From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Aug 23 00:33:54 2008 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A6470106567F for ; Sat, 23 Aug 2008 00:33:54 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from fbsd06+ZC=1851d6f1@mlists.homeunix.com) Received: from fallback-in1.mxes.net (fallback-out1.mxes.net [216.86.168.190]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 78FFD8FC23 for ; Sat, 23 Aug 2008 00:33:54 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from fbsd06+ZC=1851d6f1@mlists.homeunix.com) Received: from mxout-03.mxes.net (mxout-03.mxes.net [216.86.168.178]) by fallback-in1.mxes.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id 65821163F84 for ; Fri, 22 Aug 2008 20:17:26 -0400 (EDT) Received: from gumby.homeunix.com. (unknown [87.81.140.128]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by smtp.mxes.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id 03E1B23E4B5 for ; Fri, 22 Aug 2008 20:17:24 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sat, 23 Aug 2008 01:17:22 +0100 From: RW To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Message-ID: <20080823011722.1315394f@gumby.homeunix.com.> In-Reply-To: References: X-Mailer: Claws Mail 3.5.0 (GTK+ 2.12.11; i386-portbld-freebsd7.0) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: Re: OT: most "universal" file system for 1TB external USB2 hard drive X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 23 Aug 2008 00:33:54 -0000 On Fri, 22 Aug 2008 13:13:29 -0500 "Andrew Gould" wrote: > I couldn't help myself. During lunch, I found a 3.5" 1TB SATA > internal HD **and** a USB2 HD enclosure for SATA drives on sale at > large % discounts. It was more than I could resist. > > The operating systems in my home include FreeBSD, NetBSD, Mac OS X and > Windows XP Pro. If I want all of these systems to be able to read > and write to the drive, what file system should I use? I know fat32 > is pretty universal, but is it advisable? There is also NTFS through ntfs-3g ,which is available for all of the above (sysutils/fusefs-ntfs on FreeBSD). Having a native Windows filesystem is sensible on a portable drive, and fat32 is not a great filesystem. http://www.ntfs-3g.org