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I was using Tuxera NTFS for a while on my external drives but then my trial ran out.

So then I installed ntfs-3g from macports.

When I connect my external drive, OSX automatically mounts it, but it is read-only.

But if I unmount the drive, and use ntfs-3g to mount the drive in a terminal, then I can get normal read/write access to it.

The problem is that Finder doesn't list it in the list of drives that it sees.

How can I get Finder to recognize the drive?

How can I get OSX to use the ntfs-3g program that allows read/write access instead of whatever it normally uses when connecting an external NTFS drive?

If I let OSX automatically mount the drive and type mount, this is what I get for the external drive.

/dev/disk2s1 on /Volumes/Expansion Drive (ntfs, local, nodev, nosuid, read-only, noowners)

The problem is the part that says "read-only." How can I remove that?

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  • Q: "The problem is that Finder doesn't list it in the list of drives that it sees". Is this only true for the "Finder Sidebar" and/or for the "/" dir ?! – v2r Mar 3 '12 at 2:46
  • It doesn't list it under "Devices" where hard drives are normally shown. I can still find it in finder if I go to the directory where it's mounted. – z-buffer Mar 3 '12 at 4:23
  • Ok! Open a window and browse to "/Volumes", where the HD Drives are visible and drag them into the Finder Sidebar under Devices. This works usually! – v2r Mar 3 '12 at 4:34
  • I tried dragging them over, but they won't go there. They can't even be put in Favorites. – z-buffer Mar 3 '12 at 5:30
  • Now that makes sense. As you said before, you only have "write access". I suppose you need to change permissions permanently for the HDD in question, to make it work as it was before. I never used "Tuxera NTFS" or "ntfs-3g", so i don't know for sure if there is a conflict and if so, can i be easily resolves via the preferences settings etc.. I am sure, that here is your solution tuxera.com/forum/… – v2r Mar 3 '12 at 6:11
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I finally got it working. I used the info at this site. The instructions are now included in brew installations.

Basically use brew or macports to install ntfs-3g, fuse4x, and fuse4x-kext. If you have an icon in System Preferences for fuse or macfuse, remove those, you don't need them. Follow the instructions after you finish installing them. You can also use brew info to see those instructions if you missed them before.

When I did brew info ntfs-3g I found this.

To replace the default Mac OSX automounter:
    sudo mv /sbin/mount_ntfs /sbin/mount_ntfs.orig
    sudo ln -s /usr/local/Cellar/ntfs-3g/2012.1.15/sbin/mount_ntfs /sbin/mount_ntfs

I also did brew fuse4x-kext and found this.

  sudo cp -rfX /usr/local/Cellar/fuse4x-kext/0.9.0/Library/Extensions/fuse4x.kext /Library/Extensions
  sudo chmod +s /Library/Extensions/fuse4x.kext/Support/load_fuse4x

After running those commands I got the ntfs drives to automount and be visible in Finder with read/write access.

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