[Clivey]

Hi all,

For some time now I've been using a Seagate 300GB USB External HDD (NTFS formatted) at work, with no problems. I have also just started using a USB docking station for SATA HDDs.

I have never had problems with external storage devices before in the whole time I've owned the computer (from new).

However, just recently, my PowerBook has been taking several minutes just to access these drives. I've also been using USB pen drives in FAT32 format and they've been just fine - I just can't understand the problem.

The one thing I did change recently is that I tried a trial version of Tuxera NTFS for Mac, which has now expired. I'm not sure whether the end of the free trial period has coincided with this problem or not.

The question is: What's changed? Previously, I could access these drives at the same speed as a HFS formatted drive. Any ideas?

[Big Mac]

If they're NTFS drives and you're having problems after installing a third party NTFS driver, I'd uninstall the driver and see if you still have problems.

[Clivey]

Originally Posted by Big Mac 

If they're NTFS drives and you're having problems after installing a third party NTFS driver, I'd uninstall the driver and see if you still have problems.

Hi, thanks for the suggestion. I have deleted the application (that is dragged the app + all associated files I found using Spotlight to the trash, then emptied it)...but I was wondering (please bear with me whilst I explain):

This application was a trial version. The trial license has expired and now I cannot download another trial version. This must mean that there is at least one file on my system that's kept a record of me downloading the trial version of the program. I cannot find this record (is it in the registry?) using spotlight, so how do I remove it?

- Could that file be messing-up the works?

[Big Mac]

There is no registry in OS X, so you don't have to worry about that. If you've deleted all the preferences files you can find, there may be an invisible timer file (which isn't unusual). Are you sure you found and deleted the driver itself (probably a kext file)?

[reader50]

What Big Mac says. A kext would have been in /System/Library/Extensions/ - you can surf your Time Machine backup to see if one of your trashed files had been in that folder.

[Clivey]

Originally Posted by Big Mac 

There is no registry in OS X, so you don't have to worry about that. If you've deleted all the preferences files you can find, there may be an invisible timer file (which isn't unusual). Are you sure you found and deleted the driver itself (probably a kext file)?

How can I be sure? - I presume by looking where reader50 says?

The way I deleted the program was to type the name into Spotlight and delete all files that appeared (all were related to the program).

Originally Posted by reader50 

What Big Mac says. A kext would have been in /System/Library/Extensions/ - you can surf your Time Machine backup to see if one of your trashed files had been in that folder.

Ah, thanks! I've just looked and did find several kext files named "NTFS" in the Extensions folder. I've deleted them and restarted the computer....however, I plugged-in the aforementioned Seagate external HDD and it's still very slow. Checking its' status in System Profiler reveals this:

USB High-Speed Bus:

Host Controller Location: Built In USB
Host Controller Driver: AppleUSBEHCI
PCI Device ID: 0x00e0
PCI Revision ID: 0x0004
PCI Vendor ID: 0x1033
Bus Number: 0x5b

ST94811U2-RK:

Capacity: 279.46 GB
Removable Media: Yes
Detachable Drive: Yes
BSD Name: disk2
Version: 2.00
Bus Power (mA): 500
Speed: Up to 480 Mb/sec
Manufacturer: Seagate
OS9 Drivers: No
Product ID: 0x0502
Serial Number: 354E46324A514659
S.M.A.R.T. status: Not Supported
Vendor ID: 0x0bc2
Volumes:
300GB HDD:
Capacity: 279.46 GB
Available: 155.03 GB
Writable: Yes
File System: Tuxera NTFS *
BSD Name: disk2s1
Mount Point: /Volumes/300GB HDD

* Obviously this program is still causing a problem...!

[Big Mac]

Don't know what to say other than either contact the utility maker's support staff and ask if they can help you delete it from your system or reinstall the OS, which looks like it's going to be easier. I'm unsure, but if you deleted everything labeled NTFS you may have inadvertently deleted an Apple NTFS basic driver as well.

[Clivey]

Originally Posted by Big Mac 

Don't know what to say other than either contact the utility maker's support staff and ask if they can help you delete it from your system or reinstall the OS, which looks like it's going to be easier.

Hmmm...it seems a bit extreme to reinstall the OS over this, and I'm not even sure that the 3rd party program is causing the problem. Is there anything else that could have caused access to an NTFS disk to slow down?

Originally Posted by Big Mac 

I'm unsure, but if you deleted everything labeled NTFS you may have inadvertently deleted an Apple NTFS basic driver as well.

Do you mean the basic driver that allows OS X to read, but not write to, NTFS volumes?

[Big Mac]

Originally Posted by Clivey 

Hmmm...it seems a bit extreme to reinstall the OS over this, and I'm not even sure that the 3rd party program is causing the problem. Is there anything else that could have caused access to an NTFS disk to slow down?

A physical problem with the disk, the cable it's attached to or your USB port. If it's occurring on all the disks you're using then you know it's not the disks.

Do you mean the basic driver that allows OS X to read, but not write to, NTFS volumes?

As I said I'm not sure. I don't know what the Apple NTFS driver is called. If the drive still mounts and still lets you read it at all then the stock driver is there. But if the problem really bothers you then reinstalling the OS is a relatively painless way to take the OS out of the equation (either Archive and Install on Leopard or reinstall in Snow Leopard). But first, you should also create a new account to verify that the same behavior occurs there.

[Clivey]

Originally Posted by Big Mac 

A physical problem with the disk, the cable it's attached to or your USB port. If it's occurring on all the disks you're using then you know it's not the disks.

I've just tried with another NTFS-formatted external HDD (this time a 1TB Seagate) with the same results.

I then tried a FAT-32 formatted 1GB USB stick, and that's working normally.

I seem to be having the problem only with NTFS formatted drives.

Originally Posted by Big Mac 

As I said I'm not sure. I don't know what the Apple NTFS driver is called. If the drive still mounts and still lets you read it at all then the stock driver is there. But if the problem really bothers you then reinstalling the OS is a relatively painless way to take the OS out of the equation (either Archive and Install on Leopard or reinstall in Snow Leopard). But first, you should also create a new account to verify that the same behavior occurs there.

Yes, the disks still mount and can be read, it's just that they're incredibly slow to do so. I'll create another user account for testing and report back soon!

Thanks for all the help BTW!

[Big Mac]

You're welcome, I hope you figure it out.

[P]

The Apple NTFS driver is called "ntfs.kext" and is placed in the /System/Library/Extensions directory. There is also a file called "ntfs.fs" in the Filesystems directory (in System/Library).

It does indeed look like you haven't managed to uninstall Tuxera. Some googling got me this thread which explains the process easily enough. Have you tried that?

[Big Mac]

Great post from P. Also, are there any pertinent Console messages?

[Clivey]

Thanks for your help everyone,

I tried creating another user account for testing purposes, and the problem was still present...however I have now downloaded Tuxera NTFS 2010.1 (trial) and everything seems to have corrected itself. Hopefully, if I do choose to uninstall the software again, my Mac will revert "back to normal".

[King Bob On The Cob]

Try: Catacombae | Get Catacombae at SourceForge.net

It's the free version of Tuxera (Both are based off of NTFS-3G and MacFUSE)

[Clivey]

Originally Posted by King Bob On The Cob 

Try: Catacombae | Get Catacombae at SourceForge.net

It's the free version of Tuxera (Both are based off of NTFS-3G and MacFUSE)

Sorry, I've only just seen your post...thanks for that!