1GB would let you install a live-cd system, 5-8 GB lets you install a full Linux system. In which case it’s useful to create a small partition to boot from.
It’s reliable and fast enough for a general use and some operations are supported on Windows, thanks to ext2fsd an open source ext3/4 file system driver for Windows (2K/XP/VISTA/WIN7).Īrticle sponsored by Ian, owner of the site 1tb external hard drive Popular Posts:ĭo you want to boot off the disk? Useful if you have a non-working or virus-infected computer to use. If your primary operating system is Linux ext3 could be your filesystem. NTFS partitions are mounted using the Filesystem in Userspace (FUSE) interface. Transparent compression is supported, but there is no support for encryption.Support to modify access control lists and permissions is available. NTFS-3G supports all operations for writing files: files of any size can be created, modified, renamed, moved, or deleted on NTFS partitions. If your primary operating system is windows this is probably the best choice, This FS is compatible with OSX and there is a good read/write support on Linux with the NTFS-3G driver.
The other FS that at the moment i discard is ext4, This FS is good if you use only Linux, but there is no support on WIndows for ext4. Note: FAT32 theoretically has a volume limit of 2TB, but Windows won’t let you format a partition larger than ~32GB as FAT32 so you’d have to format it in Linux. Taking a quick look at these information i’d discard FAT32, is becoming common to have big files, such as the backup of a Bluray or a DVD and the technology behind this FS is really old, the good thing of this FS is that is well supported by all operating systems. The most common choices when you think at a USB hard disk are FAT32, NTFS, ext3 and ext4 (well this one is a less common than the others i suppose), so as first thing let’s take a look at the limits of these filesystems: So, for me the best solution is to have 1 partition and 1 big filesystem. Personally i don’t like too much this solution, sure you can use a native file system in every operating system, but you also have all the possible problems in mounting a different FS, and I’m sure that I happen to have the right documents in the wrong partition. Let’s take a look at some options you have to suit your needs.Ī possible solution is to split your hard drive in multiple partitions and dedicate each one to an Operating system, so for example you could have 25% of your disk with a Fat32, 25% with NTFS and 50% with Ext4. Perhaps you have a computer with a dual-boot with a Windows operating system, or perhaps you plan to use that external hard drive also with your Macbook…or connect it to a TV.
There are a lot of options and the main point is once again a simple question: do you want to use this disk with several different operating systems ? Now, once that we bring at home our new gadget the first question for us is: “which Filesystem should i use with this big disk ?” Disks are becoming cheaper and so it’s becoming common to have on our desk an external (usually USB) hard drive with a size of 1TB or more.