Accessing the Windows-only NTFS file system is like a burglar accessing a safe. No, it is not safe nor secure but it is "too closed" (aka proprietary) that you need crowbars to open, read and write to files. Not anymore (at least for the moment until Microsoft messes up its file system again to prevent projects like this from working properly), NTFS-3G just releases version 1.0.

The NTFS-3G driver is an open source, freely available NTFS driver for Linux with read and write support. It provides safe and fast handling of the Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows 2000 and Windows Vista file systems. Most POSIX file system operations are supported, with the exception of full file ownership and access right support.

So, if you still live under a rock with those pesky NTFS-based drives, then you need this utility. Otherwise, just re-format that disk and use Linux native file systems.