# Alternative to MacDrive?



## Gtrplyraj (Feb 16, 2008)

So my two friends and I are moving in together and we're trying to figure out how to set up a large shared drive (either NAS or a RAID array in an older desktop).

Two of us are Windows users, and the other a Mac user. Are there any free/open source alternatives to MacDrive? It seems a little ridiculous for us to buy two copies ($60) of it if there is an alternative, or better yet, something our Mac user can install for him to read/write an NTFS drive.

Thanks for your suggestions.

Edit: Found MacFuse, looks pretty useful for our Mac user, and it's a google piece of code so it has to be decent, thoughts?


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

How are these machines going to be accessing the drives? If they are networked, then there is no need for any file system drivers since the machines will not be accessing the drives directly. Mac Drive and similar are only needed to access a drive connected directly to the Windows machines.


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## Gtrplyraj (Feb 16, 2008)

They would be using Windows file sharing which OSX also supports. I understand how there would be a server level involved with Windows file sharing (surprised I didn't realize it), but what about a NAS drive? Is it safe to assume that the NAS controller is handling some kind of server layer as well? If thats the case all well and good for sharing but how would you format and partition the drive in the first place? I'm sorry, but a NAS is a new piece of equipment for me and I wouldn't have to ask these questions if I had one in front of me to hook up.


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

If the files are accessed over the network, by whatever means, then the drives are not being accessed directly and the file system of the drives is not relevant. Just as we daily exchange files with Mac's and Linux servers, once the file is in the pipeline, where it came from does not matter. 

Some NAS devices are really mini-Linux PC's and are ready to go out of the box. It is the NAS that is accessing the files and there are no file system complications since you are getting them over the ethernet. Using Ext3FS on the drive(s) means that no defragging is needed, either. What model were you considering? I'm sure it will come with everything you need.


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## Squashman (Apr 4, 2003)

OS X has the Samba server and client. You should be able to share files both ways.


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