Santa’s Conundrum: Surface Book or MacBook Pro?

Christmas is just around the corner, and every year, the author of this article asks himself the question: “am I getting a new Mac?”

OK, to be honest, the author never got a Mac or PC as a present, be it for Christmas or any other occasion. Beyond that, he wouldn’t necessarily choose a machine like that at all if he still had three wishes left.

But first of all, since no fairy ever came along with three wishes to give (at least not yet), and secondly, that it’s been a few years since the author last believed in Santa Claus and thirdly, that he doesn’t know anybody else who could make such wishes come true, this question is largely irrelevant.

Be that as it may: The hard disk has been making some really strange sounds for a while and the excessively loud fan noise has been getting on the author’s tender nerves for a long time by now. The laptop already has nearly five years under its belt – maybe it really is the right time to start looking for a new one?

An iPad, perhaps, or maybe even one of these hip new Macbook Pros with a touch bar? Or one of the new Microsoft Surface Books or maybe even a Surface Studio all-in-one PC would be a real eye-catcher.

The agony oxmas16_235x425pxf choice, so the saying goes. In this case, it’s also hard to balance out the pros and the cons. In spite of its somewhat higher price, the author tends a bit towards Microsoft’s classy laptop, not least because of its integrated tablet function.

One way or another, something has to be done about clattering hard disk – and quickly. An extra backup can never hurt, and if you pick the right one, you might even be able to restore your hard-earned work environment on the new hardware. If the author chooses a new laptop, then he could use his entire system on the new machine without having to change it – including all of the applications. And since the author earns his daily bread at a software company – one that specializes in data migration, backup and restoration – he naturally took precautions, and with the Paragon Hard Disk Manager, he had the right tool at hand.

If the author decides to get a new Surface or Macbook later on, he won’t have any trouble getting started. With the Hard Disk Manager for Windows or Mac, he can optimize for one operating system or the other, move his existing systems to new hardware, back up his Mac OS as well as his Windows PC, and much more. Observant readers may have already noted that the author feels at home on the Mac as well as with Windows – if not, then it’s clear now.

Switching between the two systems has become second nature to him; so much so that he doesn’t always remember which machine he created which file on. But thanks to Paragon NTFS for Mac drivers, this doesn’t matter much anymore. He can access his files from either world with the greatest of ease.

If this gets anybody to thinking: “It’s so easy to juggle between Mac and Windows? I wish I could do that!” then the Paragon Christmas bundle would be the thing to get. The double-pack offers big savings and, if any new hardware does show up under the tree, then Paragon’s time-tested solutions will be a genuine must-have.

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UPDATE: Since the author, in spite of all his efforts, has started to accept that he won’t be getting a pay raise, he ended up deciding against both a Surface a MacBook and opted for a more affordable yet comparably high-performance model from another manufacturer.

UPDATE: The hard disk ended up conking out after all, but thanks to the backup and the right Paragon tools, the author made it through unscathed.

PS: The author also works with a famous Linux distributor, but that’s another story.

NTFS & HFS for Android app has reached 1 000 000 installs on Google Play!

Even though Android as an operating system is strengthening its protection policy, over 1.000.000 users have downloaded and installed Paragon NTFS & HFS for Android app from Google Play!

This cross-platform tool for NTFS and HFS+ partitions allows you to easily manage your files: copy, repair or modify your data anyway you like. With automount option any inserted SD cards, USB flash cards, and all NTFS and HFS+ partitions will be automatically mounted.  Attach a USB flash card, hard drive, PC, Mac or any other device with NTFS or HFS+ partition and transfer any data as if it was default FAT32 system.

Imagine the following scenario: unplug your SD card or USB Flash from the desktop PC without having to take further actions – like clicking on the “safely remove” tray app. Some non-completed file system operations can damage data. Our solution to this problem is to assure complete safety through a technology that responds to the transactions before any other application starts working with the media. With a strong journaling capability you can safely complete uncompleted transactions even after unsafe media removal.

Paragon Software Group is the first software developer to implement a full set of drivers with read-write access to partitions of any file system, and delivers the highest performance cross-platform technologies — proven by millions of installations around the world from consumers to embedded systems manufacturers. Intel, Nvidia, Broadcom, Realtek, Huawei-HiSilicon, Marvell, Telechips, Acer and many other companies have selected our solutions for use in some of the world’s best-selling devices.

For more information about NTFS & HFS for Android app click here or download it from Google Play for free.

