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	<title>Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat &#187; 10.6 Archives  &#8211; Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat</title>
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		<title>How To Write To Windows NTFS Drives In Mac OS X 10.6 &#8220;Snow Leopard&#8221;</title>
		<link>http://blog.fosketts.net/2010/11/29/write-windows-ntfs-drive-mac-os-106-snow-leopard/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.fosketts.net/2010/11/29/write-windows-ntfs-drive-mac-os-106-snow-leopard/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 29 Nov 2010 16:19:42 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Stephen</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Apple]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Personal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Terabyte home]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[10.3]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[10.6]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Dave Cutler]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fstab]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[GoFlex]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mac OS X]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mount]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mount_ntfs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[nano]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[NTFS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[NTFS-3G]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Panther]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Paragon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Seagate]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Snow Leopard]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[UNIX]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Windows]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blog.fosketts.net/?p=4420</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[One of the daily hassles of using Apple Macintosh computers is the incompatibilities that arise with the broad Microsoft Windows world. Individual files often require conversion, but what about whole disks? Apple has long supported the universal and simplistic FAT filesystem, and added read-only support for NTFS back in 2003 in OS X 10.3 "Panther". Third-party software like Paragon's NTFS or the free NTFS-3G driver enabled read/write support, but a native solution was more desirable. Although 10.6 "Snow Leopard" includes NTFS write support, it is disabled by default. In this post, I'll discuss methods for activating this native NTFS write support, as well as the pros and cons of doing so!]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>One of the daily hassles of using Apple Macintosh computers is the incompatibilities that arise with the broad Microsoft Windows world. Individual files often require conversion, but what about whole disks? Apple has long supported the universal and simplistic FAT filesystem, and added read-only support for NTFS back in 2003 in OS X 10.3 &#8220;Panther&#8221;. Third-party software like Paragon&#8217;s NTFS or the free NTFS-3G driver enabled read/write support, but a native solution was more desirable. Although 10.6 &#8220;Snow Leopard&#8221; includes NTFS write support, it is disabled by default. In this post, I&#8217;ll discuss methods for activating this native NTFS write support, as well as the pros and cons of doing so!</p>
<h3>Introducing NTFS</h3>
<p>A filesystem is the basic scheme for organizing data on a hard disk drive. The common FAT filesystem, supported by just about every operating system, is just too basic for modern operating systems. Microsoft introduced the advanced NTFS filesystem with their Windows NT operating system in 1993. Borrowing from OS/2&#8242;s HPFS and VMS&#8217; Files-11, NTFS is a <a rel="nofollow" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journalling_filesystem" >journalling filesystem</a> with many features, including <a rel="nofollow" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/POSIX" >POSIX</a> links, <a rel="nofollow" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fork_(filesystem)" >alternate data streams</a>, <a rel="nofollow" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sparse_file" >sparse files</a>, <a rel="nofollow" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_compression" >compression</a>, and <a rel="nofollow" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encrypting_File_System" >encryption.</a></p>
<p>Although just about everything Microsoft produces is maligned by UNIX and Mac geeks, this hatred is unwarranted in the case of the many storage advances coming out of Redmond. Microsoft may be fairly criticized for producing expensive, proprietary systems, but they have dome some amazing things with disks, and NTFS is arguably one of the most advanced filesystems in wide usage. Much of this credit goes to Windows NT architect <a rel="nofollow" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Cutler"  target="_blank">Dave Cutler</a>, who also led development of DEC VMS, the RISC concepts that became <a rel="nofollow" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DEC_Alpha"  target="_blank">Alpha</a>, and Microsoft&#8217;s <a rel="nofollow" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azure_Services_Platform"  target="_blank">Azure</a> cloud platform.</p>
<p>Although every version of Windows supports evolutions of the old FAT filesystem, modern iterations increasingly require NTFS. Windows XP allowed either FAT32 or NTFS for booting; Windows Vista could be forced to boot from FAT32; Windows 7 requires NTFS. Therefore, most PC hard disk drives, including external USB drives, now come formatted with NTFS by default.</p>
<h3>NTFS on Mac OS X</h3>
<p>This leads to issues for Mac users, especially when they dual-boot with Boot Camp or buy external hard disk drives. As mentioned, all versions of Mac OS X since 10.3 &#8220;Panther&#8221; have included read-only NTFS support, but those wanting full access had two options:</p>
<ol>
<li><a href="http://www.paragon-software.com/home/ntfs-mac/"  target="_blank">Paragon Software&#8217;s</a> NTFS for Mac OS X is a full and supported read/write solution. Although available for purchase separately, many hard disk drives like the <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-FreeAgent-Ultra-Portable-External-STAA1000100/dp/B003ELOSI2%3FSubscriptionId%3DAKIAJYEMQAFREVFYOMPQ%26tag%3DPackrat-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3DB003ELOSI2" >Seagate GoFlex</a> now include a free copy of Paragon NTFS.</li>
<li>The open source <a href="http://www.tuxera.com/community/ntfs-3g-download/"  target="_blank">NTFS-3G</a> driver has also been ported to Mac OS X, allowing read/write support for free.</li>
</ol>
<p>Mac OS X 10.6 &#8220;Snow Leopard&#8221; adds a third alternative: Native read/write support for NTFS. But it&#8217;s not as simple as that. Although early betas enabled read/write support by default, it was limited once again to read-only in the final releases.</p>
<p>It is possible and even simple) to enable read/write support with the native Snow Leopard drivers, but this is definitely an &#8220;at your own risk&#8221; proposition. Users have reported kernel panics when using these methods, and although I have not heard of data corruption, it is possible as well.</p>
<h3>The Manual Method: mount_ntfs</h3>
<p>Making disks available is called &#8220;mounting&#8221; in UNIX geek-speak, and mount commands in modern operating systems are <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZnztwiWZo4"  target="_blank">like ogres</a>: They have many layers. Plug in a drive, and Mac OS X makes it available for you using a layer cake of commands, but the bottom-most command is &#8220;mount&#8221;. This simple command-line utility takes a few arguments and attaches a raw disk device to a point in the unified filesystem tree.</p>
<p>When presented an NTFS drive, Mac OS X calls a utility called mount_ntfs that resides in the /sbin directory, and we can call it, too. Although OS X always tells mount_ntfs to mount NTFS drives read-only, we can tell it to enable writing as well by using the &#8220;-o rw&#8221; flag.</p>
<p>There&#8217;s just one problem: Where should we connect the NTFS file system? Mac OS X automatically creates a new directory (called a &#8220;mount point&#8221; in UNIX-speak) in /Volumes with the name of the filesystem. For example, the GoFlex drive I bought yesterday mounts as &#8220;/Volumes/FreeAgent GoFlex Drive&#8221; by default. But mount_ntfs won&#8217;t create this mount point, so we have to do it.</p>
<p>Here are the steps to mount an NTFS drive read/write from the command line:</p>
<ol>
<li>Plug in the drive and let Mac OS X mount it read-only.</li>
<li>Look in Finder to see the name of the drive. For example, my drive mounts with the name &#8220;FreeAgent GoFlex Drive&#8221; and this is what shows up on the desktop and in Frinder under &#8220;Devices&#8221;.</li>
<li>Open the Terminal application to get command-line access. We&#8217;ll use &#8220;sudo&#8221; which executes commands as the administrator instead of a regular user.</li>
<li>Type the following command in Terminal to get necessary information about the drive. Use the drive name you see in Finder in place of &#8220;drive name&#8221;, and make sure to use quotation marks around it since Terminal treats un-quoted spaces as separators rather than part of the name.
