external hard drive to be used on osx lion, xp, and windows 7 - what format

[Nvidiaguy07]

I have a few external hard drives, and im debating how to format them.

One is internal, and i use it to save big files temporarily, until i move them over to an external. This drive is going to be in a computer that dual boots lion and windows 7 (and possibly linux as well)

The next are external, and one i take to school with me, and have to use it on computers running xp (which i cant install any software to)

My option are:
Fat32, exfat, or NTFS (i think those really are my only viable options

I've heard mixed things about exfat, and i have to remember i wont be able to use it on xp - because i cant install new software. Besides the xp issue, this seems like a good option for the internal, am i right?

Fat32 is out, because i have some files over 4gb

NTFS is an option, but only depending on how well osx handles it. and how does linux deal with this format?

(FYI anything of real importance is backed up in my dropbox, so if anything did go wrong, i would only be losing movies, and music - not a huge deal)

 

[paperwastage]

NTFS:
Linux (updated kernels/distros, i'd say within the last 2 years) can read/write to NTFS perfectly fine

OS X Lion - Read support for NTFS. Can hack some options to write to NTFS, or use 3rd party solution/drivers

 

[Nvidiaguy07]

NTFS:
Linux (updated kernels/distros, i'd say within the last 2 years) can read/write to NTFS perfectly fine

OS X Lion - Read support for NTFS. Can hack some options to write to NTFS, or use 3rd party solution/drivers

How reliable is ntfs support for mac? Should it be trusted with sensitive data?

 

[Nothinman]

I believe it's the same driver that ntfs-3g uses on Linux, so they should be equally safe. However, the write speed is abysmal. I was using an external, USB drive to do drive image backups in Linux and switching to XFS gave me something crazy like 10x the write speed. If you're just saving small files occasionally then you should be fine, but if you want any kind of write throughput you should avoid NTFS under non-Windows.

 

[Nvidiaguy07]

I believe it's the same driver that ntfs-3g uses on Linux, so they should be equally safe. However, the write speed is abysmal. I was using an external, USB drive to do drive image backups in Linux and switching to XFS gave me something crazy like 10x the write speed. If you're just saving small files occasionally then you should be fine, but if you want any kind of write throughput you should avoid NTFS under non-Windows.

Good to know, thanks.

I think just having a server set up is the best option for my shared files. Everything else I might go with ntfs.
what's the downside to fat32 besides the file size limitation?

 

[Nothinman]

Good to know, thanks.

I think just having a server set up is the best option for my shared files. Everything else I might go with ntfs.
what's the downside to fat32 besides the file size limitation?

Reliability and features. It's a really simple filesystem, which is why everything can use it, but that means it's missing important features like journaling, permissions, sparse files, symlinks, etc.

 

[Arcanedeath]

I would suggest NTFS as it's the most compatable and you should be able to get support for all of those different systems & ok performance.

 

[Voo]

ok performance.

Not really, I agree with Nothinman write speed for NTFS is abysmal under Linux - at least with the default settings, maybe you can hack some config or whatever.

I'd stay away from exFAT because those are certainly the least used drivers of the three and I'd be at least a bit nervous there.

Which basically leaves FAT32 - simple implementation, very well tested but basically nothing a modern FS should have, the problematic filesize limitation and reliability problems.

I personally still use NTFS - I can live with a write speed in the 30s or so most of the time.