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How to verify, repair or format NTFS partitions under Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan. Quick troubleshooting guide

Since the release of Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan, Paragon Software Сustomer Service have received over a 1000 requests concerning the verify/repair/format disk utility options, which disappeared from the Disk Utility in OS X 10.11 El Capitan. To address this issue, we integrated the functionality directly to NTFS for Mac Preference Pane.

Additionally we have recently released a new professional maintenance tool, Paragon Hard Disk Manager for Mac, to help you perform these basic and numerous advanced file system and volume partitioning operations.

If you are in need of such a solution, you can try Paragon HDM for Mac now.

However, in this article we going to show you how to format, verify and repair NTFS volumes with built-in partitioning tools in NTFS for Mac 14 under Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan.

Disk Utility vs. Third-Party Drivers

The El Capitan version of Disk Utility has been through major changes — both cosmetically and under the hood. Once you get used to the glossy new user interface, veteran users might notice Disk Utility no longer manages disks mounted by third-party drivers, at least not through the program’s graphical user interface. The reasons for the change don’t make a whole lot of sense to outsiders, especially when disks mounted by non-native drivers can still be mounted, formatted, or repaired by using the command-line diskutil.

In addition to the under the hood changes outlined above, the familiar NTFS for Mac preferences pane has been overhauled with version 14. Since Disk Utility can no longer be used to work with Windows-formatted volumes, NTFS for Mac 14 now includes built-in format, verify, and mount functionality.

In addition to Windows NTFS, other file systems supported by OS X can also be used with this preference pane — for example, if Paragon’s ExtFS for Mac driver is already installed on the same system, NTFS for Mac will also be able to format, verify, or mount Linux-native Ext2/3/4 disks as well.

Here’s what NTFS for Mac 14 looks like when launched:

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In order to verify or format your NTFS or ExtFS volumes with Paragon drivers, you need to launch the app Preference Pane, select a volume and click “Verify” or “Erase”, depending on what operation you need. 

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NTFS for Mac 14 also fixes found file system errors during the volume verification process:

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For those comfortable with Terminal, the same actions can also be performed with Paragon’s command-line utilities. Advanced users familiar with Unix will have access to additional options through this interface:

  • fsck_ufsd_NTFS finds and repairs errors on NTFS disks.

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  • newfs_ufsd_NTFS formats a volume to NTFS.

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  • mount_ufsd_NTFS mounts or unmounts NTFS disks.

Support of the Windows NT file system is automatically added to the command-line diskutil during installation of the NTFS for Mac driver.

In case you quite often need not only to verify and format NTFS volumes, but perform more advanced tasks, such as move, resize, copy or even undelete partitions formatted to HFS+, NTFS, ExtFS, FAT and exFAT, try the new Paragon Hard Disk Manager for Mac.

HDM for Mac is not just for backup — it’s a powerful application that covers all aspects of the computer’s life cycle, including drive partitioning, file system optimization and repair functions, data backup capabilities, and irreversible data wiping. It already works with macOS Sierra 10.12 Preview.

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Сircumventing the security challenges of OS X El Capitan

OS X El capitan may be more resistant than ever to malicious software, but its arrival means new challenges lie ahead for some third-party developers.

SIP: Forcing developers to think different

OS X El Capitan 10.11 offers serious defense against malware on a number of fronts, most notably System Integrity Protection (SIP for short). SIP removes administrative overrides for processes running in the background and disables root access to /usr, /bin, /sbin, and /System, preventing ANY user or application (with the exception of Mac-native installer software) from writing to those locations or modifying files residing there.
In doing so, Apple has for the first time rejected a key Unix principal by limiting the access privileges of a “superuser” (better known as root). Traditionally, users with administrator privileges could install software and generally access any part of the root-level system they so desire, while regular users had more limited access.
Although this approach has generally worked well since OS X debuted in 2001, there was always the potential threat of local or remote attacks from rogue Trojan horse software that gained access to root. By implementing SIP, veteran Mac power users now consider the operating system to be “rootless.”
It should be noted that Apple has provided power users with a workaround to temporarily disable SIP, simply by booting into the Recovery partition and selecting Utilities > Security Configuration from the menu. Next, uncheck Enforce System Integrity Protection, click Apply Configuration, and restart for the change to take effect. However, it’s clear that SIP is the way forward, so developers and end users will need to adapt accordingly.

Disk Utility vs. Third-Party Drivers

The El Capitan version of Disk Utility has also been through major changes — both cosmetically and under the hood. Once you get used to the glossy new user interface, veteran users might notice Apple has entirely removed the option to repair disk permissions. That’s because Apple no longer allows permissions to change in any way, with the exception of an automatic repair run during software updates.