<pre>diskutil info "/Volumes/drive name"</pre>
</li>
<li>Record the &#8220;Device Node&#8221; entry, which will look something like &#8220;/dev/disk4s1&#8243;. This is where the raw partition is mapped by the disk subsystem, and where the filesystem driver will read its data.</li>
<div id="attachment_4421" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 310px;  border: 1px solid #dddddd; background-color: #f3f3f3; padding-top: 4px; margin: 10px; text-align:center; display: block; margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto;"><a href="http://static.fosketts.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Diskutil-info-GoFlex.png" ><img class="size-medium wp-image-4421" title="Diskutil info GoFlex" src="http://static.fosketts.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Diskutil-info-GoFlex-300x246.png" alt="" width="300" height="246" /></a><p style=' padding: 0 4px 5px; margin: 0;'  class="wp-caption-text">The diskutil command gives us the &quot;Node Name&quot;, which we&#39;ll need momentarily</p></div>
<li>Eject the drive, using option-click in Finder or with the hdiutil command in Terminal:
<pre>hdiutil eject "/Volumes/drive name"</pre>
</li>
<li>Now you must create the mount point again. Type the following:
<pre>sudo mkdir "/Volumes/drive name"</pre>
</li>
<li>Finally, use mount_ntfs to mount the drive read/write using the following command. Use the node name you spotted above and the mount point you just created:
<pre>sudo mount_ntfs -o rw /dev/disk?s? "/Volumes/drive name"</pre>
</li>
<li>When you&#8217;re done, you can use the Finder, the hdiutil command, or just about anything else to eject the drive. Make sure your mount point is deleted as well!</li>
</ol>
<p>This method is great for occasional NTFS use, which is frankly all Mac users should need. If you intend to use a drive frequently, I highly recommend reformatting it with the native HFS+ filesystem since it will be fully-supported by the operating system.</p>
<h3>The Per-Drive Method</h3>
<p>Let&#8217;s say you have an NTFS drive you frequently need to mount read/write and find the above method too much of a hassle. Maybe it&#8217;s your Boot Camp drive, or perhaps it&#8217;s a USB hard disk drive you share with a Windows-using colleague. It is possible to tell Mac OS X to always mount a given NTFS drive read/write using its native driver using the following commands. However, I recommend investing in the Paragon driver for this use case, since it&#8217;s fully-supported!</p>
<p>Like all UNIX systems, Mac OS X uses a configuration file to determine what it should do with certain drives. This file, called &#8220;fstab&#8221; and located in &#8220;/etc&#8221;, is not present by default but will override the &#8220;read-only&#8221; flag on a per-drive basis if found. This allows a drive to always be mounted read/write without any hassle.</p>
<ol>
<li>Get the drive name as in step 2 above.</li>
<li>Open Terminal and type the following command to edit the /etc/fstab file:
<pre>sudo nano /etc/fstab</pre>
</li>
<div id="attachment_4422" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 310px;  border: 1px solid #dddddd; background-color: #f3f3f3; padding-top: 4px; margin: 10px; text-align:center; display: block; margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto;"><a href="http://static.fosketts.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Nano-fstab.png" ><img class="size-medium wp-image-4422" title="Nano fstab" src="http://static.fosketts.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Nano-fstab-300x211.png" alt="" width="300" height="211" /></a><p style=' padding: 0 4px 5px; margin: 0;'  class="wp-caption-text">Adding a line in /etc/fstab will make Mac OS X always mount a single drive in read/write mode</p></div>
<li>&#8220;Nano&#8221; is a command-line editing program. Add the following line to the file (and don&#8217;t forget the quotes around the drive name if it contains spaces!)
<pre>LABEL="drive name" none ntfs rw</pre>
</li>
<li>Now type control-x to save and exit, type y for yes, and hit enter.</li>
<li>After a reboot, Mac OS X should automatically mount any drive with that label as read/write</li>
</ol>
<p>Note that this can also be done using the NTFS UUID of the drive, but this isn&#8217;t present on every drive to LABEL works better. Also, some <a rel="nofollow" href="http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=785376"  target="_blank">have reported</a> needing multiple reboots to make it work. I have no idea why.</p>
<h3>The Permanent Universal Method</h3>
<p>It is also <a href="http://blog.navisidhu.com/53-ntfs-write-snow-leopard/"  target="_blank">possible</a> to permanently modify how Mac OS X calls the mount_ntfs command to always mount every NTFS drive in read/write mode. Again, I will point out that this isn&#8217;t necessarily a great idea since Apple doesn&#8217;t support using the driver in this way. But here it is!</p>
<ol>
<li>Open Terminal. We won&#8217;t need the drive name or Node Name since this applies to every NTFS drive.</li>
<li>Rename the mount_ntfs command to something else by typing the following:
<pre>sudo mv /sbin/mount_ntfs /sbin/mount_ntfs_orig</pre>
</li>
<li>Create a shell script called mount_ntfs using the Nano editor:
<pre>sudo nano /sbin/mount_ntfs</pre>
</li>
<li>This script will simply call mount_ntfs with the &#8220;-o rw&#8221; flag every time it&#8217;s used. Type the following in Nano:
<pre>#!/bin/sh
/sbin/mount_ntfs_orig -o rw "$@"</pre>
</li>
<li>Type control-x to save and exit, type y for yes, and hit enter.</li>
<li>Now we&#8217;ll fix the permissions on this new file so it&#8217;s owned by root and group wheel:
<pre>sudo chown root:wheel /sbin/mount_ntfs</pre>
</li>
<li>Finally, we make the shell script executable:
<pre>sudo chmod 755 /sbin/mount_ntfs</pre>
</li>
<li>Now every time OS X encounters an NTFS drive, it will mount it read/write by calling this script rather than the &#8220;mount_ntfs&#8221; executable it thinks it&#8217;s using.</li>
</ol>
<p>Note that future OS updates might &#8220;break&#8221; this method by replacing the /sbin/mount_ntfs command, or it could cause other issues. But it works for now and doesn&#8217;t even require a reboot.</p>
<h3>Stephen&#8217;s Stance</h3>
<p>I&#8217;m hesitant to recommend that casual Mac users employ any of these methods to access NTFS drives. Each requires superuser access and careful typing. You can easily mess up your system this way, and unsupported uses of the NTFS driver might result in data loss.</p>
<p>If you aren&#8217;t comfortable with this kind of mucking-about or intend to frequently write to NTFS drives, I highly suggest installing NTFS-3G or Paragon&#8217;s NTFS driver. In fact, the best method is simply to go buy a <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-FreeAgent-Ultra-Portable-External-STAA1000100/dp/B003ELOSI2%3FSubscriptionId%3DAKIAJYEMQAFREVFYOMPQ%26tag%3DPackrat-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3DB003ELOSI2" >Seagate GoFlex drive</a> and use the Paragon driver that comes with it!</p>
<p>But hackers and geeks like me want to know how to do this. This is why I decided to document it here.<br />
<blockquote>Note: Some of these links include affiliate codes that help pay for this blog. For example, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002Y27P3M?ie=UTF8&tag=packrat-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B002Y27P3M" target="_blank">buying an Amazon Kindle with this link</a> sends a few bucks my way! But I don't write this blog to make money, and am happy to link to sites and stores that don't pay anything. I like Amazon and buy tons from them, but you're free to buy whatever and wherever you want.</blockquote></p>
<div id="crp_related"><h3>You might also want to read these other posts...</h3><ul><li><a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/2009/08/06/access-ntfs-volumes-mac/"  rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">Access NTFS Volumes On Your Mac</a></li><li><a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/2008/09/03/os-x-custom-drive-icons-2-boot-camp-ntfs/"  rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">OS X Custom Drive Icons 2: Boot Camp and NTFS</a></li><li><a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/2008/08/27/custom-drive-icons-mac-os-x/"  rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">Custom Drive Icons in Mac OS X</a></li><li><a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/2010/07/26/boot-snow-leopard-64bit-mode/"  rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">How To Boot Snow Leopard in 64-Bit Mode</a></li><li><a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/2008/07/31/windows-server-2008-changes-storage/"  rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">Windows Server 2008 Changes Storage</a></li></ul></div><script src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~s/sfoskett?i=http://blog.fosketts.net/2010/11/29/write-windows-ntfs-drive-mac-os-106-snow-leopard/" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"></script><hr />
<p><small>© sfoskett for <a href="http://blog.fosketts.net">Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat</a>, 2010. |
<a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/2010/11/29/write-windows-ntfs-drive-mac-os-106-snow-leopard/">How To Write To Windows NTFS Drives In Mac OS X 10.6 &#8220;Snow Leopard&#8221;</a>
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This post was categorized as <a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/category/everything/apple/" title="View all posts in Apple" rel="category tag">Apple</a>, <a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/category/everything/personal/" title="View all posts in Personal" rel="category tag">Personal</a>, <a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/category/everything/terabytehome/" title="View all posts in Terabyte home" rel="category tag">Terabyte home</a>. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.<br/>
