This looks pretty similar to the hint I submitted on the 24th....


I found quite the interesting thing the other day. I hadn't seen any info on it anywhere so I was quite surprised when I saw it. Now maybe I missed it somewhere along the line and maybe some of you already know it but here it is.

I had setup a clean install of SL on my MBP 13inch a few weeks ago but I chose not to install windows again for a bit. After installing rEFIt I noticed that the old MBR still showed up on the boot screen. I thought that removing the BootCamp partition would get rid of it but I guess not. After a bit of research, I figured I had either 2 choices, wipe out my HD and start again with a freshly partitioned drive or just reinstall Windows.

So I chose to install Windows 7 RTM. After doing so and loading the BootCamp drivers, I noticed in My Computer, there was my Mac HD. Low and behold I was able to read my Mac HD.

WTH?? :)

I don't know if it was the BC drivers or Windows 7 had built in HFS read capabilities but none the less, I could do it.

So that got me thinking. I had setup Windows again so I was going to want to access its data from the SL side as well. I had used Paragon before but their current version does not run under 64bit SL yet. I believe I've seen some other drivers for free around the net that seemed to work just as well so I started my search.

That's when I came upon this. According to some sources, SL was supposed to have native RW capabilities. Well I found some info that enables that Write support.


1 - Open Terminal

2 - Type "diskutil info /Volumes/volume_name"

3 - Copy the Volume UUID number

On my system the /etc/fstab file was named fstab.hd

There was some text inside that reads:

"IGNORE THIS FILE.
This file does nothing, contains no useful data, and might go away in
future releases. Do not depend on this file or its contents."

I just commented those out with a ; in front of each line

4 - sudo vi /etc/fstab.hd to edit the /etc/fstab.hd

5 - add the UUID line that you copied from step 3 and add "none ntfs rw" to the end
Mine looks like this....
UUID=905ABB3A-683C-4805-9758-68C4CD783252 none ntfs rw

Save the file. If you have fstab then you're done with it.
If you have fstab.hd then you'll have to copy it or move it to fstab

cp fstab.hd fstab
or
mv fstab.hd fstab


If you have other NTFS partitions, you can do the same for those so you'll need multiple UUID lines.

Restart and you'll notice that your Windows drive now reports in a Get Info window as "You can Read and Write"
You'll also notice that the diskutil info command you used earlier now says:
Read-Only Media: No
Read-Only Volume: No

I have not experienced any problems yet but if anyone out there knows any, please let us know.

Also.....is anyone running 10.6.1 where this doesn't work? I haven't updated so I haven't tested yet.

Just so everyone knows, both hints were in the queue, but the one that was published was there first. That's usually how I make the call when two near-identical hints are submitted.

(There are exceptions, if one hint is incomplete or seems to be incorrect, then I'll use the newer, more correct submission.)

-rob.