Using NTFS External drive I'm new to MAC OS. 

Using MacOSX 10.9.1 (Mavericks). 

My external HDD is formatted with NTFS. 

I need some rock-solid, free solution for reading and writing to this HDD. Any suggestions?
Use ntfs-3g:


Install Homebrew
Install fuxe4x and ntfs-3g

brew install fuse4x &amp;&amp; brew install ntfs-3g

Replace (with backup) the mount_ntfs:

sudo mv /sbin/mount_ntfs /sbin/mount_ntfs.orig
sudo ln -s /usr/local/sbin/mount_ntfs /sbin/mount_ntfs

Get info on fuxe4x-kext

brew info fuse4x-kext

You should be given two lines based on your version that you need to run. Run these lines in Terminal.
Eject and remount the disk.