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		<title>How To Boot Snow Leopard in 64-Bit Mode</title>
		<link>http://blog.fosketts.net/2010/07/26/boot-snow-leopard-64bit-mode/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.fosketts.net/2010/07/26/boot-snow-leopard-64bit-mode/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 26 Jul 2010 16:44:15 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Stephen</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Apple]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[10.6]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[64-bit]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[EFI64]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[iMac]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[NVRAM]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[OS X]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[plist]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Snow Leopard]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blog.fosketts.net/?p=3450</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Last year, I posted two articles about Apple's OS X 10.6 "Snow Leopard" and its new 64-bit kernel. The upshot was that, although just about every Mac made since mid-2008 is 64-bit capable, only the Xserve boots in 64-bit mode by default. Since my main computer is a glorious 27" iMac that runs 64-bit Snow Leopard perfectly, I decided to permanently set it to boot this way. Here's how you can set your Mac to boot 64-bit Snow Leopard, too!]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Last year, I posted two articles about Apple&#8217;s OS X 10.6 &#8220;Snow Leopard&#8221; and its new 64-bit kernel. The upshot was that, although just about every Mac made since mid-2008 is 64-bit capable, only the Xserve boots in 64-bit mode by default. Since my main computer is a glorious 27&#8243; iMac that runs 64-bit Snow Leopard perfectly, I decided to permanently set it to boot this way. Here&#8217;s how you can set your Mac to boot 64-bit Snow Leopard, too!</p>
<ol>
<li>Open Terminal</li>
<li>As I mentioned in the article, <a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/2009/08/30/64bit-snow-leopard-kernel/" >No 64-Bit Snow Leopard Kernel For You!</a>, only Macs with 64-bit EFI firmware will run Snow Leopard&#8217;s kernel in 64-bit mode out of the box. Check if your system is compatible by typing the following command
<pre>ioreg -l -p IODeviceTree | grep firmware-abi</pre>
</li>
<li>If it says “EFI64″, your system is capable of easily booting into 64-bit Snow Leopard. Otherwise, you need to go looking for a more-complicated method.</li>
<li>You can test this capability by rebooting and holding down the &#8220;6&#8243; and &#8220;4&#8243; keys through the grey Apple screen. Check System Profiler (in the &#8220;Software&#8221; section) to see if you&#8217;re running a 64-bit kernel.</li>
<li>Now let&#8217;s set the kernel configuration files to boot in 64-bit mode by default. Type the following command from Terminal (you&#8217;ll need to enter your password when prompted):
<pre>sudo defaults write \</pre>
<pre>/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot \</pre>
<pre>'Kernel Flags' 'arch=x86_64'</pre>
</li>
<li>Finally, let&#8217;s set the NVRAM to boot in 64-bit mode as well. Type this command:
<pre>sudo nvram boot-args="arch=x86_64"</pre>
</li>
<li>Now you&#8217;re set. Your system will always boot in 64-bit mode. To get it to run 32-bit, just hold &#8220;3&#8243; and &#8220;2&#8243; through the Apple screen on reboot.</li>
</ol>
<p>That&#8217;s it! You&#8217;ve now got a 64-bit Mac!</p>
<div id="attachment_3451" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 310px;  border: 1px solid #dddddd; background-color: #f3f3f3; padding-top: 4px; margin: 10px; text-align:center; display: block; margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto;"><a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/64-bit-Snow-Leopard-in-System-Profiler.png" ><img class="size-medium wp-image-3451" title="64-bit Snow Leopard in System Profiler" src="http://blog.fosketts.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/64-bit-Snow-Leopard-in-System-Profiler-300x217.png" alt="" width="300" height="217" /></a><p style=' padding: 0 4px 5px; margin: 0;'  class="wp-caption-text">My iMac now boots in 64-bit mode by default!</p></div>
<div id="crp_related"><h3>You might also want to read these other posts...</h3><ul><li><a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/2009/08/30/64bit-snow-leopard-kernel/"  rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">No 64-Bit Snow Leopard Kernel For You!</a></li><li><a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/2009/08/24/mac-os-106-snow-leopard-hands-august-28/"  rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">Mac OS X 10.6 &#8220;Snow Leopard&#8221;: In Our Hands August 28!</a></li><li><a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/2009/06/09/snow-leopard-storage/"  rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">Snow Leopard Is Stingy With The Storage Love</a></li><li><a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/2009/08/06/access-ntfs-volumes-mac/"  rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">Access NTFS Volumes On Your Mac</a></li><li><a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/2009/08/30/snow-leopard-hp-printer-driver/"  rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">Located! Missing HP Printer Driver For Snow Leopard</a></li></ul></div><script src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~s/sfoskett?i=http://blog.fosketts.net/2010/07/26/boot-snow-leopard-64bit-mode/" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"></script><hr />
<p><small>© sfoskett for <a href="http://blog.fosketts.net">Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat</a>, 2010. |
<a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/2010/07/26/boot-snow-leopard-64bit-mode/">How To Boot Snow Leopard in 64-Bit Mode</a>
<br/>
This post was categorized as <a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/category/everything/apple/" title="View all posts in Apple" rel="category tag">Apple</a>. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.<br/>
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		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
	
		<series:name><![CDATA[Snow Leopard]]></series:name>
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		<title>Located! Missing HP Printer Driver For Snow Leopard</title>
		<link>http://blog.fosketts.net/2009/08/30/snow-leopard-hp-printer-driver/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.fosketts.net/2009/08/30/snow-leopard-hp-printer-driver/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 30 Aug 2009 21:43:26 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Stephen</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Apple]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[10.6]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hewlett Packard]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[HP]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[OS X]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[printer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Snow Leopard]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blog.fosketts.net/?p=2287</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Note: It looks like Apple now has the correct drivers available for direct download and upgrade. None of this should be required anymore. Got a Hewlett Packard printer? Got Snow Leopard? Apple and HP report that the OS X 10.6 install DVD includes all required drivers and software, but it didn&#8217;t work for me. I [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<blockquote><p><strong>Note:</strong> It looks like Apple now has the correct drivers available for direct download and upgrade. None of this should be required anymore.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Got a Hewlett Packard printer? Got Snow Leopard? Apple and HP report that <a rel="nofollow" href="http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01846935&amp;cc=us&amp;dlc=en&amp;lc=en&amp;jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN"  target="_blank">the OS X 10.6 install DVD includes all required drivers</a> and software, but it didn&#8217;t work for me. I went to look for the driver software on the Apple and HP web sites and you will find a list of supported printers, including many, many HP models. But the support article (entitled &#8220;<a rel="nofollow" href="http://support.apple.com/downloads/HP_Printer_Drivers_for_Mac_OS_X_v10_6"  target="_blank">HP Printer Drivers for Mac OS X v10.6</a>&#8220;) redirects to the Ricoh drivers, and the HP drivers are MIA.</p>
<p>Poking around the site and trying different URLs, I am pleased to report that I have located the missing driver package! <strong>HP printer drivers for Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard may be found here</strong>: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://support.apple.com/downloads/DL907/en_US/HewlettPackardPrinterDrivers2.0.dmg"  target="_blank">http://support.apple.com/downloads/DL907/en_US/HewlettPackardPrinterDrivers2.0.dmg</a> Note that this driver package is labeled &#8220;2.0&#8243; but it includes the version 3.0 HP drivers which are (allegedly) included in the install DVD.</p>
<p>HP officially states that users should not use their Leopard software (Scan Pro, etc) under Snow Leopard. Indeed, <strong>users should uninstall any existing HP software and use the included drivers and software</strong>. Like the previous Apple drivers, this install <a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/2008/10/30/warning-hp-allinone-error-mac-os/"  target="_blank">interferes with HP&#8217;s scanner</a> functions anyway, so they won&#8217;t work.</p>
