4 ms·

The real issue that the article only hints at is Windows support. Windows only supports a small handful of filesystems (FAT*, ExFAT, NTFS, ReFS, ISO9660 & UDF

by rwmj 4y ago

The real issue that the article only hints at is Windows support. Windows only supports a small handful of filesystems (FAT*, ExFAT, NTFS, ReFS, ISO9660 & UDF - I think that's it!). So if you have to interoperate with Windows then you have to use one of those filesystems. If you don't need to interoperate with Windows then you have many better choices.

ChuckNorris89 4y ago
> Windows only supports a small handful of filesystems ( [...] If you don't need to interoperate with Windows then you have many better choices Are the filesystems choices mare varied if you need to operate with MacOS? Whenever my dad brings me one of his FAT32 USB drives with "issues", I find a bunch of hidden dot files and folders that were not there before and realize it's been plugged in a Mac. I really would like to know what MacOS does to USB flash drives.
- GekkePrutser 4y ago
  The dotfiles are for metadata that the non-Mac filesystems can't store. Coloured labels, icon position, longer filenames, creator info etc. Windows actually does almost the same thing. Thumbs.db etc. And it also creates shadow files for those with metadata when saving to FAT32. You just don't see them on windows as they are hidden, just like dotfiles are on macOS.
  - Dylan16807 4y ago
    The last version of windows that made thumbs.db was XP. And what metadata do you mean? Permissions and alternate streams get purged, don't they? What else is there? You have to go out of your way to get a desktop.ini and those are just as obtrusive on NTFS. Long file names are stored in a weird way but that's very standardized and doesn't make extra files.
    - panzi 4y ago
      There's still the "System Volume Information" folder. Whatever that is. (I use Linux, but see it on USB drives that where plugged into Windows machines.)
    - GekkePrutser 4y ago
      On NTFS no, but Win 10 still makes shadow files on filesystems without metadata, like exFAT. Not sure about 11 actually as I don't use it much. I forget the name but I believe it's the filename prepended or appended with an underscore. PS: On Mac you can turn it off with a simple defaults write command. Of course it also means that metadata changes won't be persisted to such files. Not sure about Windows.
      - Dylan16807 4y ago
        Are you sure? What metadata specifically? I've never seen anything like this from Windows. And I think you misread my NTFS mention. That was only in the context of desktop.ini, and desktop.ini only happens if you go through a specific obscure menu. But I can tell you that prepending filenames with ._ is a Mac thing.
        GekkePrutser 4y ago
        hmm ok I was sure but you made me doubt myself now :) I'll give it a try tomorrow.
- hulitu 4y ago
  Windows 10 also creates a "Sytem Volume Information" on every USB drive.
mdaniel 4y ago
> Windows then you have to use one of those filesystems. I can appreciate that's true if the client systems are not under your control, but if you have influence over all systems that will touch the drives, I've had good experiences with OpenZFS which has drivers for all 3 major OSes: Linux, macOS, Windows One just needs to be cautious not to use bleeding-edge features because the ZFS release cycles differ, but otherwise so far it has done fine for me
- adrian_b 4y ago
  The system with Windows is more likely to be a company-owned computer, or a computer owned by some friend, acquaintance or colleague, on which you cannot install file system drivers, so exFAT is the best bet for compatibility. If it is your own computer, then you either are a Windows user or you prefer other operating systems, in which case you would wipe Windows and install something else. In both cases you do not need to transfer data between operating systems, so you can use on external memories NTFS for Windows or XFS, ZFS etc. for Linux.
  - toast0 4y ago
    > If it is your own computer, then you either are a Windows user or you prefer other operating systems That fits me, if it's inclusive or. Windows is a pretty OK desktop environment, and mostly gets the better tested mass market software. On the other hand, I prefer other operating systems for doing "real work". I don't usually need to transfer data via external storage though, but if I did, I might consider installing a filesystem driver/tool on my Windows machines to have a better time of it. OTOH, I might just use par2 or something on top of a readily available filesystem.

by rwmj 4y ago

ChuckNorris89 4y ago

> Windows only supports a small handful of filesystems ( [...] If you don't need to interoperate with Windows then you have many better choices Are the filesystems choices mare varied if you need to operate with MacOS? Whenever my dad brings me one of his FAT32 USB drives with "issues", I find a bunch of hidden dot files and folders that were not there before and realize it's been plugged in a Mac. I really would like to know what MacOS does to USB flash drives.

GekkePrutser 4y ago
The dotfiles are for metadata that the non-Mac filesystems can't store. Coloured labels, icon position, longer filenames, creator info etc. Windows actually does almost the same thing. Thumbs.db etc. And it also creates shadow files for those with metadata when saving to FAT32. You just don't see them on windows as they are hidden, just like dotfiles are on macOS.
- Dylan16807 4y ago
  The last version of windows that made thumbs.db was XP. And what metadata do you mean? Permissions and alternate streams get purged, don't they? What else is there? You have to go out of your way to get a desktop.ini and those are just as obtrusive on NTFS. Long file names are stored in a weird way but that's very standardized and doesn't make extra files.
  - panzi 4y ago
    There's still the "System Volume Information" folder. Whatever that is. (I use Linux, but see it on USB drives that where plugged into Windows machines.)
  - GekkePrutser 4y ago
    On NTFS no, but Win 10 still makes shadow files on filesystems without metadata, like exFAT. Not sure about 11 actually as I don't use it much. I forget the name but I believe it's the filename prepended or appended with an underscore. PS: On Mac you can turn it off with a simple defaults write command. Of course it also means that metadata changes won't be persisted to such files. Not sure about Windows.
    - Dylan16807 4y ago
      Are you sure? What metadata specifically? I've never seen anything like this from Windows. And I think you misread my NTFS mention. That was only in the context of desktop.ini, and desktop.ini only happens if you go through a specific obscure menu. But I can tell you that prepending filenames with ._ is a Mac thing.
      - GekkePrutser 4y ago
        hmm ok I was sure but you made me doubt myself now :) I'll give it a try tomorrow.
hulitu 4y ago
Windows 10 also creates a "Sytem Volume Information" on every USB drive.

mdaniel 4y ago

> Windows then you have to use one of those filesystems. I can appreciate that's true if the client systems are not under your control, but if you have influence over all systems that will touch the drives, I've had good experiences with OpenZFS which has drivers for all 3 major OSes: Linux, macOS, Windows One just needs to be cautious not to use bleeding-edge features because the ZFS release cycles differ, but otherwise so far it has done fine for me

adrian_b 4y ago
The system with Windows is more likely to be a company-owned computer, or a computer owned by some friend, acquaintance or colleague, on which you cannot install file system drivers, so exFAT is the best bet for compatibility. If it is your own computer, then you either are a Windows user or you prefer other operating systems, in which case you would wipe Windows and install something else. In both cases you do not need to transfer data between operating systems, so you can use on external memories NTFS for Windows or XFS, ZFS etc. for Linux.
- toast0 4y ago
  > If it is your own computer, then you either are a Windows user or you prefer other operating systems That fits me, if it's inclusive or. Windows is a pretty OK desktop environment, and mostly gets the better tested mass market software. On the other hand, I prefer other operating systems for doing "real work". I don't usually need to transfer data via external storage though, but if I did, I might consider installing a filesystem driver/tool on my Windows machines to have a better time of it. OTOH, I might just use par2 or something on top of a readily available filesystem.