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Cross-OS File System That Sucks Less?

Posted by kdawson on from the just-mount-it dept.

An anonymous reader writes "I recently got an external hard disk with USB 2.0/Firewire/Firewire 800/eSATA to be used for backup and file exchange — my desktop runs Linux (with a Windows partition for games but no data worth saving), and the laptop is a MacBook Pro. So the question popped up: what kind of filesystem is best for this kind of situation? Is there a filesystem that works well under Linux, MacOS X, and Windows? Linux has HFS+ support but apparently doesn't support journaling and there's also an issue with the case-insensitivity of HFS+. Are we stuck with crummy VFAT forever or are there efforts underway to bring a modern filesystem (I'm thinking something like ZFS, BeFS, or XFS) to all platforms? Or are there other clever solutions like storing ISO images and loop-mounting those?"

8 of 449 comments (clear)

  1. Network it, or NTFS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    NTFS-3G

    1. Re:Network it, or NTFS by my+$anity++0 · · Score: 5, Informative

      sudo apt-get install ntfs-3g

    2. Re:Network it, or NTFS by fd0man · · Score: 5, Informative

      Not really. While ext2/3 are, as I understand it, not *completely* cross-platform (I don't think the Mac can read ext2/3 drives, but I could be mistaken), between Windows and Linux it works just fine. Google for "ext2ifs", which I have used with high degrees of success in the past. The way that I keep my data on USB drives, I make a small FAT partition to house the ext2ifs installer for Windows systems, and the remainder of the device formatted as ext3. ext2ifs doesn't do journaling, but when the FS is attached to a Linux box it'll take advantage of ext3 features on the drive.

  2. Ext3 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://www.fs-driver.org/

    I just use a external drive formatted in EXT3, and for windows files i just install the Ext3 driver.

  3. ext2 supported everywhere by markybob · · Score: 5, Informative

    ext2 is supported everywhere and it's far better than fat32 or ntfs. for windows, http://www.fs-driver.org/ and for osx http://sourceforge.net/projects/ext2fsx/

  4. Windows is the limitation by halfloaded · · Score: 5, Informative
    The biggest problem here is the lack of file system support in Windows. On a linux box, it is trivial to add support for virtually any file system type: NTFS, HFS, FAT, etc... The list goes on.

    Since MacOSX is BSD based, I would be willing to bet that similar projects and support can be found (but, I Am Not A Mac Fanboy).

    On Windows, you are pretty much stuck using either NTFS or FAT. FAT volumes can not be created in windows larger than 32GB. Although, you could create the partition using 3rd party tools to get beyond that limitation. I have had some success mounting ext3 partitions using Ext2 Installable File System For Windows or Ext2 File System Driver for Windows.

    Personally, from my experience, VFAT or NTFS are about your only options.

  5. Been there, Done that by dfn_deux · · Score: 5, Informative

    Having been in the exact same situation I've tried all sorts of different solutions and I'd say the best current solution is NTFS, which is out of the box natively supported on both OSX and Windows (natch) and also available R/O in the default linux kernel as well as having strong R/W support now via ntfs-3g. Of course fat32 still works just fine for this application, but it's getting a little long in the tooth as far as advanced features and modern storage needs go (c'mon what is up with those weak filesize limits)!?!? And I've had some limited success with using ext2/3 on windows and linux but found that the windows kernel driver for ext2 was not very stable in my config and the userspace tools to read/write ext3 in windows was far too kludgy for my tastes; I haven't had a chance to try ext2/3 on OSX.

    --
    -*The above statement is printed entirely on recycled electrons*-
  6. Re:Doesn't work with a Macbook. by Simon80 · · Score: 5, Informative

    See above.

    The NTFS-3G driver is an open source, freely available read/write NTFS driver for Linux, FreeBSD, Mac OS X, NetBSD, and Haiku. 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.