<p>So, to sum up, <strong>users of Snow Leopard should uninstall any existing HP software and install the official Apple software through Software Update or </strong><a rel="nofollow" href="http://support.apple.com/downloads/DL907/en_US/HewlettPackardPrinterDrivers2.0.dmg"  target="_blank"><strong>from the support web site</strong></a>. You should then be able to print and scan (through Preview) for compatible HP devices.</p>
<div id="crp_related"><h3>You might also want to read these other posts...</h3><ul><li><a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/2008/10/30/warning-hp-allinone-error-mac-os/"  rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">Warning: HP All-In-One Error With Mac OS X</a></li><li><a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/2009/08/06/access-ntfs-volumes-mac/"  rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">Access NTFS Volumes On Your Mac</a></li><li><a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/2010/07/26/boot-snow-leopard-64bit-mode/"  rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">How To Boot Snow Leopard in 64-Bit Mode</a></li><li><a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/2009/08/30/64bit-snow-leopard-kernel/"  rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">No 64-Bit Snow Leopard Kernel For You!</a></li><li><a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/2009/07/06/install-google-gears-safari-4/"  rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">How To Install Google Gears in Safari 4</a></li></ul></div><script src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~s/sfoskett?i=http://blog.fosketts.net/2009/08/30/snow-leopard-hp-printer-driver/" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"></script><hr />
<p><small>© sfoskett for <a href="http://blog.fosketts.net">Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat</a>, 2009. |
<a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/2009/08/30/snow-leopard-hp-printer-driver/">Located! Missing HP Printer Driver For Snow Leopard</a>
<br/>
This post was categorized as <a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/category/everything/apple/" title="View all posts in Apple" rel="category tag">Apple</a>. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.<br/>
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		<slash:comments>23</slash:comments>
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		<title>No 64-Bit Snow Leopard Kernel For You!</title>
		<link>http://blog.fosketts.net/2009/08/30/64bit-snow-leopard-kernel/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.fosketts.net/2009/08/30/64bit-snow-leopard-kernel/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 30 Aug 2009 19:55:06 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Stephen</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Apple]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Computer History]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[10.6]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[64-bit]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[EFI]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[EFI64]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Finder]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[IA-32]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[iMac]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Intel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mac Pro]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[MacBook]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[MacBook Pro]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Microsoft]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[OS X]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Snow Leopard]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[x64]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Xserve]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blog.fosketts.net/?p=2281</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[There is clearly a ton of interest in Mac OS X 10.6, Snow Leopard: My Snow Leopard features hardware compatibility chart had over 20,000 visitors in just three days! But one chart element is generating an inordinate amount of interest: Whether or not Snow Leopard can boot in 64-bit mode. Snow Leopard is a solid [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div id="attachment_2282" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 410px;  border: 1px solid #dddddd; background-color: #f3f3f3; padding-top: 4px; margin: 10px; text-align:center; display: block; margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto;"><a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/No-64-bit-Snow-Leopard.png" ><img class="size-full wp-image-2282  " title="No 64-bit Snow Leopard" src="http://blog.fosketts.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/No-64-bit-Snow-Leopard.png" alt="The Snow Leopard kernel refuses to boot in 64-bit mode on most Macs. Should you care?" width="400" height="290" /></a><p style=' padding: 0 4px 5px; margin: 0;'  class="wp-caption-text">The Snow Leopard kernel refuses to boot in 64-bit mode on most Macs. Should you care?</p></div>
<p>There is clearly a ton of interest in Mac OS X 10.6, Snow Leopard: My <a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/2009/08/24/mac-os-106-snow-leopard-hands-august-28/"  target="_blank">Snow Leopard features hardware compatibility chart</a> had over 20,000 visitors in just three days! But one chart element is generating an inordinate amount of interest: <strong>Whether or not Snow Leopard can boot in 64-bit mode</strong>.<span id="more-2281"></span></p>
<p>Snow Leopard is a solid but visually unremarkable update to Apple&#8217;s OS X family. Although there are many new technical features, it&#8217;s not loaded with flash. In fact, even experienced Mac users would be hard-pressed to notice that their system had even been updated!</p>
<p>As I mentioned in that post, I was most-interested in the potential to use Grand Central Dispatch and OpenCL to accelerate my system&#8217;s performance. Both features are supported on most Macs built over the last year or two, and they create a great foundation for future development. QuickTime X is interesting as well, though only Nvidia 9400M-based Macs (like my 2009 Mini) support it&#8217;s hardware-accelerated H.264 capabilities. The fact that so much of the operating system has been re-written using these modern capabilities is probably the biggest Snow Leopard feature.</p>
<h3>Snow Leopard Does Not Boot 64-Bit&#8230;</h3>
<p>I wasn&#8217;t all that concerned about whether the OS X kernel booted in 32-bit or 64-bit mode, but was intrigued to find that <strong>Snow Leopard boots with a 32-bit kernel on every Mac other than the rack-mount Xserve</strong>.</p>
<p>Much pre-launch discussion revolved around whether or not a given system was even capable of booting in 64-bit mode. There are three critical elements that determine whether a given machine will boot a 64-bit Snow Leopard kernel:</p>
<ol>
<li><strong>All system hardware must have 64-bit drivers</strong>, including the CPU, chipset, and peripheral chips. The 64-bit kernel exclusively uses 64-bit kexts (drivers), and these are rarer than the 32-bit ones used by Leopard.</li>
<li><strong>It must use 64-bit EFI (firmware)</strong>. Even though EFI32 can technically boot a 64-bit operating system just fine, Apple will not allow this. Only Macs made over the last few years include EFI64.</li>
<li><strong>Apple must allow the system to boot in 64-bit mode</strong>. This is the most confusing. Many Macs will not boot Snow Leopard in 64-bit mode even though they are brand new, have no unusual hardware, and include EFI64. This includes all non-Pro MacBooks and Mac Minis.</li>
</ol>
<p>So there you have it. <strong>No matter what you do, Snow Leopard will not boot with a 64-bit kernel and kexts on the majority of Macs</strong>. One could understand if there was a lack of drivers or some other technical limitation, as is the case with older Macs, the but this is not the case for the latest MacBook and Mac Mini systems. They won&#8217;t boot with a 64-bit kernel because the kernel refuses to boot.</p>
<p>The only Mac model that boots with a 64-bit kernel by default is the 2008 and 2009 Xserve (Xserve2,1 and Xserve3,1) running Snow Leopard Server. <strong>The following Macs can boot in 64-bit mode in non-server Snow Leopard</strong> if you hold down the 6 and 4 keys on boot or if you modify your &#8220;/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist&#8221; file <a href="http://netkas.org/?p=127"  target="_blank">as described at Netkas</a>:</p>
<table style="width: 425px;" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2">
<tbody>
<tr height="13">
<th>Type</th>
<th>Date</th>
<th>Model<br />
Identifier</th>
<th>Sample<br />
Model Numbers</th>
</tr>
<tr height="13">
<td rowspan="2">Xserve</td>
<td>Early 2008</td>
<td>Xserve2,1</td>
<td>MA882LL/A</td>
</tr>
<tr height="13">
<td>Early 2009</td>
<td>Xserve3,1</td>
<td>MB449LL/A</td>
</tr>
<tr height="13">
<td rowspan="2">Mac Pro</td>
<td>Early 2008</td>
<td>MacPro3,1</td>
<td>MA970LL/A</td>
</tr>
<tr height="13">
<td>Early 2009</td>
<td>MacPro4,1</td>
<td>MB871LL/A, MB535LL/A</td>
</tr>
<tr height="13">
<td rowspan="2">iMac</td>
<td>Early 2008</td>
<td>iMac8,1</td>
<td>MB323LL/A, MB324LL/A, MB325LL/A</td>
</tr>
<tr height="13">
<td>Early 2009</td>
<td>iMac9,1</td>
<td>MB417LL/A, MB418LL/A, MB419LL/A, MB420LL/A</td>
</tr>
<tr height="13">
<td rowspan="3">MacBook Pro</td>
<td>Early 2008 (Penryn)</td>
<td>MacBookPro4,1</td>
<td>MB133LL/A, MB134LL/A, MB166LL/A</td>
</tr>
<tr height="13">
