[SOLVED] Use external usb hard drive with NTFS-3G or reformat to Journalised FS: ext4

Pedro Blom · 02-03-2016, 03:51 AM

Hi!

I just bought a Samsung M3 Portable HX-M101TC 1TB external hard drive.
It comes pre formated with NTFS-3G and a lot of windows .exe files on it.

It looks like I can write to it without problems, but I still want to ask your opinion. Can I use it as is or should I reformat to a linux file system such as Journalised FS: ext4?

latawaz · 02-03-2016, 04:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pedro Blom

Hi!

I just bought a Samsung M3 Portable HX-M101TC 1TB external hard drive.
It comes pre formated with NTFS-3G and a lot of windows .exe files on it.

It looks like I can write to it without problems, but I still want to ask your opinion. Can I use it as is or should I reformat to a linux file system such as Journalised FS: ext4?

IMHO you should continue using it. Linux supports that format, and in case you decide to plug it with Windows, it will work there as well.

jefro · 02-03-2016, 03:03 PM

I use NTFS usb drives a lot on linux. It is more rare that I use a linux only file system. You might end up with some odd folders for .trash is all usually. Symlinks won't work and file permissions will be off usually.

It more depends on how you intend to use it. Do you need features that only linux file systems support? Do you need to use it on other OS's?

MrTux · 02-03-2016, 10:43 PM

Depends what you are going to use it for.

If the drive is never going to touch windows go for ext4, else ntfs

Pedro Blom · 02-04-2016, 02:46 AM

Ok, thank you for your answers.
I will use it as is with NTFS, untillo I need something else.