Formatting an external harddrive with TrueCrypt as NTFS?

Question

I've been trying for a couple of hours to figure out how to encrypt my external harddrive with TrueCrypt. I need it to be formatted as NTFS, however TrueCrypt doesn't let me choose any other filesystem than HFS+ (Mac OS Extended).

This is how the TrueCrypt window looks like upon trying to pick the filesystem:

I've got both Tuxera NTFS and MacFuse installed so I can perfectly mount, write, read and format disks as NTFS via the Disk Utility. I just can't seem to encrypt it via TrueCrypt. The reason I need it to be NTFS is that it needs to be 100% Windows compatible with as little hassle as possible, otherwise I would have settled with HFS+.

I'm using OS X 10.8.5 on a 2011 MacBook Pro, the external harddrive is a Western-Digitals 1TB drive.

Answer 1

I don't think you can format your external hard drive as NTFS using TrueCrypt -- in my experience it can only be done from a PC. I also work with macOS and Windows, so what I did was to use the Portable TrueCrypt for Windows on a PC, and then I was able to encrypt the external NTFS-formatted hard drive with TrueCrypt. The advantage of using the Portable TruecCrypt for Windows is that the program doesn't have to be installed on the PC, and the TrueCrypt volume can be mounted on both OS. Hope this helps!