In my quest to soil my Mac Pro for the sake of science, I decided to install Windows 7 via BootCamp yesterday. One thing that I felt was a necessity was read and write access to both systems from either system. Snow Leopard has NTFS read support out of the box, but in order to enable write support you must get out the chicken bones and voodo stick.

Here’s how:

1. Open Terminal.app (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal)
2. Type “diskutil info /Volumes/volume_name” and copy the Volume UUID (bunch of numbers).
3. Backup /etc/fstab if you have it, shouldn’t be there in a default install.
4. Type “sudo nano /etc/fstab”.
5. Type in “UUID=paste_the_uuid_here none ntfs rw” or “LABEL=volume_name none ntfs rw” (if you don’t have UUID for the disk).
6. Repeat for other NTFS partitions.
7. Save the file (ctrl-x then y) and restart your system.

And that’s it!

[UPDATE]

After a few days of running with NTFS write support using Boot Camp, I started to experience random lock ups and program crashes. My Mac became completely unresponsive at times. Especially when running Disk Utility permission repairs.

If this happens to you, I suggest removing, or renaming /etc/fstab

Here’s how:

1. Open Terminal.app (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal)
2. Type “sudo rm -f /etc/fstab” to remove fstab, or “sudo mv -f /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.bak” to rename it.

As I continue on in the exploration of Snow Leopard to discover what’s new and what’s missing, (like double clicking the top of a window to minimize to the dock), I have found a website that is keeping tabs on…

Things Removed in Snow Leopard

Updated continuously; please submit new finds in the comments, but read the FAQ first. Or, in other words, “This document will be updated as more information becomes available.”

• PowerPC support
• The blood on the signature snow leopard’s mouth, except for in the wallpaper
• 32-bit screensaver support on 64-bit capable machines (in effect; it’s more of a replacement thing since loginwindow has to run under some architecture)
• Cocoa Java runtime support
• AppleTalk printing
• Creator code adherence when opening files

Read the full list at http://waffle.wootest.net/2009/09/05/removed-snow-leopard/

Mac OS X Snow Leopard

If you’re wondering why there’s all this talk about bits, especially with the upcoming introduction of Mac OS X 10.6, aka Snow Leopard, you’re not alone. Everyone seems to be tossing around the term 64-bit, and it can get confusing. The terms “64-bit processor” and “64-bit operating system” get tossed around quite a bit, but the exact definition isn’t exactly clear. Let’s try to tear apart this mess.

Processor

The processor is the brain of your computer, and best deals with information in chunks which are, as you may have guessed, a certain number of bits in length. Let’s start with a simple example, the 6502 in the first Apple ][ computers. This processor had 8-bit registers, and had a 16 bit memory address space.

This means registers could represent 256 (2^8) values, and there are 64K (2^16) memory locations, each of which holds an 8-bit byte. Fast forward to the latest Core 2 Duo processors, whose registers can represent 2^64 values, and can address up to 2^64 bytes of (virtual) memory. (continue reading…)

Mac OS X Snow Leopard

The Apple Store has come back online and its pretty obvious announcement is confirmed. Snow Leopard will ship out starting August 28th as a $29 upgrade. The Friday launch should make for a wild, crazy weekend. [Apple] Full press release:

Apple to Ship Mac OS X Snow Leopard on August 28

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Sad old Mac

The good news is that upgrading to OS X Snow Leopard is going to be pretty cheap for people who wisely sprung cash for Leopard. But before you buy, you better check your situation and plan the right move, money-wise.

You may have a few questions: Am I eligible for a cheap upgrade? How about a “free” upgrade? What’s this about family packs? Should I be shopping for a new Mac? Not to worry, Prof. Dealzmodo will help clear things up.

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