File System on external hard drive

Fred Roller froller at tnclimited.com
Mon Sep 14 19:13:39 UTC 2009


Ray Leventhal wrote:
> MirJafar Ali wrote:
>   
>> Hello,
>>
>> Can I ask some important but likely to be controversial question ? I 
>> have one external hard drive which I will be
>> using for Ubuntu ( mostly ) but sometimes for windows.
>>
>> Which filesystem is the most desirable and recommended. There seems to 
>> be luxury of plenty. EXT3, EXT4, ZFS etc ?
>>
>> Can someone give academically honest answer ?
>>
>>     
>
> Hi,
>
> If you're wanting to mix and match operating systems (Windows and Linux) 
> accesses to the external file system, you're going to be stuck with 
> FAT32 or NTFS (both of which can be read easily by Ubuntu and Windows).
>
> Sadly, Windows won't recognize EXT2/3/4, ZFS, ReiserFS or others.
>
> If you're dual booting, keep what is needed by both platforms on the 
> Windows side of the house.  That partition can be mounted by Ubuntu 
> as-needed.
>
> As with everything GNU/Linux, there are any number of ways to accomplish 
> any task.  A bit more of what you're trying to accomplish will get 
> better, more specific answers.
>
> Best regards,
> -Ray
>
>   
Also, keep in mind FAT32 has a file size limit, 2Gb I think.  With NTFS 
make sure your install includes the package "ntfs-3g" for read/write.

-- 
Fred
www.fwrgallery.com

"Life is like linux, simple.  If you are fighting it you are doing something wrong."





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