know, how much does it take to open your "70000" folder? The driver must open the folder any case.

Dear paul619LT,
Use this software as you wish. You just need to understand that this driver allows you to write, read, modify, delete,... files on NTFS partitions. As you do with your default partitions formatted with HFS file system.

I would like to introduce our software engineer who is responsible for this project. He would like to ask you a few questions. His nick is A.Obuschenko.

Thank you all in advance,
Anatoly.

 

[dtaye]

my issues to date with NTFS for Mac OS X

im using the following iMac:
Model Identifier: iMac5,1, Intel Core 2 Duo, 2 GHz
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache (per processor): 4 MB
Memory: 1 GB
Bus Speed: 667 MHz

i tried to copy from a WD caviar 320GB external via USB and it never came up on the system. it has been having that issue on the PC as wel, where i only see it when i connect via eSATA cable, and only when i put the drive on before i power up the PC [a WXP SP2 system running a sempron 1.6]

when i mount my other external [a regular ATA maxtor 250gb via usb] onto the iMac i see that.

when i installed the NTFS for Mac OS X i found that on day one i could transfer files to and from the maxtor drive. however, by day two, the transfers started having problems when i put the drive back on the WXP system. some of the files were corrupted.

at that point i installed macdrive 7 [demo version] onto the WXP system. my intension was to copy the files from an external firewire drive we use with our mac server [an oxford IDE 240GB using HFS+ formatting]
that configuration seems to be working stably to date [installed macdrive two nights ago]

another problem i am having is that when i save illustrator CS3 files from the iMac to either the oxford external, the maxtor external or on a DVD i cannot open it in the WXP CS2 illustrator whereas before i could open items that i had saved onto memory stick, CD or DVD on either platform.
and when i save the CS2 illustrator files on the WXP system, the iMac is not opening the file at all.
photoshop files seem to have no problems.

yet another problem i am now seeing is that when i try to see the network list on the iMac [we have a wireless network via airport extreme connected to a G4 quicksilver that we use as a file server] i cannot see any computers on the network [we also have two other identical iMacs and a powerbook on the wireless network]
however, i can see one of the drives on the G4 [the main drive] and i can get internet service and access the printer, which are both routed through the airport.

i have uninstalled the NTFS for Mac OS X app.

i just wanted to add my issues to the list as i believe this could be a valuable piece of software for cross-pollinated network environments.
regards

 

[greengreengreen]

70000 files

Simply clicking on the volume to see the first folder locked finder for a few minutes.
Then opening that folder to see the 2nd folder took a few minutes.

I would expect it to take some time to go into the folder with all the files, but I never got there, it took a long time just to access the drive regardless of the directory.
It seems to be recursively accessing the folders??

Because of this behaviour I restarted finder and uninstalled your software.

 

[Mr. Zarniwoop]

We are looking forward to hearing your feedback.

I uninstalled NTFS-3g for OS X in order to try out your Beta 2. Your utility for the most part just works, and seems very, very fast. Is it possible your NTFS under OS X is faster than NTFS under Windows Vista? I didn't do any real tests, but a few times duplicating files I have to say it feels that way. That's very exciting if it proves as stable as NTFS-3g, which has a reputation for stability, quality, and being exceptionally safe writing to NTFS volumes. And let's not forget, NTFS-3g is free, but clearly the current implementation breaks no speed records on OS X... although some major speed improvements sound like they're coming.

One good thing about your NTFS Beta 2 package for a typical Mac user is that once installed, it's basically invisible. The only obvious indication with your software that it's not the Apple read-only NTFS loaded seems to be Windows NTFS startup disks from Boot Camp no longer showing up in Startup Disk in System Preferences. Bit of a shame, but not that much of a trade-off, one true of NTFS-3g as well. I also noted that unlike NTFS-3g (which uses MacFUSE), fixed vs removable disks are handled properly, as it's bugged me that all NTFS volumes with NTFS-3g appear as removable drives.

As commercial software, Mac users will likely expect some integration with Disk Utility to allow for the formatting of NTFS volumes. I was afraid to try "Repair Disk" from Disk Utility, does it support that? That's also probably going to be expected from a commercial package.

I tried partitioning an NTFS volume from diskutil (in Terminal) and for some reason every volume I created was called "NTFS" and seemed to ignore the name specified, although I could easily rename NTFS volumes after creation.

Later update: I got a kernel panic trying to unmount an external NTFS drive. First one on my three-week old Mac Pro! Oddly, no panic.log (does Intel OS X not do that?) That was enough to make me uninstall your beta and go back to NTFS-3g. While I have no panic.log to share, this was in my Disk Utility log:

**********
Oct 8 00:42:16: Disk Utility started.

Unmount of “Vista 250GB HD

Had it not caused a kernel panic, the last line should have read: Unmount of "Vista 250GB HD" succeeded

Guess it crashed right after writing out the disk name but before writing out the "

 

[rainforest1155]

Hi,

I tried the beta, but wasn't completely happy with it and decided to give MacFusion a try as well. Running the uninstall I decided to not let it restart right away and closed the dialog with the red X (on Windows you at least most times can cancel the reboot with a cancel button). I probably have put my MBP (Mac OSX 10.4.10) into sleep 2 or 3 times and then decided to restart. After the restart my NTFS USB drive wasn't displayed anymore. The FAT partition still showed up, but not the NTFS partitions.
I figured that I maybe should have restarted right away (on Windows it never mattered if you waited with the restart) and installed the NTFS support again, which brought back my NTFS drives. Then I uninstalled it once more and restarted right away, but my built-in read-only support isn't back.

Any suggestions on how to get the standard NTFS support back?

Thanks,
Sebastian

 

[nospamboz]

Just tried beta 2 on some USB NTFS drives via MacOS, and it looks OK,
much faster than MacFUSE/NTFS-3G. Will do some more thorough testing
with several VMware VMs (XP x64, Vista x64, Longhorn RC0 i386). No
bootcamp (no Windows games).

BTW, your website says "Buy Now for $19.95" for NTFS for Linux, even
though the price is actually $29.95.

Thanks for this.