A flash drive is only useful if one can read from and write on it. But NTFS formatted hard drives can, by default, only be written on while using Windows OS. With macOS 10.12 Sierra that operates on Mac, you will be unable to make any changes to NTFS drives. Is there anyway how can I lock an external hard drive? I ve got it format to ntfs, has got a lot of GB files. For writting files to it I am using tuxera. But now I am going from home for longer time and the hdd will lay down on my table and I am not interested in to discovering my files on it by other persons. How can I lock it?

One option is to back up your old Windows external drive (using ). Reformat the drive using Apple's Disk Utility software and the company's HFS+ file system instead. Then you can restore the backed up data to the drive. Even if the backed up and restored files originally came from a PC, they'll be stored on the drive using a file system the Mac fully understands. That way the drive will be fully Mac-compatible without any need for you to modify the operating system of the Mac to get it to work properly. Obviously that solution doesn't work for everyone.

Maybe the drive you're using has to be used with a PC occasionally. Whatever the case, the good news is that it's not a show-stopper: There are a few utilities out there that will enable Macs to write to mounted NTFS volumes. Tuxera's is one of the best ways to do it. It uses smart caching to keep data transfer as fast as possible and works with every OS X version since 10.4 (Tiger). NTFS for Mac costs $31, and you can download a demo first to see how it does.

Paragon Software's is another excellent choice. It includes several additional utilities for people who need to tinker or repair, to enable you to format drives with NTFS, check NTFS partition integrity, fix errors, and more. Which windows 7 do i have. NTFS for Mac costs $19.95.

If you're a DIYer and you'd like to go the free route, you'll find a Sourceforge project called that gets the job done. NativeNTFS isn't for rookies: It's a bash script that needs to run from the Terminal command line and requires you to have root (administrator) access to your computer. An easier way to go is to download, a third-party software tool that extends the Mac's file system capabilities. Follow the directions on the OS X Fuse website to download and configure the software. Follow the instructions to download, whose development seems stopped right now but still works in Yosemite.

Once OS X Fuse and NTFS-3G are installed, your Mac should be able to read and write to NTFS disks just fine.

FAT32 (File Allocation Table) • Read/Write FAT32 from both native Windows and native Mac OS X. • Maximum file size: 4GB. • Maximum volume size: 2TB NTFS (Windows NT File System) • Read/Write NTFS from native Windows. • Read only NTFS from native Mac OS X • To Read/Write/Format NTFS from Mac OS X: Install (free) • Some have reported problems using (approx 33USD).

• Native NTFS support can be enabled in Snow Leopard, but is not advisable, due to instability. • Maximum file size: 16 TB • Maximum volume size: 256TB HFS+ (Hierarchical File System, a.k.a. Mac OS Extended) • Read/Write HFS+ from native Mac OS X • Required for or backups of Mac internal hard drive. • To Read/Write HFS+ from Windows, Install • To Read HFS+ (but not Write) from Windows, Install • Maximum file size: 8EiB • Maximum volume size: 8EiB. Click to expand.If everything that you say is true, then the fraction of the installed base of Macs and PCs that can read and write exFAT is small.