# Poll: what fs do you use on your portable HD



## lockfile (Aug 9, 2010)

I'm am now entering the commands to format my portable HD in ext4. What fs do you use on your portable HD's (non-usb "sticks"). 

The choices are:
1) Ext2, and or its relatives
2) UFS, and its relatives
3) cdiso9960
4) vfat
5) exfat
6) other


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## foldingstock (Aug 9, 2010)

Depends on the size. For smaller drives, I like FAT16/32 for cross-platform goodness. On larger drives, EXT3/UFS/FFS/NTFS depending on the OS it is used on.


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## vermaden (Aug 9, 2010)

@lockfile

I have a 1TB 2.5 WD Passport drive and use FAT32 there, same for pendrives (4-8-16GB size). I sync it by rsync(1) to update backup. Also ext2 with inode size (-I 128) should be a good idea, there are some tools to make it mount on Windows systems. Other filesystems are not very smart choives for truly portable drive, NTFS would have 'write' problems on Mac OSX (at least with default installation), UFS problem on Windows and older Linux'es and Mac OSX.


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## lockfile (Aug 9, 2010)

Instead of ext4 I went with ext3. I have been using Linux since 2004 and exclusively for the past 2. I did it mostly for backup reasons. My external had NTFS on it and it requires plenty of command-fu and knowledge of FUSE. So I just said screw it and went with ext3 something I use on a regular basis. I needed to backup quick and didn't want to spend time reading up on FUSE docs to get my stuff done. I still have a thumbdrive 8G that is FAT32.


I'm on Penguin now getting ready for the transition to FreeBSD 8.1. Ext3 holds its own against NTFS. NTFS is so proprietary that its undocumented!


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## graudeejs (Aug 10, 2010)

UFS+J on my 16G flash [or sometimes even zfs]
UFS+U sometime UFS+J on other flash media
msdosfs if I need portability [in rare cases]


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## fronclynne (Aug 10, 2010)

the only reason I use the silly things is portability of the data, & that's (sadly) only available with fat32.


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## lockfile (Aug 18, 2010)

*linux and freebsd fs interworx*

What FS is recommended for penguin and bsd filesystem interworking. I already know about vfat/msdosfs/FAT32. Are there any other options?


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## graudeejs (Aug 18, 2010)

lockfile said:
			
		

> What FS is recommended for penguin and bsd filesystem interworking. I already know about vfat/msdosfs/FAT32. Are there any other options?



*cd9660* (aka *isofs*), *udf*


They are also portable


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## aragon (Aug 19, 2010)

Huh?  Ext2!

Then again, linux can read BSD labels and UFS file systems.  Write to them too IIRC...


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## zspider (Aug 19, 2010)

Ext2/3 but only because I formatted it on Arch Linux back when I still had it. Read and write access do work just have to fsck it if its not shutdown properly which sometimes can be annoying. I have considered switching it to UFS2 and I would except that I would have to move 200GB of data around.


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## lockfile (Sep 10, 2010)

*UFS > EXT[234] for Unix-like OS data portability*

Yea. I think I'll go with UFS (BSD flavor) for my portable drives. Fast, stable fs, and Linux can read it just fine. 



			
				aragon said:
			
		

> Huh?  Ext2!
> 
> Then again, linux can read BSD labels and UFS file systems.  Write to them too IIRC...


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## sk8harddiefast (Sep 10, 2010)

All my hdd's are on UFS filesystem except one witch is on ext3


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