(PRELUDE: One of the nightmares I face too often is the varying standards among the 3 top operating systems, for just about anything.)
For a collaboration with another group, we have bought a 3To external drive to store and maybe share sequencing data.
I would like to know what filesystem type (eg: ntfs, ext4, macosx journaled...) you would recommend for best operating system inter-operability.
Ideally, I would like for it to work (be able to mount, read AND WRITE on it) on the 3 OSes, but I am willing to drop Windows compatibility if needed and the most important OS is Linux since most likely the analyses will be done with this system. I also would prefer a filesystem type that works out of the box on the systems without having to install dedicated software.
I know there are a lot of MacOS users here. What do you use? Would ntfs work well?
EDIT: I ended up using the ntfs filesystem with a msdos partition table. No software was needed to mount the disk on any of the operating systems.
have a look at "Supporting operating systems" on wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_file_systems
based on the table fat32 looks to be pretty safe...
Indeed, but the maximum file and volume sizes (4Gb and 2Tb) are not sufficient and fat32+ is not an out-of-the-box solution.
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when going between systems I use NTFS. Mounts with Tuxera on a Mac, ntfs-3g on Linux
I guess you use an msdos partition table?
I don't think any modern operating system very much cares what kind of partition table you use anymore.
Hi DoubleD. Ntfs worked fine, I did not need any special software to mount on Linux or Mac. Do you want to add your comment as an answer instead so that I can give you the correct answer? Thanks