But that’s not all: Disk Utility no longer manages disks mounted by third-party drivers, at least not through the program’s graphical user interface. The reasons for the change don’t make a whole lot of sense to outsiders, especially when disks mounted by non-native drivers can still be mounted, formatted, or repaired by using the command-line diskutil.

Making OS X more like mobile

An additional security improvement removes the possibility of using unsigned kernel extensions (kexts) which modify the core of OS X. Starting with El Capitan, developers must sign kexts with a valid Apple certificate in order for them to continue working. This means perfectly good drivers for discontinued products or expensive hardware could suddenly become unusable after upgrading to the new OS — with no easy or reliable downgrade available!

By adopting such changes, Apple aims to make OS X a more user-friendly and secure platform similar to iOS, which powers the company’s popular iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch products. Although this move will surely benefit average users and protect them from the ever-increasing threat of malicious software, the additional layers of security temporarily complicate matters for advanced power users and Mac developers whose livelihood depends upon OS X.

The challenge for developers

If you already purchase most of your software from the Mac App Store, chances are you’ll never notice (or care) about the under-the-hood changes Apple has implemented with OS X El Capitan. But there are plenty of third-party developers who will be affected, especially those who offer software outside of Apple’s walled garden ecosystem.

The makers of popular utility software like Default Folder X have already discovered solutions to work around El Capitan’s new challenges, which required a complete overhaul of the existing application in order to implement. Paragon Software faced a similar challenge with NTFS for Mac, which adds the ability to write to Windows-formatted volumes, which can’t natively be done with OS X alone.

Like many other developers, Paragon products have traditionally stored application components in the very places El Capitan no longer permits. For example, the NTFS for Mac driver would be installed in /System/Library/Filesystems, while auxiliary command-line utilities were located in /usr/sbin.

Because of SIP, NTFS for Mac 14 and higher now place this driver in /Library/Filesystems, relocating associated utilities to /usr/local/sbin/, where root still has full privileges. It’s not only a reasonable alternative, but also remains proper Unix etiquette. Likewise, the NTFS for Mac 14 driver is properly signed as a kernel extension, making it a required update for owners of earlier versions prior to upgrading to El Capitan.

Meet the new NTFS for Mac 14

In addition to the under the hood changes outlined above, the familiar NTFS for Mac preferences pane has been overhauled with version 14. Since Disk Utility can no longer be used to work with Windows-formatted volumes, NTFS for Mac 14 now includes built-in format, verify, and mount functionality.

In addition to Windows NTFS, other file systems supported by OS X can also be used with this preference pane — for example, if Paragon’s ExtFS for Mac driver is already installed on the same system, NTFS for Mac will also be able to format, verify, or mount Linux-native Ext2/3/4 disks as well.

Here’s what NTFS for Mac 14 looks like when launched:

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And here’s a look at the new way to format volumes as NTFS:

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NTFS for Mac 14 can also be used to verify a volume for possible file system errors:

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For those comfortable with Terminal, the same actions can also be performed with Paragon’s command-line utilities. Advanced users familiar with Unix will have access to additional options through this interface:

  • fsck_ufsd_NTFS finds and repairs errors on NTFS disks.

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  • fsck_ufsd_NTFS formats a volume to NTFS.

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  • mount_ufsd_NTFS mounts or unmounts NTFS disks.

Finally, support of the Windows NT file system is automatically added to the command-line diskutil during installation of the NTFS for Mac driver.

Download and try NTFS for Mac 14 for free!

Special for users of earlier OS X version: Try our full-functional Paragon NTFS for Mac Yosemite Free!

Despite its name, this multilingual product supports all OS X versions up to OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard!

Paragon NTFS for Mac eliminates boundaries between Mac and Windows operating systems, delivering full read and write support for NTFS-formatted drives on OS X. Paragon NTFS for Mac achieves the speed of native drivers and is the industry’s fastest solution for Mac users who want to share data between Mac and Windows systems, so that the user doesn’t even notice on which platform their files are.

Paragon NTFS for Mac 14

Paragon NTFS for Mac Yosemite Free is based on Paragon’s proprietary Universal File System Driver (UFSD) technology. Paragon UFSD provides full access (read/write, format, etc.) to volumes of the most popular file systems under all popular platforms (Mac, Windows, Linux, Android and DOS).

Availability:
Paragon NTFS for Mac Yosemite Free is available for download absolutely free of charge! For Mac users of El Capitan, the commercial 14th version is available at $19.99.
For other Mac products, please visit Mac ToolBox Portal.

