Format for USB memory sticks to be used on GNU/Linux
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I'm migrating from Windows to Trisquel. I'd like to know what format should I give to a USB external hard drive or stick to be used on Trisquel. I used to give NTFS to my devices used on Windows. For a while, I guess I'm going to need to use the same external memory devices on both, Windows and GNU/Linux, while the migration lasts. So I'd like to know whether there is a format to be used safely on both operating systems without distinction. I have checked that my USB memory devices formatted NTFS can be read and written on Trisquel, but is it safe? Can I have any lost of data or anything at any moment?
As far as I know the folder Home on Trisquel is on a format called xfs. Shall I format a USB external memory device and give it an xfs format?
I have noticed that a partition on my hard drive of my computer, formatted NTFS, that I have it only to store data, is not always accessible from Trisquel. That's why I'm afraid of using NTFS on GNU/Linux.
Can anyone help me?
Thank you.
ext3/ext4 is commonly used on GNU/Linux but Windows doesn't have built-in support for these. If you need cross platform compatibility as you say NTFS may just be a good choice.
I use FAT for maximum compatibility on my data USBs (such as those I take to
school and so on). You can use type c in fdisk to prepare the partition
correctly, and then use mkfs.vfat to create the filesystem.
There is a 4GB file limit. I routinely work with files exceeding this amount so if I needed compatibility with Windows (I don't - this is a thought experiment), FAT would cause problems then.
Since I don't work with files of any significant size, that's not a problem for
me. If it was, and I wanted compatibility with Windows but not necessarily
anything else, I would use NTFS. It is a problem though.
For cross platform compatibility, I always use FAT32 on my USB keys. It works fine, with the caveat that files cannot be too large (there is a 2Gb or 4Gb limit, can't remember the exact limit). I dont use NTFS because FAT32 had better support at some point - maybe this has changed (also, I'm not sure that MacOS van work with NTFS).
I believe the file size limit is 4GB. That's the limit I've always hit with a FAT32 partition formatted with mkfs.vfat -F 32 /dev/sdX
I am a translator!
Yes. As far as I know (compatibility wise) fat32 is the best option but it has the 4 gb filesize limit.
Welcome to freedom. Congratulations for making the decision.
I'd love to move to F2FS with Trisquel 8 onwards due to better support in the kernel and GNOME. You can technically use it now, but I'm waiting it out.
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