Feb 5, 2013 - than any user's review: Every second, 3 devices powered by Tuxera drivers are shipped. Paragon mac free download - Paragon NTFS for Mac, Paragon HFS+ Free, Paragon NTFS for Mac Special Edition, and many more programs. Reviews News. Home Software.
NTFS for Mac 15
See it
Paragon NTFS for Mac 15 ($20) is a file system driver that allows Mac OS X Yosemite and later (incuding macOS Sierra) to read and write to hard drives, solid-state storage devices, and USB thumb drives formatted for Windows systems.
Macs have always been able to read and write to another Windows format, FAT (File Allocation Table), but this older format isn’t well suited to today’s larger capacity drives, maxing out at 2TB with FAT32.
Microsoft has since moved on to exFAT, which resolves the 2TB limitation while natively supported for read and write on Mac. But NTFS remains the de facto standard for most PC users. With this software installed, working with such volumes is seamless.
That’s because NTFS for Mac delivers read/write data transfer rates equivalent to the native macOS HFS+ file system. Because this software is derived from Paragon’s proprietary Universal File System Driver, users won’t experience bugs or outright instabilities found in open-source alternatives, which tap into hidden NTFS write support Apple disables by default for good reason.
Paragon NTFS for Mac 15: Hey, good-lookin’
In the previous NTFS for Mac 14, formatting tools were briefly exiled to System Preferences after years of working directly inside Apple’s Disk Utility. I’m happy to report version 15 restores the ability to format NTFS drives alongside the usual Mac OS Extended, exFAT, and FAT options, but the software now works as a standalone application as well.
And what a gorgeous app it is! The user interface is tastefully designed, with buttons for mounting, unmounting, verifying, or erasing the selected volume. Dual-boot users also have the option to reboot into a compatible mounted Mac or Windows startup volume. There’s even a lovely color-coded space indicator like the one introduced with Mac OS X El Capitan, displaying content by Audio, Video, Apps, Images, and Other categories.
The app includes options to enable Spotlight indexing, mount disks read-only, or disable auto-mount on a per-volume basis. You can also mount or eject disks from the menu bar, thanks to a helper app that works even when the main application is closed.
As someone who already has too many menu bar icons, this feature seemed gratuitous at first, but I soon found myself using it often. If you already have Paragon ExtFS for Mac 11 installed (which provides similar read/write access for Linux volumes), you’ll wind up with two identical menu bar apps, but it’s easy to disable one or both via preferences. (I’m hoping both utilities will eventually be consolidated into a single app.)
Bottom line
Paragon NTFS for Mac 15 is a great upgrade to an exceptional cross-platform utility that’s easily worth the money, especially if you own the previous version 14, in which case this one’s free.
To comment on this article and other Macworld content, visit our Facebook page or our Twitter feed.
NTFS for Mac 15
See itPros
- Fast, native read/write access for Windows NTFS volumes
- Standalone Mac app with gorgeous UI
- Optional menu bar app with mount/unmount controls
Cons
- Duplicated menu bar functionality with Paragon ExtFS for Mac 11
- OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion or earlier requires NTFS for Mac 12
NTFS for Mac Mojave Edition
See it
Insert a thumb drive formatted with Microsoft’s venerable FAT (File Allocation Table) file system into your Mac’s USB port, and you’ll have no problem reading or writing data to that volume, as long as those files are under 4GB in size. Likewise, Microsoft’s newer exFAT (Extended File Allocation Table) works equally well on macOS, with maximum file sizes that exceed that of even the most capacious hard drives.
For whatever reason, Apple has chosen to handicap perhaps the most common file system in use today on Windows PCs. Buy a new hard drive, and you’ll probably find that media comes preformatted as NTFS (New Technology File System)-which isn’t a huge problem unless you need to write data to that volume.
Paragon NTFS for Mac: The missing link
Unbeknownst to many Mac owners, NTFS write support natively exists deep inside Mac OS X (as well as macOS), requiring a few Terminal commands to enable. But Apple has never officially supported this functionality, and with good reason: it’s glacially slow at best, completely flaky at worst.
Open-source drivers like FUSE make the process easier and more reliable, but slow data transfer speeds make it not worth the trouble. That’s why I’ve happily installed NTFS for Mac over the years. Not only does Paragon’s proprietary driver enable writing to NTFS-formatted volumes, it does so up to six times faster than the competition - typically as fast (or faster) than the Mac’s native HFS+ file system.
Last year’s NTFS for Mac 15 debuted a fresh new look for the popular utility that made it easier to use, along with a convenient, optional menu bar app to unmount volumes. More importantly, version 15 restored the ability to format NTFS disks directly in Paragon’s own software-functionality which was limited to Apple’s Disk Utility in version 14. (The latter option also still works.)
Now Paragon has upgraded NTFS for Mac with full support for the latest macOS 10.14 Mojave. A free update for owners of NTFS for Mac 15 (and a mere 20 bucks for new buyers), this so-called “Mojave Edition” isn’t a completely new version, but rather improves upon the previous release in a few small ways.
Mojave mojo
With the release of macOS 10.14 Mojave, Mac owners across the galaxy will be turning to the dark side-that is, toggling on the new Dark Mode in System Preferences. While there are likely to be more than a few apps at launch yet to be updated in the wake of Apple’s new “lights out” approach, Paragon NTFS for Mac won’t be one of them, assuming you update to version 15.3.42 or later, that is.
Truth be told, NTFS for Mac 15 already offered its own Light or Dark Mode preference last year, along with the ability to use the system appearance setting alongside the dark menu bar and Dock option in macOS 10.13 High Sierra. But this darker look has been further refined, offering a more satisfying, Mojave-friendly appearance.
As an application, NTFS for Mac provides a row of buttons that Unmount, Verify, Erase, or choose the selected disk as a Startup volume when applicable. Mounted NTFS volumes are separated into their own category at the top of the sidebar, where users can enable less frequently-used options like Save Last Access Time, Enable Spotlight Indexing, Mount in Read-Only mode, or Do Not Mount Automatically as needed.
Whether you’re a hardcore Boot Camp user or just need to occasionally write to Windows-formatted media, this update keeps things working at peak performance long after Apple ships Mojave to the masses.
Bottom line
A no-brainer upgrade for those installing macOS 10.14 Mojave, Paragon NTFS for Mac remains the best cross-platform utility money can buy, especially now that it plays nice with Apple’s new dark mode.
To comment on this article and other Macworld content, visit our Facebook page or our Twitter feed.
NTFS for Mac Mojave Edition
See itPros
- macOS Mojave support, including Dark Mode
- Up to six times faster than competing NTFS drivers
- Free upgrade from previous version
Cons
- No new features added
- Menu bar app separate from Paragon ExtFS for Mac
- No support for OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion or earlier