Summary: This article will tell you how to convert NTFS to APFS without losing data. More excitingly, you can use iBoysoft NTFS for Mac to read and write to your NTFS drive without any extra effort. It works just like the native APFS. Grab a free trial now.
"I use a Windows 10 machine for many years but my computer recently died. I am interested in changing over to a Mac machine to learn Photoshop and video editing skills. The main issue is getting my work documents and photos that I have worked on, which are on separate NTFS external hard drives. I believe I need to go from NTFS to APFS. I am not sure how to do it and keep all my files of the same quality at the same time. Anybody can help?"
Reformatting Ntfs Drive For Mac
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When people want to move from the Windows platform to the Apple platform using an external drive formatted with the NTFS file system, they will always find that the files on the NTFS drive are non-editable and non-transferrable on Mac.
Therefore, you must be considering converting NTFS to APFS to solve the inconvenience. This post will teach you how to convert NTFS to APFS without losing data so that you can use the external drive on Mac freely. But before converting NTFS to APFS, did you know what those two different file systems are? Did you know what advantages they have?
APFS (Apple File System) is Apple's newest file system coming with macOS High Sierra. macOS Ventura, macOS Monterey, macOS Big Sur, macOS Catalina, and macOS Mojave use APFS as the default file system as well. Windows doesn't have APFS support at all. You can't read nor write to APFS drives on Windows.
There is certainly a gap between Microsoft NTFS drives and Mac operating system. If you want to use this external HD interchangeably between Windows and macOS, it is better to format an external hard drive for Mac and PC with FAT or exFAT format.
On the other hand, if you are going to move to macOS permanently and use the external drive on a Mac running macOS Ventura/Monterey/Big Sur/Catalina/Mojave/High Sierra, it is a good idea to convert NTFS to APFS since APFS is the primary file system in them now.
Does converting to APFS delete data? Converting a file system formatted on a drive might delete data. Therefore, you need to handle the process with care and back up your NTFS drive, or it might cause data loss. Check the section below to know how to convert NTFS to APFS without losing data.
At this step, we need to seek help from Paragon NTFS-HFS Converter, a free tool that can easily convert NTFS drive to HFS+ and vice versa. It offers us an option to back up files on the NTFS drive to avoid data loss.
Technically speaking, formatting or reformatting a drive will write a new directory structure to this disk. After reformatting, the disk will appear blank and you have no access to your files. Therefore, you will need to back up your files before you perform reformatting the NTFS drive.
2. Copy and paste the important data from the NTFS drive to the Mac. If your Mac doesn't have enough capacity for data backup, use another external drive formatted with a Mac-friendly format for backup.
Both methods introduced above can help you move from NTFS to APFS and then you won't have any problem reading and writing the external drive on Mac running macOS Ventura/Monterey/Big Sur/Catalina/Mojave/High Sierra.
Besides changing NTFS into APFS, using a third-party NTFS for Mac driver can also help you solve Mac external hard drive read-only issue without converting. You don't need to spend much time waiting for backing up and reformatting the drive. You can keep enjoying the advantages of the NTFS format and mount NTFS drives in read-write mode on Mac as well.
iBoysoft NTFS for Mac is a handy tool for Mac users to enable full read-write access to NTFS drives on Mac. It can mount Microsoft NTFS-formatted drives in read-write mode automatically on Mac, including Apple M1, M1 Pro, and M1 Max Mac. It has a fast NTFS write and file transferring speed.
Besides its NTFS write support, iBoysoft NTFS for Mac is also a comprehensive NTFS drive management tool for users to better manage NTFS drives and external drives. It can open, unmount, eject, and erase NTFS disks.
Even when there are NTFS file system errors, the software can try to repair the errors. Additionally, it can list and open all connected USB flash drives, SD cards, memory sticks, and external hard drives with one click. Moreover, it can reformat other file systems to NTFS if needed.
The incompatibility makes it inconvenient to transfer files from NTFS drives to Mac computers. Formatting NTFS into APFS can solve the NTFS drives read-only problem on Mac. More importantly, do not forget to do data backup before changing NTFS to APFS to avoid data loss.
