I need to back up my Mac w OS-X onto an external HDD that is formatted with NTFS.
I have a program called Paragon installed on my Mac that converts from Mac format to NTFS.
For some reason, however, when I plug in the external HDD, it comes up as “read-only”.
I had this issue once before on my MacMini with an NTFS external HDD, but randomly got it working the next day.
Since most of my PCs have Windows, my data backup needs to be done on NTFS.
Any ideas what is going on?
TomTees
Any ideas out there?
TomTees
It looks like this might be a common problem, but with 10.6 you should be able to mount an NTFS drive as read/write. What version of OSX are you running?
This article seems to be a good one, specifically for what you are trying to do.
Let me know if that doesn’t help. 
I’m running OS X 10.5.8.
I just skimmed the link you sent since it is for OS X 10.6
Dumb question, but is there any easy way to upgrade to OS X 10.6??
(If I have to scrap my MacBook or spend $$$ then I’m not interested.)
Do you have a Mac?
Ever try to do what I’m trying to do?
TomTees
Sorry, somehow I missed that you’d replied.
A quick google tells me that you should be able to run 10.6 on your MacBook, but you will have to purchase the upgrade. But upgrading from 10.5 is only $30, according to the apple store.
I’ve never tried what you’re talking about. My personal recommendation is upgrading to 10.6, but if it’s cost prohibitive you might try FAT32 instead of NTFS. Another quick google says that’s the best (and really only) option, pre 10.6.
Let me know if you have more questions.
Good point, however…
I’m out of work and money is super tight for us.
I think 10.6 is Snow Leopard and I REFUSE to keep relearning operating systems. (I switched to Macs two years ago and it has taken me two years to get to where I can do everything and more on my Mac as on my PCs. There is no way I’m going through that again!!)
I’ve never tried what you’re talking about. My personal recommendation is upgrading to 10.6, but if it’s cost prohibitive you might try FAT32 instead of NTFS. Another quick google says that’s the best (and really only) option, pre 10.6.
Let me know if you have more questions.
What are the Disk Limits and File Limits of using FAT32?
(I need to back up some raw audio files where the folders are several GB’s, although I’m not sure any individual file is that big.)
I know that Paragon’s NTFS for Macs was working on my MacMini and I believe on this MacBook before. It just seems temperamental at times?! 
What would happen if I took a different approach and formatted my external hard-drive as OS X-format and backed up my data?
Is there any way I could ever get that backup back on my Windows PC’s to access the data?
Also, if I format my external drive to OS X-format, would that prohibit me from hooking that hard-drive back up to a PC and re-formatting it back to its original NTFS?
Since we are suffering from REALLY HARD financial problems these days, and since I had to put a lot of stuff in storage as we changed where we lived, I am living off this MacBook for now, and don’t have access to a lot of my old computers and software. (Don’t even know ehere the original Paragon CD is at?!)
I would hate to lose all my work for this e-commerce site, Sitepoint conversations, and my music if this MacBook crashed and before I can get back the good ole days (i.e. gainfully employed, with money, stuff out of storage, better computer set-up).
Does that make sense?
Any ideas to help me out? 
TomTees
The two are actually nearly identical, on the surface. There’s some additional functionality but overall you shouldn’t notice a huge difference. A pretty complete article about it can be found over at CNET.
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-10330510-263.html
The answers to all of your FS limitations for FAT32:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314463
If you format the drive, and write new information to it, you will have a very difficult (read: nearly impossible, and require the purchase of other software) time attempting to retrieve it.
That said, if you mean to say that the data on the harddrive now is data that you have stored elsewhere, and you want to format the drive and re-backup, you should be able to do that with FAT32, since FAT32 works with both Windows and MacOS.
Hopefully that helps.
Something to consider.
If you format the drive, and write new information to it, you will have a very difficult (read: nearly impossible, and require the purchase of other software) time attempting to retrieve it.
That said, if you mean to say that the data on the harddrive now is data that you have stored elsewhere, and you want to format the drive and re-backup, you should be able to do that with FAT32, since FAT32 works with both Windows and MacOS.
Hopefully that helps.
Not sure if you understood me.
I have an external HDD. It is formatted as NTFS. It is blank.
If I format it as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) then I can - obviously - backup my MacBook.
My question was, however, if I need to format that newly formatted external HDD back to NTFS is that possible?
(Obviously I would lose any data on the external HDD, but I just want to be certain that when you format a HDD to Mac that you are not somehow irreversible altering it so it can no longer be formatted as NTFS?!)
Assuming that I can go from NTFS to Mac OS Extended back to NTFS, that may be the quickest way to get a backup for now…
TomTees
Hrm, you’re right. I didn’t understand your question, and I’m still not sure I do.
As far as I know there is no reason, at all, that you would not be able to go back to NTFS after reformatting in MacOSE.
This might help, too, as it appears there can be some confusion when formatting. Found it when I was verifying that you can format NTFS as MacOSE and back.
http://en.kioskea.net/forum/affich-4848-wd-my-book-formattin
Let me know if you have more questions, or if I’ve missed it again. 