Paragon Software Announces Storage SDKs for Android and iOS

New SDKs greatly simplify the creation of storage management apps for Android and iOS, and make it easy to add USB storage functionality to other apps.

USB storage is generally underused in mobile apps, even though there are various situations where it would be very convenient for users. Examples include on-the-go backup without relying on mobile data or Wi-Fi hotspots, and giving copies of photos or videos you’ve just taken to someone else without having to upload them. If you want to take movies on a trip to watch on the plane or in your hotel, for example, it’s much easier to save large media files on a flash drive, and this also avoids cluttering up the device’s limited internal storage.

Mobile OSes are beginning to incorporate USB storage support, but that support tends to be inflexible. This feature only came to Android in version 6 (Marshmallow), and that implementation only supports FAT32. That’s a problem for developers who want to produce apps that run on the majority of Android phones and tablets, and an even bigger one for those planning to create cross-platform apps. Furthermore, FAT32 imposes file-size limitations that can be inconveniently restrictive when dealing with large files such as HD and 4K videos.

Paragon Software’s new UFSD SDKs help fill this gap. Available for iOS (iPhone 5 and later, iPad 2 and later) and Android (version 3.0 and later), they abstract and implement support for multiple partitioning schemes (MBR, GPT and APM) and file systems (NTFS, HFS+, FAT32, ExFAT and ExtFS).

The UFSD SDKs will be of particular interest to storage vendors, as they can bundle Paragon’s UMS service and other Paragon FS drivers with portable USB storage products to ensure compatibility and interoperability with any OSes including iOS, Android, Linux, Mac OS X and Windows. Similarly, ISVs can use the SDKs to simplify the development of Android and iOS apps supporting multiple brands of mobile USB storage.

Since iOS provides a very limited support for external storage and only allows access to images stored on digital cameras via custom Lightning to USB adaptor, storage vendors entering the iOS market need a companion app that would support their storage media’s file system. Naturally, each vendor’s app only supports its own storage brand.

To provide a real-life example of how the UFSD SDK can be used, Paragon Software has developed a plug-in https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.paragon.tcplugins_ntfs_ro that adds USB storage support to the well-regarded, 4.5 star average rated, Total Commander file management app for Android. The plug-in has already been downloaded more than 400,000 times, which clearly demonstrates end-user interest in this capability.

A demonstration of a sample iOS app using the iOS UFSD SDK can be seen via YouTube:

Paragon Software Group Releases NTFS for Mac® 14 – the Industry’s Fastest Solution for Full Access to Windows Partitions on OS X 10.11 El Capitan

Paragon NTFS for Mac 14 is the industry’s fastest driver giving OS X full read and write access to Windows-formatted NTFS partitions. The new version is fully compatible with Apple’s new operating system OS X 10.11 El Capitan, which was launched yesterday, and still supports all versions back to 10.8 Mountain Lion. Internal tests show Paragon NTFS for Mac 14 is the only solution on the market to match the file transfer speed of Apple’s native driver on SSDs.

Paragon NTFS 14 for Mac achieved 700MB/sec (write) and 800MB/sec (read) on the internal SSD of a MacBook Pro. It also performs as well as HFS+ with external storage: 250MB/sec write and 240MB/sec read on a two-SSD RAID device, and 210MB/sec write and 210MB/sec read on an ordinary external drive (2TB USB 3.0 Seagate Expansion Drive 3.5″).

To ensure a higher level of security, El Capitan delivers a new protection feature. System Integrity Protection prevents modifications to certain system files, folders and processes. This protects components on disk and at run-time, only allowing system binaries to be modified by the system installer and software updates. Code injection and runtime attachments to system binaries are no longer allowed. Paragon NTFS for Mac 14 is fully compatible with Apple’s new security policy ensuring fast, hassle-free and safe access to NTFS partitions from OS X 10.11 El Capitan.

Once the program is installed, the user can get started right away: conveniently navigate contents and read, edit, copy or create files and folders. The program guarantees advanced support of NTFS file systems and provides fast and transparent read/write access to any NTFS partition under OS X 10.11. Paragon has been the leader in cross-platform storage software for 20 years, delivering proven maximum performance, stability and security for cross-platform work between Mac, Windows and other operating systems.


Key functions:

  • Full OS X 10.11 El Capitan support.
  • Ultra-quick read/write access to NTFS files in OS X El Capitan.
  • No limit to file or partition sizes (within NTFS and OS X constraints).
  • Supports special NTFS functions in OS X El Capitan such as resource forks, hardlinks, symlinks and file permissions (POSIX file attribute).
  • The transfer rate during file operations on NTFS partitions is just as good as it is for operations on native HFS partitions.
  • Unparalleled stability – even during peak system utilization!
  • Simply install it and go to work. No further system adjustments are necessary once it has been installed.


