Format External Drive : what filesystem to choose?

Hi,
I've been having some issues with my external (NTFS) drive: it's read only. And reading on the internet only scares me.
This because I've seen a lot of people writing about the lack of proper NTFS support in linux and the potential risk of data loss.
So i was wondering, if i were to reformat my external usb drive, what format should I consider? Ext3/Ext4?
Thanks in advance!

Awebb wrote:
SeanM wrote:It's 100% stable.
Hehe. How optimistic.
I can indeed confirm that the ntfs-3g works very well for me. It just seems to read a bit slower than the native windows implementation.
Didn't you know? Linux doesn't HAVE problems. Everything is the user's fault .
And yes, ntfs-3g has been very stable for me. Unfortunately the NTFS file-system itself is lacking in terms of usability for internal hard disks on a linux system, so everything inside the machine is ext4, and I hardly use ntfs anymore (ssh, unison, and dropbox mean I hardly need my thumbdrives or external hard disk drives).

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Hello
I want to format my C drive of Laptop and shift my itunes to E drive. I'm on windows 7. C drive is having itunes and in that I have synced my 2 iphones and 1 ipad.
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Hi,
HI,
I have a question on " to format an external drive " (I bought an 'intenso). I have a macbook pro running mountain lion and found already some answers via different replies but before doing anything I should not do, I would like to ask you waht exactly I have to select on the disk utility
- at the left side of the disk utility : what should I choose
                               first line 1tb intenso external USB
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- at the right hand side : what should I choose
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Hi,
Thank you so much but I need some more help.
The drive is new and there is nothing on it so that should be fine.
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Thank you Limnos for all your help. Last night I tried again and it worked! I’ not totally sure on what I did right but:
• Both volumes on the new ext. driver were HFS (from my last attempt the other day) so I looked into a simple erase of one partition/volume into a different format, but DU did not offer a way of erasing it into MS-DOS(FAT32). But I think I did a simple HFS erase anyway of the volume I wanted to format to FAT32. There was nothing “in” that volume because this was a new external drive but I figured it could not hurt anything.
• So then, I think I went back to Partition, locked the partition/volume that I wanted to keep in HFS+ for my Mac files, and (re)partitioned the other just erased volume to MS-DOS. I think I did it under the MBR option.
• It worked! Not sure why but my Mac recognized both volumes one as HFS, the other as FAT32. Maybe someone will find this useful some day!!
• Then, I hooked up the drive to my work Dell, the Dell found only the FAT32 drive (as expected), and I executed a short simple easy command I found on ehow.com (search for ‘convert FAT32 to NTFS’) to make that volume NTFS.
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How to format external drive

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What format should I use, and what application is easiest at backing up all of the data well. Preferably cheaply or free as well. It is too bad macs don't come with a backup program, or do they??

The Mac OS Extended file system (HFS+) is the Mac equivalent of FAT-32, in that the minimum allocation block size is maintained at 4K, regardless of drive size. The older Mac OS Standard (HFS) file system caused a continuous increase in the minimum allocation block size, when formatting larger and larger drives. Small files parked in oversized allocation blocks caused a considerable waste of storage capacity, so that a large drive would fill up quickly. Journaling is an option that you chose, when you formatted the USB hard drive as an HFS+ volume. As the name indicates, a journal of the hard drive's activity is maintained, to assist in restoring it to the last reliable state, following a crash or power interruption. You can read about it here.

How to format external drive for use against windows and mac

Hi.
Please bear with me, a possible MAC newbie here
I'm about to buy the 13" Mac Book Pro (after ditching the Lenovo X301 because of a super slow processor, slow FSB, slow intel graphics).
But I have a couple of questions before I buy this Mac Book Pro.
NOTE:
My main OS (stationary pc) is Windows, and will probably be so for a long time.
But I need a lightweight laptop while on the run, and could not actually find any other one than the Mac Book Pro that met my requirements.
I'm using Adobe Lightroom for indexing and managing images on my windows stationary computer and will also use Lightroom on my Mac Book Pro.
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Export lightroom library to External HDD from Windows (thumbnails + keywords).
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Import changes into my windows library version after been edited from library in mac book pro.
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What will the PROS and CONS be for the different options?
Note (I'm not to switch to Aperture (my main computer is still Windows))
Regards

Hi.. and thanks for that answer... another related here:
I'm to buy this external drive:
http://www.lacie.com/no/products/product.htm?pid=11038
This page:
http://pc.wikia.com/wiki/FAT32
tells me that windows XP will only format FAT32 to max 32GB,
will my upcoming MAC book PRO be able to format that whole disk using FAT32?
Or do I have to use something else to format it with?
Regards