Want to use NTFS drives on a Mac? Well, you're in luck because in this guide we're going to help you do just that! And the good news is, it's not as tricky as it sounds. Stick with us as and we'll show you exactly how to use those Windows-formatted drives in macOS.
There's an ongoing debate about whether the best Windows laptops and PCs are better than the best MacBooks and Macs and let's face it, that one won't be getting settled any time soon. But, there's no denying that Windows computers are more widespread, which is why the best external hard drives and USB sticks tend to come pre-formatted to NTFS.
Before we get into how to use NTFS drives on a Mac, it's worth understanding what NTFS actually is. The NT File System (NTFS) was developed by Microsoft way back in 1992 when they released Windows 3.1 as a way of allowing users to quickly plug their drives into Windows machines so they could work with their files. Because NTFS is proprietary, Apple would need a special license to use it fully on the Macs they sell.
As things currently stand, Apple don't have this license, which is why you can only open and view files on Windows drives but not make any changes to them. While it's great that your Mac has been designed to read NTFS-formatted drives, it's likely that you're going to want to do more than that, which is where we come in.
One of the strongest contenders for macOS is Microsoft NTFS for Mac (opens in new tab) by Paragon, which offers a ten-day free trial of its features. Once installed, the app will mount your Windows drives allowing you to change or remove files to your hearts content.
If reformatting your NTFS drive for Mac is not an option, you can enable write support for specific Windows disks using macOS Terminal. This is an experimental feature and could lead to data loss, so make sure to do a full backup of both your Mac and any data on the drive before continuing.
This allows you to boot both operating systems on your Mac. Once set up, Windows 10 will function on your Mac in just the same way as it would on a regular PC. This includes working with NTFS-formatted drives.
Important note: If you have useful files stored on the external drive, be sure to copy or transfer them to another safe place prior to formatting. The operation will erase all data and your files will be gone for good.
I have the same problem. Partition greyed out. The external drives have been reformatted to Mac OS Extended (Journaled). however with Catalina OS 10.15.7 you no longer get SCHEME as a drop down option. Can anyone advise how to deal with this issue.
I am about to get a new hard drive and appreciate all this information. If I partition the HD, how will Time Machine know which side to back up on? My old HD was not partitioned, so I just plugged it in and started Time Machine. Thanks for any advice!
I have erased an USB drive as you have recommended, it was successful however after the action I cannot mount the drive ( I can see ii in disk utility). Can you advise me where is the pb?thank you
I encountered the same problem, no matter which drive option I selected I was unable to partition. Then I noticed in the tutorial above that the scheme being used was GUID partition map ( the scheme I was using was Master Boot Record). With my external HD still empty, I went to utility disk, selected erase, changed the format to MAC OS ext Journaled AND selected GUID partition map under the scheme option then I erased. After that I was able to select partition.
A way to do is by copying your backup image to another shared drive and format the external drive followed by partitioning it. You can copy the backup image back to the preferred partition.Hope this helps.
Hey, try erasing the HD and reformatting to Mac OS extended journaled and the partition scheme be GUID. THEN select it and go to the partition tab again. Now you have the +. Crete the partition. THEN go back and reformatted portions to whatever file format you want.
NTFS for Mac OS X (10 Days Trial): I use this one, and it does the job very well. When the driver is installed, you format your NTFS disks with Disk Utility where you select Windows NT Filesystem as the format.
I am not explaining the downloading and installation instructions here because the link below has explained each and everything on how to make NTFS drive work with macOS. This worked successfully on my macOS Sierra.
NTFS stands for NT File System. It was initially introduced in Windows NT version 3.1, serving as the operating system's default file system. The majority of the external drives are formatted to NTFS by default as Windows is more extensively used than macOS.
It is not possible to write Mac devices to NTFS natively because Apple has not licensed this proprietary file system. If you want to work with NTFS files, you'll need a third-party NTFS driver for Mac. You can read them on your Mac, but that is unlikely to meet your requirements.
Aside from reading, there are a few things you can do with NTFS files on your Mac. You can change the file type to something else, but this is a time-consuming process! Although this isn't always a good idea, you can also use Terminal to grant yourself NTFS writing permissions. Your best bet is to use third-party drivers and apps, which come in a variety of bundles. 2ff7e9595c
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