# How to transfer data between Linux and FreeBSD?



## moitetajni (Oct 18, 2015)

Hello. Probably the title is a bit confusing so let me explain: At the moment I am a Linux user (unsupported Fedora version) but will migrate to FreeBSD in the near future, so I would like to backup my data in an external hard drive to use it in the future system.

However, being a non-technical user, I am a bit confused as to how I should format the external hard drive to be able to retrieve my data in the FreeBSD system.

If you can help me with this issue I would be very grateful. Thanks.


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## aaron (Oct 18, 2015)

You can mount the ext2 file system within FreeBSD and it's pretty simple. Format a USB stick with ext2 and use rsync to transfer your data on to it.
Good luck and welcome to FreeBSD!


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## Deleted member 9563 (Oct 18, 2015)

Like aaron said, but are you going to have two computers with an external drive used between them, or are you planning to reformat the Linux box? I'm a fan of multiple computers for home use and would simply us FTP to transfer files between them.

Welcome to FreeBSD!


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## UnixRocks (Oct 18, 2015)

Depending on the amount of data one could create a gzip/bzip tar file, then copy that to a standard flash drive. FreeBSD can mount a standard format flash drive as well as the lesser systems.  Then uncompress and extract the data onto one's FreeBSD system.

Of course since you want to use an external hard drive then you would probably want an ext3/4 format. See https://wiki.freebsd.org/Ext2fs


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## ANOKNUSA (Oct 18, 2015)

There's also sysutils/fusefs-ext4fuse and sysutils/fusefs-ntfs, which will at the very least let you mount an external drive read-only. If you ever plan on sharing files between multiple devices with different operating systems/filesystems, I can't recommend net/syncthing enough.


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## diizzy (Oct 18, 2015)

exFAT if you want as much compatibility as possible between OS(es).
//Danne


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## mikethe1wheelnut (Mar 30, 2021)

ANOKNUSA said:


> There's also sysutils/fusefs-ext4fuse and sysutils/fusefs-ntfs, which will at the very least let you mount an external drive read-only. If you ever plan on sharing files between multiple devices with different operating systems/filesystems, I can't recommend net/syncthing enough.


..anybody reading this should also read this before proceeding..


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## sko (Mar 30, 2021)

ZFS would also be a viable solution, with the benefit that you could just zfs send|recv the datasets to FreeBSD. With ZFS you'll also catch bitrot from a dying USB-Stick very early and can dump it before it corrupts any data.
I'm using ZFS on almost all my USB Sticks nowadays exactly because of this. exFAT is just a master recipe for corrupted data, especially with the flashdrive sizes we have today.


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## rootbert (Mar 30, 2021)

use ZFS! I have tested it with FreeBSD 13 RC3 and the current Ubuntu 20.04 openzfs version and it works if you stick to non-encrypted datasets.


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