USB External Drive direct access. SOLVED!

[DevFingers]

EDIT : See my last post below: no extra software was required to write to NTFS natively with OSX.

When i had my USB Western Digital 2 TB external drive hooked up to Windows 8.1 natively installed on a PC, I could write to it, no prob. Same with and USB thumb drive.

Now, I have Windows 8.1 in VirtualBox 4.3.20 on OSX 10.10.1 on a MacBook Pro 2.3 GHz Intel Core i7 with 16GB.

I've Assigned 8 cores and 8 GB RAM to the client.

I can never load the USB or thumb drive via the USB context menu from the VB menu running at the edge of the client's screen. If I add these as 'shared drives' then they are only read-only.

I suspect that this is true because the drives are NTFS formatted.

Is there any way to allow 'direct access' to the USB devices formatted in NTFS?

[loukingjr]

First, your MacBook Pro only has 4 cores so assigning 8 to a guest is going to be problematic. Setting 2 cores would be normal, 3 at the most.
Second, you have 16GB of RAM so you should set your guest to have approximately 50% of the available RAM, not the total RAM.

Macs do not natively read and write to NTFS drives so you would have to install one of the third party apps that allows Macs to read and write to NTFS drives.

Also, VirtualBox does not support USB 3.0 at this time.

[DevFingers]

The # of cores - funny - ok I changed that.

The memory is fine - while I understand your concern from a VM point of view, my machine isn't thrashing so there's no issue there.

OSX 10.10.1 reads NTFS natively out of the box; just doesn't write to it. I have no issue there with reading NTFS USB sticks or my NTFS Western Digital 'My Book' drive

On the writing front, I was hoping for more, and I don't care if it's represented as USB 2.0.

If there's someone with some expertise here, I'd appreciate it.

I cannot load any USB device via the VB menu while in the client.
If I allow access to the USB drives via 'Shared Drives', I can't write to them.

The manual specifically says you can have direct control on USB devices, so what are the parameters to do that?

I don't see any documentation to support that - unless I skimmed over something.

Thanks

[loukingjr]

I know Macs can read NTFS drives. That's why I specified "cannot read and write". (didn't say cannot read or write)

At any rate, if you create shared folders that point to the drives in question, you can write to the drive if you "Get Info" for the drive and enable "Ignore ownership on this volume." Even USB 3.0 drives. They won't be as fast of course.

[loukingjr]

just so my last comment is clear, as I said in my first reply…

Macs do not natively read and write to NTFS drives so you would have to install one of the third party apps that allows Macs to read and write to NTFS drives.

something such as OSXFUSE (Free) or NTFS by Paragon (Commercial).

[ChipMcK]

something such as OSXFUSE (Free) or NTFS by Paragon (Commercial).

OSXFUSE does not read from anything and does not write to anything. OSXFUSE simplifies the authoring of products which do read and write to devices

[loukingjr]

something such as OSXFUSE (Free) or NTFS by Paragon (Commercial).

OSXFUSE does not read from anything and does not write to anything. OSXFUSE simplifies the authoring of products which do read and write to devices

That is correct. such as authoring something that can read and write to NTFS drives. If I didn't hate typing I suppose I could have gone into more detail.

[ChipMcK]

ntfs-3g, both free and commercial, by Tuxera

[loukingjr]

ntfs-3g, both free and commercial, by Tuxera

I was under the impression they stopped development on those years ago?

edit: just the free one in 2011.

[DevFingers]

I'll try the ignore ownership thingy. My replies may have sounded terse and dismissive, but were not meant to be.

I just need the facts.

I do appreciate your help, and it seems your skin is as thick as mine.

Thanks loukingjr.

[loukingjr]

well, you still have to install something that will let you write to NTFS volumes.

[DevFingers]

Ok, so what's the best option for that?

The 'Get Info' option doesn't show me any option to ignore ownership...yet. I'm guessing that's why I need something to install still.

what about:

http://computers.tutsplus.com/tutorials ... -cms-21434

??

[DevFingers]

Actually that works perfectly! Great article.

You don't need to install any extra software to write to NTFS volumns from OSX!

It worked the first time.

[loukingjr]

nice find. personally I don't like to hack system files and often they are overwritten with new OSX updates. I'm not sure I like the fact the volume is invisible until you call it up but, still, glad it's working for you.

[ChipMcK]

about:

http://computers.tutsplus.com/tutorials ... -cms-21434

According the former apple developer, who claimed to have written the OS X code for NTFS, the code is/was experiential and liable to corrupt a volume, when allowed to write to the NTFS volume.

Also, MacPorts and HomeBrew offer ntfs-3g, current release dated 2014-02-15