<td>Late 2008 (Unibody)</td>
<td>MacBookPro5,1</td>
<td>MB470LL/A, MB471LL/A</td>
</tr>
<tr height="13">
<td>Early 2009 (Unibody)</td>
<td>MacBookPro5,2</td>
<td>MB470LL/A, MB471LL/A, MB604LL/A, MC226LL/A</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><strong>If your Mac is not included in this list, you will not be able to boot Snow Leopard in 64-bit mode</strong>. MacBook and Mac Mini models definitely will not boot into 64-bit Snow Leopard. The later Unibody MacBook Pros (5,3 and 5,4) are not listed, and it is not known if they work or not.</p>
<h3>&#8230;But Why Do You Care?</h3>
<p><strong>Why do enthusiasts care so much about the &#8220;bitness&#8221; of their hardware and software?</strong> Geeks have been arguing over the merits of &#8220;bigger-bits&#8221; for decades. I remember Mac users claiming PCs were inferior because Macs used true 16-bit Motorola CPUs while PCs were stuck with an 8-bit bus. The gaming world did much to foster 64-bit mania, with Atari claiming their Jaguar was the first 64-bit console, and Nintendo even naming theirs the &#8220;N64&#8243;. But does it really matter?</p>
<p>In theory, a 64-bit operating system should make most-effective use of 64-bit CPUs, increasing performance and maximum addressable RAM. In the case of Intel CPUs, there are many improvements when running the 64-bit (<a rel="nofollow" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X64"  target="_blank">x64</a>) instruction set instead of legacy 32-bit (<a rel="nofollow" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IA-32"  target="_blank">IA-32</a>) mode. So, <strong>from a hardware perspective, 64 bits is definitely superior</strong>.</p>
<p>But <strong>Mac OS X can run 64-bit applications regardless of the bitness of the kernel</strong>. I am writing this post in 64-bit Safari running on a 32-bit Snow Leopard kernel. Many of the applications I normally run are 64-bit in Snow Leopard, including Safari, Mail, and the Finder. This last is important: <strong>All Snow Leopard users get a speedy 64-bit ground-up rewrite of Finder, which is their main operating system experience</strong>.</p>
<div id="attachment_2284" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 410px;  border: 1px solid #dddddd; background-color: #f3f3f3; padding-top: 4px; margin: 10px; text-align:center; display: block; margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto;"><a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/64-bit-apps.png" ><img class="size-full wp-image-2284  " title="64 bit apps" src="http://blog.fosketts.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/64-bit-apps.png" alt="32-bit Snow Leopard runs 64-bit versions of many popular applications, including Safari and the Finder." width="400" height="309" /></a><p style=' padding: 0 4px 5px; margin: 0;'  class="wp-caption-text">32-bit Snow Leopard runs 64-bit versions of many applications, including Safari, QuickTime X, iCal, Mail, and the Finder itself. Notable 32-bit apps include Microsoft Office, iTunes, and iPhoto.</p></div>
<p>Therefore, <strong>regardless of which kernel mode you have booted into, many of your daily activities will use full 64-bit applications</strong>. 64-bit versions of iTunes, iPhoto, and Microsoft Office might be nice, but they&#8217;re the exception not the rule, and I expect to see these move up to 64-bit soon.</p>
<p>Why do so many Macs not use the 64-bit version of Snow Leopard? One reason is compatibility: The 64-bit kernel requires a full set of 64-bit drivers, and these may have been lacking at launch. Another reason might be that these systems would not see much benefit from running a 64-bit operating system since they are limited to 4 GB of RAM. I would not be at all surprised if later point-revisions of OS X 10.6 enable booting in 64-bit mode by default, at least for the machines listed above and newer models. Those of us with older machines (like this MacBookPro3,1) might never see it, though.</p>
<p>I should note that there are a few <a href="http://db.tidbits.com/article/10509"  target="_blank">64-bit features</a> lacking in 32-bit Snow Leopard. But some applications, <a href="http://blogs.vmware.com/teamfusion/2009/08/vmware-fusion-2-and-max-os-x-snow-leopard-even-better.html"  target="_blank">including VMware Fusion</a>, will not run at all under a 64-bit Snow Leopard kernel. And there is the question of driver compatibility. I am not an Apple apologist or fanboy, but I do use Macs 100% of the time for business and pleasure. I think <strong>it stinks that Apple now lags behind Microsoft in the race to provide a 64-bit desktop operating system</strong>. But the decision is understandable and it has little impact on the daily lives of end users.</p>
<div id="crp_related"><h3>You might also want to read these other posts...</h3><ul><li><a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/2010/07/26/boot-snow-leopard-64bit-mode/"  rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">How To Boot Snow Leopard in 64-Bit Mode</a></li><li><a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/2009/08/24/mac-os-106-snow-leopard-hands-august-28/"  rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">Mac OS X 10.6 &#8220;Snow Leopard&#8221;: In Our Hands August 28!</a></li><li><a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/2009/06/09/snow-leopard-storage/"  rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">Snow Leopard Is Stingy With The Storage Love</a></li><li><a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/2009/08/30/snow-leopard-hp-printer-driver/"  rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">Located! Missing HP Printer Driver For Snow Leopard</a></li><li><a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/2009/08/06/access-ntfs-volumes-mac/"  rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">Access NTFS Volumes On Your Mac</a></li></ul></div><script src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~s/sfoskett?i=http://blog.fosketts.net/2009/08/30/64bit-snow-leopard-kernel/" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"></script><hr />
<p><small>© sfoskett for <a href="http://blog.fosketts.net">Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat</a>, 2009. |
<a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/2009/08/30/64bit-snow-leopard-kernel/">No 64-Bit Snow Leopard Kernel For You!</a>
<br/>
This post was categorized as <a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/category/everything/apple/" title="View all posts in Apple" rel="category tag">Apple</a>, <a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/category/everything/computerhistory/" title="View all posts in Computer History" rel="category tag">Computer History</a>. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.<br/>
</small></p>]]></content:encoded>
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		<slash:comments>33</slash:comments>
	
		<series:name><![CDATA[Snow Leopard]]></series:name>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Mac OS X 10.6 &#8220;Snow Leopard&#8221;: In Our Hands August 28!</title>
		<link>http://blog.fosketts.net/2009/08/24/mac-os-106-snow-leopard-hands-august-28/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.fosketts.net/2009/08/24/mac-os-106-snow-leopard-hands-august-28/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 24 Aug 2009 14:58:36 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Stephen</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Apple]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Personal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[10.5]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[10.6]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[64-bit]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Amazon.com]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Apple Store]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ATI]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[EFI]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Exchange 2007]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Grand Central]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[H.264]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[iMac]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Intel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Leopard]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mac Mini]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mac Pro]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[MacBook]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[MacBook Air]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[MacBook Pro]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mark Twomey]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Microsoft Exchange]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[NVIDIA]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[OpenCL]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[OS X]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[QuickTime]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Snow Leopard]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Xserve]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blog.fosketts.net/?p=2213</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Apple&#8217;s bizarre online store reboot this morning revealed that the next point-update for Mac OS X will be in the hands of the faithful this Friday, August 28! Many speculated on the purported September availability of the operating system upgrade, but today&#8217;s information clears the air. Although Apple&#8217;s web site clearly states that Snow Leopard [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Apple&#8217;s bizarre online store reboot this morning revealed that the next point-update for Mac OS X will be in the hands of the faithful <strong>this Friday, August 28</strong>! Many speculated on the purported September availability of the operating system upgrade, but today&#8217;s information clears the air.</p>
