There are about 100 million macOS users around the world. That pales in comparison to Windows, which powers roughly 1 billion computers.
The last 40 years brought us the big debate between Mac and Windows. They carry different standards which makes compatibility difficult.
One of the standards that people don’t know much about is the ability to read and write files. There’s NTFS, FAT32, and APFS.
The one that is most commonly used today is NTFS. What is NTFS?
Read on to discover what NTFS is and why Mac users should care about it.
How Data Gets Organized on Hard Drives
Every computer, phone, and tablet has some kind of internal storage or hard drive. The operating system of the device, whether it’s Windows, macOS, iOS, or Android, has a file system.
The file system organizes your data, which is comprised of a lot of 1s and 0s. File systems take the binary code and create files.
They also control how those files get managed. The file name lengths, storage, retrieval, and updates get controlled by the file system.
That’s not all. File systems hold data that contain user permissions, authorship, and ownership. In other words, you can control who can see and update a specific folder or file through the file system.
What Is NTFS?
NTFS is New Technology File System, except the technology isn’t that new anymore. It was first used back in 1993 in the Windows NT 3.1 release.
This is one type of file system used by Windows NT operating systems.
When you format a hard drive or storage device, you can format using NTFS. The hard drive will have partitions that let the operating system track all files stored on the drive and within the OS.
Within each partition lies clusters. The cluster sizes determine how the files get distributed. Windows recommends how large the cluster sizes should be when you format the hard drive.
They range from 512 bytes to 64kb.
NTFS is used by most Windows systems. It’s also compatible with Linux and BSD/OS.
There are a number of advantages of using NTFS. It is fast and efficient. That’s why it’s still used today.
The big drawback relates to compatibility. Mac users can only read an NTFS drive. They can’t write data to the drive.
FAT32 and APFS
As we mentioned earlier, other file systems are FAT32 and APFS.
A few years after NTFS came out, Microsoft released FAT32. This came out with the Windows 95 release and stands for file allocation table.
This is used on USB drives, external hard drives, and flash drives.
The reason why it’s still used today is due to compatibility. FAT32 is compatible with Mac devices. Where you can’t write to NTFS drives from a Mac device, you can on a FAT32 drive.
APFS is Apple File System. This was released in 2017 as part of macOS Sierra. This was a new design that didn’t allow for backward compatibility.
What it did do for Mac users was optimize speed. APFS was designed for speed and solid-state drives. Most solid-state drives have limited capacity, with some as small as 250GB.
APFS allows users to copy files from one folder location to another without completely duplicating the file. There’s technically only one file on your computer, but it’s accessible from two places.
That allows you to maximize space on your Mac.
Mac Users Working With NTFS
Why should Mac users care about NTFS? Even though Mac users can’t write to NTFS file systems, they should find ways to do so.
The simple fact is that NTFS is much better and faster than using FAT32. A guide for macOS NTFS write and read system is what you need.
There are a number of tools to use to help you leverage the speed of NTFS, even from a Mac.
Managing File Permissions
If you share a drive or device with other people, it’s helpful to understand the file permissions available under NTFS.
That allows you to manage and control who has access to what on your device.
Full Control: This gives users the ability to own the file, change permissions, delete, modify, read, and write the file.
Modify: A user can do the same as the permissions below. In addition, this setting lets users delete and modify files.
Read and Execute: Users can read the file, view the attributes of the file, and open and execute an application.
Write: Users can view the permissions settings, change the file’s attributes and overwrite the file.
Read: Users can only read the attributes and the file itself.
Knowing these permissions settings makes your data more secure and out of the wrong hands. Make sure to use these settings.
Tips to Keep Your Files Organized
With so much data out in the world, how can you keep your life organized on your computer? Start by going through your hard drive.
Remove old files you don’t need anymore and merge duplicate files.
Two types of files that take up a lot of space are music and photo files. You want to keep and maintain separate libraries for these items.
The next thing you want to do is to create a system for your folders. This might stem from your organization style or the types of files you use.
For instance, you might need to have a system for financial documents, and another for everyday documents.
Finally, always back up your data. Use an external drive or backup your files to the cloud.
Learning About the NTFS File System
What is NTFS? It’s a type of file system that’s been around for nearly 30 years. It’s still relevant because it’s a fast and efficient file system for Windows devices.
If you’re a Mac user, you’ll have to rely on tools to use NTFS. It’s well worth it.
For more exciting tips for your tech, click on the Tech tab at the top of this site.