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Hello. I have formatted my external drives in the
past using MS/DOS. Today, Disk Utility does not have
this option! I only have two Mac OS options and the
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How big is the external drive?
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My questions continue below in red. Thank you for your patience.
LaPastenague wrote:
Tsac77 wrote:
Thanks for the in depth clarification. A few follow up questions:
1) Are you saying that even though I am only using the TC (in this instance) to make the windows drive available on the network, the drive still needs to be formatted in HFS+?
HFS+ or FAT32.. the later having severe issues with large disk and large files.
Great. I'll do HFS+
2) If I format the windows drive in HFS+, will the windows laptop be immediately able to write/read to it over the network? Or will I have to install some sort of program on the windows laptop that allows windows to read/write to HFS+ (which I've always undewrstood to be a mac only format)?
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I'm sorry, but I don't know what "windows networking file protocol" and "SMB" mean. Also, when you say "NAS" are you referring to the Time Capsule or another device? Can you please explain things like "The disk is controlled by the Mac but it presents SMB to the network" in a less advanced way. Pretend I'm a child. You won't be far off. It seems like this technique you're explaining is a way for the windows PC to write to the external drive via my MacBook. Is that even close to correct? The setup I must create needs to work regardless if macbook is on/off/out of the house.
3) Does plugging a USB drive into the TC never work properly or is this just a semi-common problem that happens sometimes? My odds of success will probably dictate whether I try this or not. I already own the windows USB drive and would like to avoid buying more hardware if possible.
It is problematic enough that I recommend you try it before committing to it. Even if you have to copy the files off to another location and then reformat the drive. Test it for a couple of days.. the issue happens especially when you are using Lion.. but will also happen with windows. Especially when the disk spins down it will not spin up again and become available to the network.
Got it.
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Thanks for your continued help.
HFS+ is not windows native format... so files stored by the TC on the USB drive.. when the TC dies.. they all die eventually may be difficult to recover unless you plug it into another TC.. as the PC cannot natively read them. If you format FAT32 then the windows computer can read it.. just there are other issues. eg the disk can be slow.. very slow and it has far less protection. eg a power failure can corrupt the drive.. this was an issue before we moved in windows to NTFS.
Why do you say "files stored BY THE TC on the USB drive" Why is the TC storing files on the USB drive? Isn't plugging the USB into the TC just making the USB available on the network to my windows laptop? Why is the TC storing files?

Format External Drive with Disk Utility, Make it Windows Compatible

I have formatted my external drive using disk utility, and it works great on my Mac. But no Windows PC can read it, and I need to use it on Windows PCs. I tried formatting as MS-DOS FAT but that didn't work either. What can I do?
Thanks so much in advance.

I've run into the problem fairly regularly were I format a drive as FAT32 on the Mac, but Windows won't read it. I just reformat it from the Windows machine as FAT32. My Mac always reads and writes to it just fine, so it has never been a problem, just a minor mystery.
Francine
Francine
Schwieder

Formatted External drive for Mac OS extended

Hi,
I actually change from windows to Mac (no comparison...!!) but trying to transfer my photos (Pictures in finder) to an external hard disk i can`t drag and drop and i do not know why....i read in one forume that i have to formatted the external drive for Mac OS extended. First question: how could i do that? if my hard disk was originally formatted for windows, do i lose the info when i formatted?
Thanks!!

You will lose the files on the HD when you reformat it. So copy what you want off the drive to a folder on your Mac temporarily.
select the HD on the Desktop and launch Disk Utility.
select the HD in the left hand page of DU.
click on the Partiton button
select 1 Partition
select OS X Extended (journaled) in the drop down Format menu.
click on the Apply button
drag the folder of files onto the EHD to copy back and then delete from your Mac's drive after verifying that they all copied back successfully.
OT

Format External Drive Partitioned OSX extended and FAT32

I am new to the concept of partitioning a drive and have found information mentioning that disk utility has a MS-DOS option for partitioning a drive. I do not have this as a drop down choice in my Disk Utility options. I have read that this is format equivalent to FAT32. I would like to partition this drive half OSX extended and half FAT32. How do I get the drop down choice and is this possible.
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Thank you Limnos for all your help. Last night I tried again and it worked! I’ not totally sure on what I did right but:
• Both volumes on the new ext. driver were HFS (from my last attempt the other day) so I looked into a simple erase of one partition/volume into a different format, but DU did not offer a way of erasing it into MS-DOS(FAT32). But I think I did a simple HFS erase anyway of the volume I wanted to format to FAT32. There was nothing “in” that volume because this was a new external drive but I figured it could not hurt anything.
• So then, I think I went back to Partition, locked the partition/volume that I wanted to keep in HFS+ for my Mac files, and (re)partitioned the other just erased volume to MS-DOS. I think I did it under the MBR option.
• It worked! Not sure why but my Mac recognized both volumes one as HFS, the other as FAT32. Maybe someone will find this useful some day!!
• Then, I hooked up the drive to my work Dell, the Dell found only the FAT32 drive (as expected), and I executed a short simple easy command I found on ehow.com (search for ‘convert FAT32 to NTFS’) to make that volume NTFS.
Thanks again Limnos and everyone else!

Formatting external drive: best practice?

Hi
I want to erase and reformat an external drive used for video editing with my MBP. I do this so rarely I had a couple questions.
First, in Disk Utilities, where the drives are listed, I should choose the size/mfgr.'s line, not the line where my name appears, rt?
Then, I believe 'Mac OS Extended' is the best choice, not 'Mac OS Extended (Journaled)', rt?
Any other tips, tricks or suggested best practices?

Drive Preparation
1.Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
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