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InfiniteMac OSx86 › Kernel & Community Releases › Snow Leopard's Boot Camp Includes HFS+ Windows Drivers
60,678 reads · 2009-05-11 – 2009-12-22
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Snow Leopard's Boot Camp Includes HFS+ Windows Drivers

[float=right]macrumors.com, May 08, 2009: MacRumors has learned that Apple's Boot Camp utility under Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard will include Windows HFS+ drivers, which will allow Windows installations to read Mac OS X HFS+ formatted…

Primary Author
@Voyn1x Published 2009-05-11
Collection
Kernel & Community Releases
Archival Footprint
60,678 historical reads · 15 curated field notes (from 18 dispatches) · 2009-05-11 – 2009-12-22
Credited Voices (13)
@maya77 (3)@Breathless (3)@Imkantus (2)@Voyn1x@Superhai@TechSgtChen@Aydinz@ludacrisvp@erick2red@IceBreakerG@amantonas@thorazine74@Ianxxx

[float=right]macrumors.com ↗, May 08, 2009:

MacRumors has learned that Apple's Boot Camp utility under Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard will include Windows HFS+ drivers, which will allow Windows installations to read Mac OS X HFS+ formatted partitions.

Boot Camp is Apple's software package that allows customers to boot Microsoft's Windows operating system on their Intel Macs. The Boot Camp package includes the necessary Windows drivers to support each Mac's hardware. Windows, however, does not routinely recognize Mac formatted hard drives and is unable to read or write to them without special drivers. The newest version of Snow Leopard's Boot Camp appears to include these special drivers to allow read access to Mac data even under Windows.

The move should make it easier for customers to switch between Windows and Mac operating systems by allowing files to be more easily transfered back and forth. Up until now, customers would have to rely on third-party utilities such as Mediafour's MacDrive to accomplish the same task.

Synthesized Community Field Notes

15 technical responses curated from 18 original dispatches

Field Note #1 @TechSgtChen 2009-05-12

How about allowing OS X to read and write NTFS volumes? Apple should have done that a long time ago.

Field Note #2 @Aydinz 2009-05-12

why doesnt everyone just use NTFSForMacOSX by Paragon to read NTFS on OS X and MacDrive 7 on Windows to read HFS+ i see so many people complain but all it takes is a quick google search to get tons of software to do the job, those are the 2 i personally like the best

here are links to them:
medi afour.com/products/macdrive/
paragon software.com/home/ntfs-mac/download.html

woops sorry just read the bottom bit of the post :S sorry i just hear a lot of people complaining about it, but like whats wrong with these 3rd party apps, they dont exactly effect performance much or anything

Field Note #3 @ludacrisvp 2009-05-12 ↳ Re: @TechSgtChen
@TechSgtChenHow about allowing OS X to read and write NTFS volumes? Apple should have done that a long time ago.

That is already included inside of Snow Leopard.
Build 10a190 had read and write to NTFS and I would assume that the rest of them do too.

@Aydinzwhy doesnt everyone just use NTFSForMacOSX by Paragon to read NTFS on OS X and MacDrive 7 on Windows to read HFS+

Well there is one reason that MacDrive 7 isn't used by many and that is because it does not work on any 64 bit version of the windows operating system.

The Paragon NTFS driver does work nicely and I use it inside of Leopard on my real Mac Pro and I use the MacFuse Ntfs on the hacks.

Field Note #4 @maya77 2009-05-12

Great news.

It will for sure be more stable than any currently available HFS reader for Windows.

Field Note #5 @IceBreakerG 2009-05-18 ↳ Re: @ludacrisvp
@ludacrisvpWell there is one reason that MacDrive 7 isn't used by many and that is because it does not work on any 64 bit version of the windows operating system.

Just thought I'd post a reply to this. The current version of MacDrive 7 (v7.2.6) does indeed work on Vista x64. I'm not sure when they added support for 64-bit Windows, but the latest version does work, and works very well.

Field Note #6 @maya77 2009-06-13

v7.2.8 works perfect with all XP/Vista versions.

Beta version of MacDrive 8 works with Win7 too.

Field Note #7 @amantonas 2009-09-20

I'm completely sure I would be dancing if I had a mac .

Field Note #8 @maya77 2009-09-21

Better yet - NTFS write support is implemented in Snow Leopard, just needs to be enabled.

Field Note #9 @thorazine74 2009-09-22

Can we us hackintosh users install and use Apple's BootCamp HFS drivers somehow?

Field Note #11 @Breathless 2009-12-22 ↳ Re: @maya77
@maya77Better yet - NTFS write support is implemented in Snow Leopard, just needs to be enabled.
@ImkantusCheck this out: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=18… ↗ I've testet on my girlfriends hackitnosh notebook @ Windows Vista (x86) and it works fine.

Then why do these linked drivers (which were directly from the snow leopard DVD) not include write support even though the included drivers on the Snow Leopard DVD were supposed to be read/write?

Anyone know?

Field Note #12 @Ianxxx 2009-12-22 ↳ Re: @Breathless
@BreathlessThen why do these linked drivers (which were directly from the snow leopard DVD) not include write support even though the included drivers on the Snow Leopard DVD were supposed to be read/write? Anyone know?

Not quite sure what your asking but, if you mean apples ntfs driver it is read write but needs to be enabled default is read only, you can do this by making an fstab file and specifying rw

e.g.

UUID=145BBCD2-1E6F-FF4C-9D26-E137472E67CA none ntfs rw

Field Note #13 @Breathless 2009-12-22 ↳ Re: @Ianxxx
@IanxxxNot quite sure what your asking but, if you mean apples ntfs driver it is read write but needs to be enabled default is read only, you can do this by making an fstab file and specifying rw e.g. UUID=145BBCD2-1E6F-FF4C-9D26-E137472E67CA none ntfs rw

I mean the HFS drivers in Windows. In the link I referenced above, the user extracted the HFS drivers from the snow leopard DVD that is supposed to give Read/Write access to HFS partitions in windows, however the user reports that it only enables read access.

http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2009/05/snow-leopard-… ↗

Quoting this article:

"First on the list of new features, the version of Boot Camp supplied with Snow Leopard will include HFS+ drivers for Windows. These drivers will allow direct read and write access to Mac-formatted drives when booted into Windows. The added convenience should eliminate the need to rely on FAT-formatted drives or third-party utilities like MacDrive for moving files between operating systems."

Field Note #14 @Imkantus 2009-12-22

Your source is simply wrong.
The Bootcamp HFS driver enables read access only.

Field Note #15 @Breathless 2009-12-22

apparently, they were wrong. There were several other sites that said the same thing. Oh well. I guess that gives me my answer.

Corroborated & Participated: @Superhai @erick2red
Sources & Contributor Provenance (13 credited usernames · Thread #2834)
UsernameDossier ContributionDispatchesActive Window
@maya77Core Contributor32009-05-12 → 2009-09-21
@BreathlessCore Contributor32009-12-22
@ImkantusContributor22009-09-22 → 2009-12-22
@Voyn1xPrimary Author12009-05-11
@SuperhaiContributor12009-05-11
@TechSgtChenContributor12009-05-12
@AydinzContributor12009-05-12
@ludacrisvpContributor12009-05-12
@erick2redContributor12009-05-12
@IceBreakerGContributor12009-05-18
@amantonasContributor12009-09-20
@thorazine74Contributor12009-09-22
@IanxxxContributor12009-12-22