Can I make a Mac hard drive recognizable on Ubuntu 11.10?

Question

I want a Mac hard drive accessible from Ubuntu.

Is there any way to do that? For example using MacDrive I can read Mac hard drives on Windows. Is there a similar thing for Ubuntu?

Solution

As already mentioned in the comments, Linux can read HFS+ volumes. It can also write to HFS+ volumes, but only if they're formatted without journaling.

To do this, in Disk Utility, go to the Erase tab of that specific drive and format it as follows:

Linux should be able to mount the volume without problems.

Comments

[David Schwartz]

It should work just fine. Linux has an HFS+ file system (read-only, last I checked).

[chepe263]

I read somewhere if write support on HFS+ filesystem is needed journaling must be disabled on mac osx first.

[mmmmmm]

However that does mean that when running in OSX and you shut the machine down the next OSX start could take a long time as it needs to verify the disk

[slhck]

Does it? I mean, I wouldn't format the boot volume without journaling anyway, or write to it from Ubuntu – it depends on what the OP really wants to do.

[Arindam Sen]

i just need to copy some content from a mac hard drive to my ubuntu 11.10 system.. i don't need to do anything fancy to make it work is what you guys are saying right?

[slhck]

No, you'll be alright! @ari