# formatting a portable drive I can later mount on windows system



## jordanthompson (Apr 11, 2022)

I want to use a removeable local SATA hard drive as backup using rsync. I want to be able to:

Preserve user, group, archive, etc. in case I need to recover files and also use this information for backup verification
Later be able to mount and read this disk from a Windows computer (ignoring the Unix attributes above)
I am using this for backing up files:
`rsync --partial --human-readable --verbose --archive --out-format="%n" --no-compress --stats --checksum --owner --group --progress [SOURCE] [DESTINATION]`
I have tried ntfs, but it knows nothing about Unix attributes and all files are owned by root/wheel

Assuming this is possible, what format should I use?


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## SirDice (Apr 11, 2022)

jordanthompson said:


> Assuming this is possible, what format should I use?


There is no filesystem you can use that would satisfy all your requirements.


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## jordanthompson (Apr 11, 2022)

Even if I don't care about the file attributes on the Windows computer?  I really just want to be able to read the file contents from Windows (even if I have to use a third party app to mount the drive.)


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## bsduck (Apr 11, 2022)

If the Windows computer is only supposed to read data (no write support needed), you can go with UFS and http://ufs2tools.sourceforge.net


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## jbo (Apr 11, 2022)

This might not be what you had in mind but it might solve your requirements problem: You could just rely on spinning up a corresponding VM on "the Windows computer" and pass that storage media through to it. This would make the selection of a suitable filesystem easier in regards of your requirements.

At least personally I'd prefer that over sketchy "Unix to Windows" tools/adapters/drivers/shims/...


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## ccammack (Apr 11, 2022)

You could also leave the drive mounted on the FreeBSD system and copy the files from there to Windows over the LAN using WinSCP.

Another option is to use WinFsp and SSHFS-Win on Windows and map a drive letter to the server using something like this:

`"C:\\Program Files\SSHFS-Win\bin\sshfs-win.exe" svc \sshfs.k\<user>@<ip> X:`

Not at all what you asked for, but it is a way to get the files from one machine to another.


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## grahamperrin@ (Apr 14, 2022)

jordanthompson said:


> … read …



If you'll *not* use Windows to write, then consider _rough but functional_ *OpenZFS on Windows*. 

<https://openzfs.org/wiki/Distributions#Windows> ▶ OpenZFS on Windows

<https://openzfsonosx.org/wiki/Windows>

<https://twitter.com/openzfsonwindow>


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