NTFS formatted drive not working in MAC

[KADIN]

I am a MAC book pro user which is running on MAC OS X 10.5. I am struggling with my new external hard drive which is Seagate Freeagent (500gb). It is NTFS formatted. The problem is that my Macbook can only read data from this drive and cant write on the drive. I think the partition has got corrupted due to which it is not allowing data to be written. I have a lot of data on the drive which i want to back-up before re-formatting the drive. Is there anyway in which i can reformat the drive without losing data? Please help

[Wiro]

MAC OS X does not recognize a NTFS formatted drive by default. Mac systems only recognize MAC HD formatted drive or drives which are formatted using FAT system. Therefore to access a NTFS formatted drive you will need a third party application to be installed. This application will act as a mediator between the MAC system and the External hard drive. NTFS-3G is one of the software which is available online which can be used on a MAC system to access an NTFS formatted drive.

[Bon-Z]

Probably the hard drive is damaged and causing the problem. External hard drive are more prone to damages and hence are very unreliable. Check the hard drive by using disk utility tool. There are many diagnostic tools available online. Download one of the application which suits your interest best and run the diagnostic tool on the hard drive. The result of the tests will give the number of errors which the system faces while running the test. Some utilities also repair the errors if they are repairable. By using this tool you will be able to determine if the hard drive is faulty or not.

[Gonzo]

Was this drive ever connected to a Windows PC? If yes then that is the root cause of all the problems. Windows pc and MAC system both have different file systems. Whenever a hard drive is formatted using a MAC HD format or NTFS format and is used on a MAC system it should not be connected to a windows PC. Windows changes the file allocation table on the drive when it is connected. Hence when the drive is connected again to a MAC system, it does not work properly. Therefore the only solution to your problem is to format the drive using a MAC HD format and then use it again on the MAC system.

[Halina]

Check the Connecting cord which you are using to connect the hard drive to your Macbook. Many problems of an external drive are related to the connecting cord. If you are using a High speed USB cable then check if the cable is proper or not by connecting some other mass storage device. Also Check the port on which it is connected. If you are using a Firewire connectivity then get the firewire port checked at apple service center. Last but not the least check the USB drivers and get them updated if required.

[Lambard]

As you can read from the drive, you can easily take back-up of the data on your laptop. There are many data recovery software's available which can be used on the hard drive to retrieve the data but i dont think you will be needing any of the software as you are able to read the data. Also the drive is formatted in NTFS, therefore there should not be any problems in connecting the drive to a Windows PC. Once the drive is connected to a windows PC take the back-up on it and then format the drive using FAT system. FAT system hard drive can be used on both MAC and Windows based system.