<div id="attachment_2214" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 423px;  border: 1px solid #dddddd; background-color: #f3f3f3; padding-top: 4px; margin: 10px; text-align:center; display: block; margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto;"><a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/Mac-OS-X-10.6-Snow-Leopard-Apple-Store-U.S..jpg" ><img class="size-full wp-image-2214  " title="Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Released!" src="http://blog.fosketts.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/Mac-OS-X-10.6-Snow-Leopard-Apple-Store-U.S..jpg" alt="Mac OS X 10.6 &quot;Snow Leopard&quot; deliveries begin on August 28!" width="413" height="247" /></a><p style=' padding: 0 4px 5px; margin: 0;'  class="wp-caption-text">Mac OS X 10.6 &quot;Snow Leopard&quot; deliveries begin on August 28!</p></div>
<p>Although Apple&#8217;s web site clearly states that Snow Leopard &#8220;<strong>Delivers on August 28th</strong>,&#8221; it is unclear if other sources will be so punctual. We definitely expect Apple Stores to have plenty of stock on Friday morning, but what of <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&amp;docId=1000410511&amp;tag=packrat-20"  target="_blank">Amazon.com pre-orders</a>? Will they also deliver on Friday, or will those of us who pre-ordered there have to wait a few days for this undercover upgrade?<span id="more-2213"></span></p>
<h3>Who Gets What</h3>
<p>Snow Leopard is really a major jump forward in terms of advanced hardware and software integration. It brings Grand Central, OpenCL, full 64-bit mode, and QuickTime X along with Exchange support and many tweaks. But <strong>many of these features are highly hardware-dependent, so not all Mac users will get everything</strong>.</p>
<p>Here&#8217;s a cheat sheet I put together based on <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.apple.com/macosx/specs.html"  target="_blank">Apple&#8217;s documentation</a>:</p>
<table style="width: 435px;" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2">
<col width="212"></col>
<col span="3" width="75"></col>
<col width="75"></col>
<col width="75"></col>
<tbody>
<tr height="13">
<td style="text-align: center;" width="212" height="13"></td>
<td style="text-align: center;" width="75">Supported by Snow Leopard</td>
<td style="text-align: center;" width="75">64-Bit Support</td>
<td style="text-align: center;" width="75">Grand Central Dispatch</td>
<td style="text-align: center;" width="75">OpenCL</td>
<td style="text-align: center;" width="75">QuickTime H.264 Hardware Acceleration</td>
</tr>
<tr height="13">
<td height="13">PowerPC Macs</td>
<td bgcolor="salmon">No</td>
<td bgcolor="salmon">No</td>
<td bgcolor="salmon">No</td>
<td bgcolor="salmon">No</td>
<td bgcolor="salmon">No</td>
</tr>
<tr height="13">
<td height="13">MacBook (2006-mid 2007)</td>
<td bgcolor="yellow">Yes, with 1 GB RAM</td>
<td bgcolor="salmon">No</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td bgcolor="salmon">No</td>
<td bgcolor="salmon">No</td>
</tr>
<tr height="13">
<td height="13">MacBook (late 2007-2008)</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td bgcolor="salmon">No</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td bgcolor="salmon">No</td>
<td bgcolor="salmon">No</td>
</tr>
<tr height="13">
<td height="13">MacBook (2009-present)</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td bgcolor="salmon">No</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td>Yes</td>
</tr>
<tr height="13">
<td height="13">Unibody MacBook</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td bgcolor="salmon">No</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td>Yes</td>
</tr>
<tr height="13">
<td height="13">MacBook Air (early 2008)</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td bgcolor="salmon">No</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td bgcolor="salmon">No</td>
<td bgcolor="salmon">No</td>
</tr>
<tr height="13">
<td height="13">MacBook Air (Late 2008-present)</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td bgcolor="salmon">No</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td>Yes</td>
</tr>
<tr height="13">
<td height="13">MacBook Pro (ATI graphics) through Late 2006</td>
<td bgcolor="yellow">Yes, with 1 GB RAM</td>
<td bgcolor="salmon">No</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td bgcolor="salmon">No</td>
<td bgcolor="salmon">No</td>
</tr>
<tr height="13">
<td height="13">MacBook Pro (Nvidia graphics) from 2007-early 2008</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td bgcolor="salmon">No</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td bgcolor="salmon">No</td>
</tr>
<tr height="13">
<td height="13">MacBook Pro (late 2008)</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td bgcolor="yellow">Capable</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td bgcolor="salmon">No</td>
</tr>
<tr height="13">
<td height="13">Unibody MacBook Pro</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td bgcolor="yellow">Capable</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td>Yes</td>
</tr>
<tr height="13">
<td height="13">iMac (Intel, through 2007)</td>
<td bgcolor="yellow">Yes, with 1 GB RAM</td>
<td bgcolor="salmon">No</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td bgcolor="salmon">No</td>
<td bgcolor="salmon">No</td>
</tr>
<tr height="13">
<td height="13">iMac (mid-2007)</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td bgcolor="salmon">No</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td bgcolor="salmon">No</td>
<td bgcolor="salmon">No</td>
</tr>
<tr height="13">
<td height="13">iMac (2008)</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td bgcolor="yellow">Capable</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td bgcolor="salmon">Nvidia only</td>
<td bgcolor="salmon">No</td>
</tr>
<tr height="13">
<td height="13">iMac (2009)</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td bgcolor="yellow">Capable</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td bgcolor="yellow">9400M only</td>
</tr>
<tr height="13">
<td height="13">Mac Mini (2006)</td>
<td bgcolor="yellow">Yes, with 1 GB RAM</td>
<td bgcolor="salmon">No</td>
<td bgcolor="yellow">Core Duo only</td>
<td bgcolor="salmon">No</td>
<td bgcolor="salmon">No</td>
</tr>
<tr height="13">
<td height="13">Mac Mini (2007)</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td bgcolor="salmon">No</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td bgcolor="salmon">No</td>
<td bgcolor="salmon">No</td>
</tr>
<tr height="13">
<td height="13">Mac Mini (2009)</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td bgcolor="salmon">No</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td>Yes</td>
</tr>
<tr height="13">
<td height="13">Mac Pro (2009)</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td bgcolor="yellow">Capable</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td>Yes</td>
</tr>
<tr height="13">
<td height="13">Mac Pro (pre-2008)</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td bgcolor="salmon">No</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td bgcolor="salmon">No</td>
<td bgcolor="salmon">No</td>
</tr>
<tr height="13">
<td height="13">Mac Pro (2008)</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td bgcolor="yellow">Capable</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td bgcolor="yellow">Nvidia only</td>
<td bgcolor="salmon">No</td>
</tr>
<tr height="13">
<td height="13">Intel Xserve (pre-2009)</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td bgcolor="yellow">Capable</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td bgcolor="salmon">No</td>
<td bgcolor="salmon">No</td>
</tr>
<tr height="13">
<td height="13">Xserve (2009)</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td bgcolor="salmon">No</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>This table is based on the following facts:</p>
<ol>
<li><strong>Snow Leopard only supports Intel-based Macs</strong>. PowerPC Macs need not apply.</li>
<li><strong>Booting Snow Leopard in 64-bit mode requires 64-bit EFI</strong>, and many pre-2007 Macs have only a 32-bit EFI. You can check your Mac (and help me fix my table) by typing &#8220;ioreg -l -p IODeviceTree | grep firmware-abi&#8221; in a Terminal window. If it says &#8220;EFI64&#8243;, your system is capable of running 64-bit Snow Leopard (though it can still run 64-bit apps). But <strong>Snow Leopard defaults to 32-bit mode</strong> on ALL Macs <a href="http://www.9to5mac.com/snow-leopard-64-bit-32-bit-firmware-efi"  target="_blank">other than the Xserve</a> at this point, and no one is sure why!</li>
<li><strong>Grand Central Dispatch requires a multi-core CPU</strong>. This eliminates the original base-model 2006 Mac Mini, since it used a single-core CPU.</li>
<li><strong>OpenCL requires newer Nvidia or the ATI graphics chips</strong>. This leaves out many pre-2008 models and some iMac and Mac Pro configurations. Check <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.apple.com/macosx/specs.html"  target="_blank">Apple&#8217;s list</a> if you&#8217;re not sure.</li>
<li><strong>QuickTime H.264 Hardware Acceleration only works with the Nvidia 9400M chipset</strong>. This leaves out many pre-2008 machines and even the latest Mac Pros, though they probably have enough horsepower on their own.</li>
</ol>
<p>Finally, if you&#8217;re excited about the new <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.apple.com/macosx/exchange/"  target="_blank">Microsoft Exchange support</a> in Mail.app, iCal, and the Address Book be warned! In order for any of this to work, your <em>server</em> must be running Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 Update Rollup 4. And <strong>most companies still aren&#8217;t updated </strong>that far!</p>
