Windows MakeMKV Can't Write to HFS+ with MacDrive

CrazyJAT · Post by **CrazyJAT** » Wed Aug 22, 2012 5:07 am

I have an iMac with Windows 7 and Mountain Lion dual boot. Sometimes I want to rip a movie while I am in Windows, other times while I am in Mac OS. However, no matter what OS I'm in I want to write to my raid backup drive which is formatted HFS+. This isn't a problem in Mac OS, as MakeMKV properly writes to HFS+ partitions in that OS. However, while in Windows, MakeMKV seems to treat HFS+ partitions as if they were FAT32 and MakeMKV reports that "target filesystem has a file size limit of 4095 megabytes." This is simply not the case with HFS+ and I don't have any issues with other software or when copying files larger than 4095 megabytes to the drive.

I realize it is an unusual use case, but is there any chance this is a known issue with a fix coming?

NutFlush920 · Post by **NutFlush920** » Thu Aug 23, 2012 1:10 am

I don't think this is going to be possible but, I may be wrong. I too have a Mac and dual boot with bootcamp Windows 7. What I do is have an external hard drive partitioned in half. One half is HFS+ the other NTFS. This allows me to make MKV files in whichever OS I'm in at that moment.

Woodstock · Post by **Woodstock** » Thu Aug 23, 2012 4:34 am

The issue would be that the Mac is sharing the drive in a way that Windows thinks it has a 4GB limit.

Does Windows let you COPY files larger than 4GB to the drive?

CrazyJAT · Post by **CrazyJAT** » Thu Aug 23, 2012 5:42 am

Woodstock wrote:The issue would be that the Mac is sharing the drive in a way that Windows thinks it has a 4GB limit.

No, actually, it wouldn't be. The Mac has nothing to do with this issue. The Mac doesn't share anything. I use a piece of software within Windows called MacDrive. This allows me to read from and write to an HFS+ partition within Windows. Most other software I use has no problems writing to the drive. MakeMKV specifically refuses to write to the drive. If I had to guess, somewhere in the code is either a switch statement or and if...else statement that says if the drive isn't NTFS or exFAT, then it is FAT32. But maybe I'm wrong. Point is, it has nothing to do with Mac OS anything.

Woodstock wrote:Does Windows let you COPY files larger than 4GB to the drive?

Yes. In fact I clearly stated that in my original post.

CrazyJAT · Post by **CrazyJAT** » Thu Aug 23, 2012 5:45 am

NutFlush920 wrote:I don't think this is going to be possible but, I may be wrong. I too have a Mac and dual boot with bootcamp Windows 7. What I do is have an external hard drive partitioned in half. One half is HFS+ the other NTFS. This allows me to make MKV files in whichever OS I'm in at that moment.

Fixing a bug in MakeMKV is quite possible. Now, it is possible that MacDrive is causing an issue where other software may interpret the drive as FAT32, and in that case it would be a bug in MacDrive, however I have had no issues in other software. Handbrake, MovieMaker, ISO Recorder all work fine with the drive.

As far as partitioning my drive... I already have a work around where I rip to a NTFS volume and then copy the file over to my raid. I don't need another work around. I posted here for a possible fix/patch/solution. Thanks for the attempt though.

Post by **mike admin** » Tue Sep 04, 2012 6:06 am

CrazyJAT wrote:Fixing a bug in MakeMKV is quite possible. Now, it is possible that MacDrive is causing an issue where other software may interpret the drive as FAT32, and in that case it would be a bug in MacDrive, however I have had no issues in other software. Handbrake, MovieMaker, ISO Recorder all work fine with the drive.

It's likely a bug in MakeMKV. Thanks for reporting.

blucoke · Post by **blucoke** » Wed Sep 25, 2013 11:45 am

CrazyJAT wrote:
NutFlush920 wrote:I don't think this is going to be possible but, I may be wrong. I too have a Mac and dual boot with bootcamp Windows 7. What I do is have an external hard drive partitioned in half. One half is HFS+ the other NTFS. This allows me to make MKV files in whichever OS I'm in at that moment.
Fixing a bug in MakeMKV is quite possible. Now, it is possible that MacDrive is causing an issue where other software may interpret the drive as FAT32, and in that case it would be a bug in MacDrive, however I have had no issues in other software. Handbrake, MovieMaker, ISO Recorder all work fine with the drive.

As far as partitioning my drive... I already have a work around where I rip to a NTFS volume and then copy the file over to my raid. I don't need another work around. I posted here for a possible fix/patch/solution. Thanks for the attempt though.

I too have similar problem on my Windows 7 64bit when set to saving the complied file to my external hard drive (which is shared external storage between my Windows 7 PC & a Mac Mini), just changed the destination onto the local hard drive on my Windows 7 & it works just fine.... would think this would have been fixed by now in 2013, oh well guess it's not really that bad of broken issue on the fix priority list.

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