Writing to NTFS in OS X

Editing files on an NTFS partition (like an external hard disk formatted in Windows) is not only a hidden feature in OS X, it’s also pretty weird.

To enable editing files on an NTFS partition, edit /etc/fstab and add a line like this:

LABEL=LabelOfYourDisk none ntfs rw,auto,nobrowse

Save the file, exit, eject and reinsert the disk.

The weird part is the nobrowse option. Thanks to that setting, the disk will be hidden in Finder. To open it, run open /Volumes in a terminal, the disk should be visible there.

So why not just remove the nobrowse option? If you remove it then writing to the partition won’t work. Go figure.

If you intend to use the external disk regularly, then drag it to the sidebar so you don’t have to run open /Volumes every time.

Writing to NTFS in OS X —16 August 2014