<blockquote><p><strong>Update:</strong> Check my follow-up post on <a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/2009/08/30/64bit-snow-leopard-kernel/"  target="_blank">64-bit Snow Leopard</a> for more about this controversial aspect!</p></blockquote>
<h3 style="font-size: 1.17em;">I&#8217;m Updating!</h3>
<p>I held off on Amazon and placed my own order this morning with Apple. I&#8217;m with <a href="http://twitter.com/Storagezilla/status/3512474010"  target="_blank">Mark Twomey</a>:<strong>Upgrading to Snow Leopard is a safe day-1 activity</strong>. Most of the updates amount to new under-the-hood features and the OS has been through round after round of testing. Unlike the massive shift from Tiger to Leopard (which I missed, being <a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/tag/switch/"  target="_blank">a late switcher</a>), Snow Leopard ought to be a lesser upgrade.</p>
<p>Why make the update at all? Here are a few of my reasons:</p>
<ol>
<li><strong>It&#8217;s cheap</strong>: Just $29 to update a single Mac, or $49 for up to five. Compared to Microsoft&#8217;s (expired) &#8220;<a href="http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/06/25/windows-7-pricing-released-with-limited-time-discounts/"  target="_blank">limited-time-only</a>&#8221; (and <a href="http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=1246"  target="_blank">incredibly complicated</a>) Windows 7 upgrade, Apple sets out a red velvet carpet.</li>
<li><strong>It&#8217;s easy</strong>: There&#8217;s just one version of Mac OS X, and any system running OS X 10.5 &#8220;Leopard&#8221; can update to full-on Snow Leopard. There are no editions and no conflicts updating from 32-bit to 64-bit (like <a rel="nofollow" href="http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/GettingReadyforWindows7/thread/967911ef-09b3-4d74-8b69-c3d97207b288"  target="_blank">Windows 7</a>).</li>
<li><strong>It future-proofs your (Intel) Mac</strong>: Mac developers have a long history of quickly leveraging new OS X features since Mac users have a long history of quickly upgrading. Snow Leopard adds cool stuff like <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.apple.com/macosx/technology/#grandcentral"  target="_blank">Grand Central</a> and <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.apple.com/macosx/technology/"  target="_blank">OpenCL</a> that my Intel- and Nvidia-based Macs ought to be able to leverage. See below if your Mac can use these, too!</li>
</ol>
<p>Sure, there aren&#8217;t any amazing features like Time Machine to set the world on fire. But <strong>the Snow Leopard update is still a slam-dunk for any Intel-based Mac user</strong>! <a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/tag/MacBook-Pro/"  target="_blank">My Late-2007 MacBook Pro</a> will get everything but H.264 acceleration and <a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/tag/Mac-Mini/"  target="_blank">my 2009 Mac Mini</a> is all set to go!</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><strong>Updated</strong> with Mac Mini and Xserve information. Keep the suggestions coming and test that EFI! Picked up, colorized, and reused (with permission) by the excellent <a href="http://www.edbott.com/weblog/"  target="_blank">Ed Bott</a> in <a href="http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=1275"  target="_blank">his ZDNet column</a>!</p>
<p><blockquote>Note: Some of these links include affiliate codes that help pay for this blog. For example, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002Y27P3M?ie=UTF8&tag=packrat-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B002Y27P3M" target="_blank">buying an Amazon Kindle with this link</a> sends a few bucks my way! But I don't write this blog to make money, and am happy to link to sites and stores that don't pay anything. I like Amazon and buy tons from them, but you're free to buy whatever and wherever you want.</blockquote></p>
<div id="crp_related"><h3>You might also want to read these other posts...</h3><ul><li><a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/2010/07/26/boot-snow-leopard-64bit-mode/"  rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">How To Boot Snow Leopard in 64-Bit Mode</a></li><li><a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/2011/03/02/clearance-ipad/"  rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">Great Deals on iPads (for now)</a></li><li><a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/2009/08/30/64bit-snow-leopard-kernel/"  rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">No 64-Bit Snow Leopard Kernel For You!</a></li><li><a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/2011/01/24/vmware-esx-fcoe-cna-compatibility-plain-english/"  rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">VMware ESX FCoE CNA Compatibility in Plain English</a></li><li><a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/2009/06/09/snow-leopard-storage/"  rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">Snow Leopard Is Stingy With The Storage Love</a></li></ul></div><script src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~s/sfoskett?i=http://blog.fosketts.net/2009/08/24/mac-os-106-snow-leopard-hands-august-28/" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"></script><hr />
<p><small>© sfoskett for <a href="http://blog.fosketts.net">Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat</a>, 2009. |
<a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/2009/08/24/mac-os-106-snow-leopard-hands-august-28/">Mac OS X 10.6 &#8220;Snow Leopard&#8221;: In Our Hands August 28!</a>
<br/>
This post was categorized as <a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/category/everything/apple/" title="View all posts in Apple" rel="category tag">Apple</a>, <a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/category/everything/personal/" title="View all posts in Personal" rel="category tag">Personal</a>. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.<br/>
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		<slash:comments>36</slash:comments>
	
		<series:name><![CDATA[Snow Leopard]]></series:name>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Snow Leopard Is Stingy With The Storage Love</title>
		<link>http://blog.fosketts.net/2009/06/09/snow-leopard-storage/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.fosketts.net/2009/06/09/snow-leopard-storage/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 09 Jun 2009 18:53:58 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Stephen</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Apple]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Enterprise storage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[10.6]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Snow Leopard]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[WWDC]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ZFS]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blog.fosketts.net/?p=2001</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Apple wowed its fans and impressed its critics with a successful worldwide developer conference keynote yesterday. Along with much obvious focus on iPhone OS 3.0 and the new speedier iPhone 3GS, the company turned the spotlight on new Mac hardware and the next version of OS X, Snow Leopard. This is a lower-profile OS release [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div id="attachment_1574" class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 310px;  border: 1px solid #dddddd; background-color: #f3f3f3; padding-top: 4px; margin: 10px; text-align:center; float: right;"></p>
<p><a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/hero20080609.jpg" ><img class="size-medium wp-image-1574 " title="hero20080609" src="http://blog.fosketts.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/hero20080609-300x112.jpg" alt="Snow Leopard is coming - will iSCSI finally tag along?" width="300" height="112" /></a></p>
<p><p style=' padding: 0 4px 5px; margin: 0;'  class="wp-caption-text">Snow Leopard will be here in September, but ZFS and iSCSI are AWOL</p></div>
<p>Apple wowed its fans and impressed its critics with a successful worldwide developer conference keynote yesterday. Along with much obvious focus on iPhone OS 3.0 and the new speedier iPhone 3GS, the company turned the spotlight on new Mac hardware and the next version of OS X, Snow Leopard. This is a lower-profile OS release than the last two (Tiger and Leopard), as indicated by the lower price ($29) and derivative name. But although there are many few features under the hood, Snow Leopard does little to move the ball forward from a storage perspective. <a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/2008/02/27/zfs-super-file-system/"  target="_blank">ZFS</a> and iSCSI, two long-rumored features, are notably absent.<span id="more-2001"></span></p>
<p>Apple first teased both ZFS and iSCSI support back in the Tiger days, and these features were rumored for Leopard but absent on launch. Leopard Server had included read-only ZFS support, but even this level is support is reportedly absent in Snow Leopard. An iSCSI initiator was present in early Leopard builds but never showed up again, even in Snow Leopard. Still, the spread of the iSCSI protocol in the SMB market that has taken to Apple&#8217;s server products as well as Microsoft&#8217;s successful iSCSI initiator software suggested that an <a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/2009/03/18/snow-leopard-iscsi/"  target="_blank">iSCSI initiator might become a Snow Leopard feature</a>, at least in the server version.</p>
