Re: Best File System for Cross-Platform backup
On Thu, 25 Dec 2008 11:24:17 +0200
Andrei Popescu <andreimpopescu@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Wed,24.Dec.08, 23:47:41, Amit Uttamchandani wrote:
> >
> > I got an external hard drive to do some backup and it was formatted as
> > FAT32, which is a logical choice. But I thought why should I use FAT32.
> > I have a Debian Testing and a Mac Machine. I could use a more advanced
> > file system that has journalling, etc.
>
> Fat32 has other limitations which can create problems:
>
> - max file size of 2GB
> - no support for file ownership at all
> - different case in filenames (this is supported on Linux, but can
> create BIG problems on Windows)
>
Yes you're right that's why I did not want Fat32.
> Fat32 is generally unsuitable for backup (unless you back everything up
> in tarballs smaller than 2GB), but can be used for music and photos (and
> small movies).
>
> If you use ext2 (there is no implementation that supports journaling
> under Windows, so an ext3 partition will be used as ext2) beware that
> all drivers I tried were completely ignoring the Linux file ownership,
> but at least you don't have the 2GB limitation.
>
> I don't know about Macs, but NTFS might also be an option with ntfs-3g.
>
This was my first choice but formatting this drive using
ntfsprogs-2.0.0-1 proved to by troublesome. It looks like this version
is quite unusable according to the ntfs-3g FAQ. Guess I'll have to
format it using a windows machine.
> Regards,
> Andrei
Thanks,
Amit
Reply to: