• Hardware

  • Formatting HDD for OSX / Windows / Linux

Hello guys,

I have an external - a 320 GB , i have osX , i use windows and ubuntu from time to time

having an NTFS partition on the hdd doesn't allow me to write on it when i am on OSX
So i thought i should format it in the OSX format, but I think if i format the osX format , windows machines won't be able to read my hdd , which is a big no no

I am not happy having to go to FAT , it is believed to be slow , no files > 4 GB , no ACL , NEVER rely on it since FAT32 USB drives have been known to corrupt thoroughly on an unplug and FAT is not smart for something bigger than 32 GB

One filesystem that could work with both Mac OS and Windows® could be UDF, but I'm not sure how practical it is with large hard disk partitions.

How about ntfs -3g
how about macFuse

( and I need another solution for the problem that happens when somone else gives me his hdd to send him/her files )

Is there any "open" file system format and if not, why the hell no ?

Thank you guys for the help.. i am in a filesystemish distress :)
hello mir,

unfortunatelly fat32 is the most feasable option. th unplugging issue can be resolved by using third party usb unplug software. I user a combination of two, on that checks what applications are accessing the device and the second to unpolugged. the combination of both works better than just using windows unplug itself.

you can purchase commercial filesystems that would be accessible. for example you can buy an ext driver for windows and use ext between your osx and windows.

but if you want to keep things simple, fat32 is your only saviour :(
i guess the simplest solution to the second problem is to boot a live Ubuntu and transfer thru it.
ntfs-3g works like a charm. I don't know if you can use it on Mac, but it works great with Linux. If you can install it on Mac, give it a try. NTFS isn't the worst solution after all.
Last time I checked MacFUSE did job (I think most of the virtualization apps on OSX use it to share files with the client OS).
rahmu wrotentfs-3g works like a charm. I don't know if you can use it on Mac, but it works great with Linux. If you can install it on Mac, give it a try. NTFS isn't the worst solution after all.
yep you can go either way either get a commercial ext driver for windows or a supported commercial ntfs driver for linux. bsd/osx is a different story.

@Mir,

if you want to be really geeky just use NTFS on the usb disk and install virtualbox/parallels/vmware fusion on your osx, run a virtual machine with windows xp and use create a a share that you can mount on your osx with smbclient/cifs client or run ftp server or whatever..

just a geeky thought...

native is always the best

BTW; even thou M$crosoft has created NTFS, it is actually a good filesystem. it is well design and implemented.
Hello. I ran into the same stuff and gave up. I run xp in virtualbox or dual boot. This is what I discovered during my research:
- OSX can only boot on disks with a GUID partition table, which is backwards compatible with MBR. So windows can be installed on GUID, but it is not compatible with extended MBR partition, so you can only have 4 primary MBR partitions (not 100% sure abt that) . Thats a problem coz linux uses 2 partitions..
- Tuxedo NTFS is a great product.

I think the best thing to do is start from scratch:
1-Format the disk into GUID and have 4 partitions osx on partition one, windows on 2, linux + swap file on partition 3. I dont know how that is possible, usually linux puts the swap on a partition for itself, but it must be possible somehow. You will need osx for the partitioning and format.
2-Install windows on partition two
2-install osx on partiton 1
4-install linux on partition 3
5-format partition 4 with ntfs for exchanging files using tuxera ntfs (for osx) and ntfs-3g for linux. NTFS-3g is also available of osx but its slower then tuxera. Tuxera is not free though.

Macfuse willl give you r/w access to ext2/ext3 fs (used by linux)
BTW: correction to the above plan proposal, you can merge the window and the ntfs data exchange partition in one, this way you will have:
1- OSX (Journaled HFS+)
2- Linux(ext2/ext3)
3- Linux Swap
4- Windows + Data (NTFS)

BTW, make sure you put OSX on Journaled HFS+, it can be resized. Some other OSX filesystems cannot be resized. Mine is not...

Good luck. Get some beer too.