<p>Apple&#8217;s reduced focus on ZFS is understandable. Although it offers some compelling advantages, especially in server environments, it would bring little to the laptop/desktop market. In fact, ZFS is not really all that useful on the typical end-user Mac, with a single hard disk drive and a raft of removables attached with USB or FireWire. On the other hand, iSCSI support would have been increasingly welcome even in the consumer world as products like <a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/2009/04/09/drobo-pros/"  target="_blank">Drobo</a> and <a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/2009/04/16/iomega-storcenter-ix4-200r/"  target="_blank">Iomega</a> add iSCSI as an option. The lack of a built-in initiator marginalizes the Mac in the emerging Ethernet SAN world, leaving vendors like Drobo to go it alone.</p>
<div id="crp_related"><h3>You might also want to read these other posts...</h3><ul><li><a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/2009/03/18/snow-leopard-iscsi/"  rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">Will Snow Leopard Finally Bring iSCSI To The Mac?</a></li><li><a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/2010/07/26/boot-snow-leopard-64bit-mode/"  rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">How To Boot Snow Leopard in 64-Bit Mode</a></li><li><a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/2009/08/30/snow-leopard-hp-printer-driver/"  rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">Located! Missing HP Printer Driver For Snow Leopard</a></li><li><a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/2011/06/13/storage-features-missing-lion/"  rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">Three Key Storage Features Missing in Mac OS X &#8220;Lion&#8221;</a></li><li><a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/2009/04/09/drobo-pros/"  rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">Drobo For Pros But Not Me</a></li></ul></div><script src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~s/sfoskett?i=http://blog.fosketts.net/2009/06/09/snow-leopard-storage/" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"></script><hr />
<p><small>© sfoskett for <a href="http://blog.fosketts.net">Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat</a>, 2009. |
<a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/2009/06/09/snow-leopard-storage/">Snow Leopard Is Stingy With The Storage Love</a>
<br/>
This post was categorized as <a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/category/everything/apple/" title="View all posts in Apple" rel="category tag">Apple</a>, <a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/category/everything/enterprisestorage/" title="View all posts in Enterprise storage" rel="category tag">Enterprise storage</a>. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.<br/>
</small></p>]]></content:encoded>
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		<slash:comments>5</slash:comments>
	
		<series:name><![CDATA[Snow Leopard]]></series:name>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Will Snow Leopard Finally Bring iSCSI To The Mac?</title>
		<link>http://blog.fosketts.net/2009/03/18/snow-leopard-iscsi/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.fosketts.net/2009/03/18/snow-leopard-iscsi/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 18 Mar 2009 19:41:51 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Stephen</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Apple]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[10.5]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Studio Network Solutions]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Xtend SAN]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ZFS]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[ZFS wasn&#8217;t the only AWOL storage technology in Apple&#8217;s OS X 10.5 &#8211; early builds of Leopard included a built-in iSCSI initiator. When the operating system was finally released in October of 2007, both ZFS and iSCSI were quietly dropped, making room for 300 other features Apple felt were more prime-time-ready. With the next major [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div id="attachment_1574" class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 310px;  border: 1px solid #dddddd; background-color: #f3f3f3; padding-top: 4px; margin: 10px; text-align:center; float: right;"><a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/hero20080609.jpg" ><img class="size-medium wp-image-1574" title="hero20080609" src="http://blog.fosketts.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/hero20080609-300x112.jpg" alt="Snow Leopard is coming - will iSCSI finally tag along?" width="300" height="112" /></a><p style=' padding: 0 4px 5px; margin: 0;'  class="wp-caption-text">Snow Leopard is coming - will iSCSI finally tag along?</p></div>
<p>ZFS wasn&#8217;t the only AWOL storage technology in Apple&#8217;s OS X 10.5 &#8211; <strong>early builds of Leopard included a built-in iSCSI initiator</strong>. When the operating system was finally released in October of 2007, both ZFS and iSCSI were <a href="http://www.infrageeks.com/groups/infrageeks/weblog/97ed7/"  target="_blank">quietly dropped</a>, making room for <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/300.html"  target="_blank">300 other features</a> Apple felt were more prime-time-ready.</p>
<p>With the next major OS X release, 10.6 &#8220;Snow Leopard&#8221;, just around the corner, many have wondered if iSCSI will join the <a href="http://blogs.zdnet.com/storage/?p=335"  target="_blank">reanimated ZFS support</a>. Sadly, there has been <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.apple.com/macosx/snowleopard/"  target="_blank">no word from Apple</a> on the fate of their iSCSI initiator. But silence does not necessarily tell a tale at the always-circumspect company, so hope springs eternal for the iSCSI faithful. If the <a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/2009/03/11/10-gbe-iscsi-fcoe-microsoft/"  target="_blank">rousing success</a> of Microsoft&#8217;s iSCSI initiator is any indication, Apple is seriously missing out!</p>
<p><span id="more-1571"></span></p>
<p>In the mean time, those seeking iSCSI connectivity within Mac OS X do have <strong>third-party options</strong> to consider:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.studionetworksolutions.com/products/product_detail.php?pi=11" >Studio Network Solutions</a> offers a free (<a rel="nofollow" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gratis_versus_Libre"  target="_blank">as in beer</a>) iSCSI initiator for OS X Tiger and Leopard. The globalSAN iSCSI Initiator is the client-side portion of their SANmp storage sharing solution, and purports to support most of the required protocols. In practice, however, the company cannot support other targets than their own. globalSAN failed to mount any LUNs from my Windows Storage Server iSCSI test rig, and reports claim mixed results from EqualLogic and EMC SANs besides.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.attotech.com/xtend.html" >ATTO Technology</a> sells a commercial iSCSI initiator for OS X, Xtend SAN, and reports here are <a rel="nofollow" href="http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=9045953"  target="_blank">very favorable</a>. Although the $195 price puts it out of reach for home users, corporations wishing to connect Leopard systems to an iSCSI SAN should look no further.</li>
<li>Another commercial option is SmallTree Software&#8217;s abcSAN. Listed at $150, <a rel="nofollow" href="http://stciscsi.blogspot.com/2008/04/small-trees-internal-iscsi-testing.html"  target="_blank">abcSAN lists EqualLogic</a> among its functional targets, but the standalone initiator is nowhere to be found <a href="http://www.small-tree.com/GraniteSTOR_s/94.htm"  target="_blank">on SmallTree&#8217;s web site</a>. They also have an ATA-over-Ethernet (AoE) solution for the true nerds in the audience!</li>
<li><a href="http://www.ardistech.com/main.html?id=13&amp;lang="  target="_blank">Ardis</a> may also sell an iSCSI initiator for OS X.</li>
</ul>
<p>All in all, iSCSI on OS X is in a sorry state of affairs. If only Apple had released the initiator seen in early Leopard builds! Let&#8217;s all hope Snow Leopard brings iSCSI to the party at last!</p>
<div id="crp_related"><h3>You might also want to read these other posts...</h3><ul><li><a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/2009/06/09/snow-leopard-storage/"  rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">Snow Leopard Is Stingy With The Storage Love</a></li><li><a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/2011/06/13/storage-features-missing-lion/"  rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">Three Key Storage Features Missing in Mac OS X &#8220;Lion&#8221;</a></li><li><a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/2009/04/09/drobo-pros/"  rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">Drobo For Pros But Not Me</a></li><li><a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/2009/01/26/essential-vmware-esx-iscsi/"  rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">Essential Reading for VMware ESX iSCSI Users!</a></li><li><a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/2010/07/26/boot-snow-leopard-64bit-mode/"  rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">How To Boot Snow Leopard in 64-Bit Mode</a></li></ul></div><script src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~s/sfoskett?i=http://blog.fosketts.net/2009/03/18/snow-leopard-iscsi/" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"></script><hr />
<p><small>© sfoskett for <a href="http://blog.fosketts.net">Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat</a>, 2009. |
<a href="http://blog.fosketts.net/2009/03/18/snow-leopard-iscsi/">Will Snow Leopard Finally Bring iSCSI To The Mac?</a>
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