Apple allows users to install Windows on its Mac machines to have dual operating systems. Mac users can use the built-in software called Boot Camp Assistant to install Windows 10 on your Mac. After the installation, you will have a volume on your Mac’s hard drive named BOOTCAMP which contains the Windows OS.
However, a big downside of having a second OS is that it cuts down the storage when you are running either OS. The Windows partition is formatted with NTFS and macOS only supports read-only access to NTFS volumes. As a result, you can’t store or transfer any files to the BOOTCAMP partition in a macOS environment.
Is there any way that you can break the wall between the macOS partition and Windows partition?
The answer is NTFS for Mac app.
Introduction about NTFS for Mac software
NTFS for Mac app is a third-party software that needs to be downloaded and installed on Mac. It works as a mounter to mount the NTFS volumes in full read-write mode. If the NTFS volume can be successfully mounted with it, users can use the volume as a normal volume that is natively Mac-compatible.
Both free and paid NTFS for Mac apps are available. Free NTFS for Mac mounters, such as 3G-NTFS and Mounty for NTFS may require complex installation and operations. Besides, the data transferring can be unsafe and instable. Paid apps are easy to install and it can mount attached NTFS drives to be writeable automatically. Such an app usually cost $20 with a life-time license.
How to transfer files to BOOTCAMP partition from Mac?
Here we take iBoysoft NTFS for Mac to illustrate how easy it will be to move files from macOS partition to Windows partition. The iBoysoft app offers 7-day free trial for you to test its safety and stability.
Step 1: Download the driver from its official website: https://iboysoft.com/ntfs-for-mac/
The driver works on macOS 10.15 to OS X 10.8. A .dmg file will be in the download list of your browser and you need to double click it to start the installation.
Step 2: Find the iBoysoft NTFS for Mac at the right corner of the top menu bar.
After the installation, the driver will be automatically launched and displayed at the menu bar. By default, it will also be launched at login. If you want to change the default settings, just click the icon and uncheck Launch at login and Automatically mount NTFS drives in read-write mode.
Step 3: Transfer files to BOOTCAMP partition directly.
No more operations are needed. You can directly save any files to the Windows partition and edit the files in that partition too from Mac. This breaks the limits between the macOS partition and BOOTCAMP partition. As a result, you can utilize the storage from both partitions in macOS.
Verdict
Using two operating systems on Mac may be a burden to the main processor, so your Mac may become overheating, slow, or frozen. But you can install many apps or run many games that are only supported by Windows on your Mac. There are trade-offs in dual operating systems. At least, using a simple tool like NTFS for Mac apps can help bridge the gap between the NTFS partition and macOS, and then you can use the BOOTCAMP partition as extended storage for macOS partition.
