Product Description

NTFS for Mac ® OS X 6.5 eliminates the barrier between Windows® and Mac® OS X! Paragon NTFS for Mac® OS X 6.5 provides full read and write access to NTFS partitions. For the first time ever, you can now modify existing files - delete, create and copy new files from your Mac® to Windows ®. Thanks to NTFS for Mac® OS X 6.5 you can quickly and easily mount any NTFS partition like a native one - just plug a disk or any media with an NTFS partition and use it as you wish.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #835 in Software
• Brand: Paragon NTFS for Mac
• Platform: Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard
• Format: CD-ROM

Features

• Full read/write access to NTFS volumes
• All NTFS versions support
• Mount the NTFS partitions as native ones

Customer Reviews

Paragon's NTFSforMacOS
I bought Paragon's NTFS for Mac OS X because I had just purchased a Seagate 750GB Hard Drive to transport files from PC to Mac and vice versa. Low and Behold, the beloved Mac OS 10.3.5 (Leopard) read, but did not write the NTFS file format. I installed the download version from Paragon's web site (Search it on Apple Store for Link), and it installed smoothly on my MacBook and ran successfully by replacing the standard driver. No other effects, ill or otherwise have been seen to date. I successfully copied about 80GB of music files, 20GB of .pdf books, backed up all my other drives and jump-drives and still have 600GB left. When the trial period expired (It isn't really Shareware as Apple states), I purchased the CD from Amazon.com cheaper than a download license at Paragon (free shipping over $25.), and the license numbers unlocked the trial version without a glitch. And I have the CD for backup.

Good product, good installation, good price and service from Amazon.

Poor documentation leads to installation difficulties, OS damage
[Apologies for the long review -- this is not normal for me, but it is an extraordinary situation when my rock-solid Mac is rendered unusable. Note: I do not work for Apple and have no personal financial interest whatsoever in the company.]

So, I purchased "Paragon NTFS for Mac OS X 6.0" to share video files between my XP machine and Mac Mini G4 running Tiger. The FAT32 file system was not a viable option, particularly because of its file size limit. Paragon's software seemed to be just what I needed, and the Mini was compliant with the indicated system requirements. It's too bad that I never got beyond the installation process with this program.

When I received the software, I popped in the CD and tried to follow the included manual. Unfortunately, the manual was a bit out of date (or was just poorly written/edited), so its information did not match up well with the content on the Paragon website, which made for a clunky registration process. Full disclosure: I am reasonably competent at Linux sysadmin and am an experienced programmer in several languages, so I'm very comfortable with manuals and man pages. With Paragon NTFS, I found the registration process to be unnecessarily complicated for a fairly obscure and inexpensive piece of software (i.e., low piracy potential). After a couple of failed attempts, I figured out how to get the software registered, in spite of the poor documentation. Hint: I should not have to go to forums and such to search for clues on how to install commercial software. It is the company's responsibility to provide that information so that paying customers are not forced to google on it.

After that odyssey, I proceeded through the rest of the installer windows and got to the "Click Restart to finish installing the software" point. I did not want to reboot right then because I had some unfinished processes running. After those processes terminated, I clicked "Restart." I did not remove the disc, as there was no indication that this was necessary.

The Mini never came back up. It posted, then the CD spun up and there was a lot of activity from the optical drive, but the login screen never appeared. The OS was stuck at the blue screen that appears just before the login screen is supposed to come up, and the little gray dial just spun and spun. Eventually, the Mini powered off (it probably got too hot under all of that load).

It then became an adventure in trying to figure out how to remove the CD (hold mouse button at startup) and see if there's any way to boot the Mini. No go with the OS DVD. It wouldn't even boot in safe mode. Unfortunately, I did not have a bootable disk image either, so I ended up going to the Genius Bar at the Apple Store the following day. They ended up doing an Archive & Install to revive the OS, and the Mini was back in business in short order. They also advised me to look at Macfuse and NTFS-3g, which do exactly what I need and are freely available. Worked like a charm and both packages were easy enough to install that a novice should be able to get the job done.

I am not planning to waste any more time with Paragon's NTFS product, chalking up the $25 loss as an educational expense. Vendors who provide poor support (and documentation is part of support) will not be getting my business. Macfuse and NTFS-3g are free and there is usable documentation for these programs, so it's not a get-what-you-pay-for situation at all. The Genius Bar staff deserve a lot of credit. They provided excellent free service for the out-of-warranty Mini, and that reminded me why I bought a Mac in the first place. Yes, I paid the Apple Tax when I bought the Mini, but I think that was a worthwhile expenditure and will do it again in the future.

If anyone at Paragon has an explanation as to why its software borked Tiger on the Mini, please comment on this review and I will take that into consideration. I am not going to bother trying to get Paragon's software to work if there's any chance that I will end up with a broken OS and the associated waste of time.

Very handy utility
I have a Macbook on which I use a program called VMWare Fusion to run Windows programs like Quicken. The external hard drive that I use to back up my Windows programs did not work for my Mac programs because the Mac did not recognize the NTFS file system on the hard drive. After doing some research, I discovered this product, which enables me to go seamlessly between backing up my Windows and Mac programs on the same hard drive. The program resides in the background, so once you install it, there is nothing further to do.

Although there is a free program called MacFuse that does the same thing as the Paragon product, for my needs it had certain technical quirks, which is why I bought the Paragon product.

I downloaded a trial version of this product from the manufacturer's website to try it out. When I was ready to purchase, I ordered the CD from Amazon because that was cheaper, and without any problem used the information on the CD to register the product without having to reinstall it from the CD.

One tip if you use VMWare Fusion or a similar program: After backing up Mac data on the hard drive, eject it in Finder, and then reconnect it on the Windows desktop, and vice versa. If you forget to do this, you may have to restart the computer to get the hard drive recognized.

If you work with both a PC and a Mac, or in my case have Windows installed on your Mac, this is a great way to use one hard drive for all of your needs.