System requirements

  • OS X El Capitan 10.11 and back to 10.8.

Availability:

Paragon NTFS for Mac 14 is available for immediate download for $19.99 at http://www.paragon-software.com/home/ntfs-mac/index.html All users who purchased NTFS for Mac 12 will get a free upgrade to version 14. They will receive an invitation to upgrade via email or they can view their real-time upgrade status at http://www.paragon-software.com/landing-pages/2015/ntfs-mac-el-capitan-upgrade/index.html

Tekzilla Talks about NTFS for OS X

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When working with media files or documents in Mac, you need access to the high performance of your system regardless if the files are located on the Mac’s HFS+ formatted volume, or in Window’s NT File System. Paragon NTFS for Mac® OS X 8.0 is the only NTFS driver on the market that provides full read/write access to NTFS with the same high speed as native HFS+ files. The built-in “HFS+ for Windows” completes an effective two-way communication channel between Mac® OS X and Windows.

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As always, thank you Tekzilla, Patrick Norton and Veronica Belmont for showing our products to your viewers!

How to Search your iPod for Music and Video with Paragon HFS+ for Windows

Search your iPod for Music and Video with Paragon HFS+ for Windows.

If you have an iPod you may probably know that it contains all your music inside some sly hidden folders. And when you attach your iPod (excluding Touch models) to the system it can be seen as a simply Removable Flash Drive. It’s not a secret.

In case you use iPod with iTunes under Windows, its internal volume is FAT32 formatted. This file system is native for any Windows OS. So you can simply check it contents for special folders and music and do whatever you want with them. There is no any special issue.

But things are getting worse if your iPod was configured and synchronized with iTunes under Mac. In this case in Windows you’ll see just another RAW volume, which contents you cannot access.

Paragon HFS+ for Windows driver can solve this problem. Let’s see how it can help you.

After driver installation it becomes deeply embedded to the operating system. If there were any HFS+ volumes on internal hard drives, they become visible and accessible also. Any newly attached media with HFS+ partitions will be mounted automatically. So there are no special actions from your side.

As a Mac configured iPod contains the HFS+ volume with the help of the driver you become able to manage all data inside your player: music, video, files. As if it was synchronized under Windows.

Just plug your iPod in. Reject iTunes formatting proposal.

And manage all your files inside player storage, no matter where it was synchronized. You don’t need to bother what exactly file system it has. And don’t forget to safely unplug your player.

Moreover there are benefits from using your iPod with HFS+ internal file system even if you don’t have a Mac. HFS+ has several advantages over default FAT32. For example HFS+ isn’t affected by file fragmentation, which is a curse of FAT32. If you frequently modify your media library in your player with FAT32, write and change files, after some time your iPod will suffer a performance loss because of a large file fragmentation. HFS+ stores files differently and do not yield file fragments.

Also HFS+ is faster than FAT32 if you need to access to single files inside your player. So you will get a speed boost during file copying and synchronization.

The one limitation for using an iPod with HFS+ is that you cannot use the traditional iTunes player for music and video synchronization and playback. However this issue is solved very simply as there are many third-party players in the Internet.

How to Search your iPod for Music and Video with Paragon HFS+ for Windows

Search your iPod for Music and Video anywhere with Paragon HFS+ for Windows Driver

If you have an iPod you may probably know that it contains all your music inside some sly hidden folders. And when you attach your iPod (excluding Touch models) to the system it can be seen as a simply Removable Flash Drive. It’s not a secret.

In case you use your iPod with iTunes under Windows, its internal volume is probably FAT32 formatted. This file system is native for any Windows OS. So you can simply check it’s contents for special folders and music and do whatever you want with them.

But things get worse if your iPod was configured and synchronized with iTunes under a Mac. In this case inside Windows you’ll see just another RAW volume, with contents you cannot access.

Paragon HFS+ for Windows driver can solve this problem. Let’s see how it can help you.

After the driver installation it will become deeply embedded to the operating system. If there were any HFS+ volumes on internal hard drives, they will become visible and accessible also. Any newly attached media with HFS+ partitions will be mounted automatically. So there are no special actions for you to take.

A Mac configured iPod contains the HFS+ volume and with the help of the newly added driver you will become able to manage all the data inside your player: music, video,  and files. As if  they were synchronized under Windows. Continue reading How to Search your iPod for Music and Video with Paragon HFS+ for Windows