Filesystems question
 

just need quick help on this one what linux filesystem works best when networking with windows xp. as in fast and writeable not just readable. I have a 250gb hd with fat fs in my linux machine. I am switching from fc4 to debian. in fc4 i loose writing ability after the comp is on for more than 2 hrs. I have tried everything to stop this from happining. I want to know are there any fs in linux that both win and linux can read and write to besides fat.
thank you

fs
 

linux reads FAT and NTFS, but AFAIK writing to NTFS is iffy and cutting edge. I don't think Windows can read or write to any linux filesystems.

So the drive is in the linux computer and Windows is on a different physical machine and you're moving data via a network? If that's right then you can use whatever filesystem you like. Computers talk to other computers over a network in a completely different language than they use when they are... playing with themselves. The filesystem used is irrelevant as when moving data it's first converted into a format the other computer will understand before it's sent. That way a linux computer formatted with XFS and a Windows machine formatted with NTFS can read and write to each other without any hassle at all, because the SMB protocol that is working in between the two machines is the universal language that they both understand :)

i appriciate the help.

so if i format the 250gb in riserfs in the linux machine. i would be able to copy del modify and create on that hd if i am on the windows machine on the network or using the linux machine as an ftp modifing remotely assuiming proper permissions.

There is a freeware program: Ext2 IFS that can read and write Ext2 and 3 partitions from Windows, this can be handy in a dual boot system.

www.fs-driver.org

I don't know if I'd trust writing to an Ext2 partition using this program. But it will read, and since this is in Windows it is safe to write to the NTFS partition.

The filesystem used is irrelevant as when moving data it's first converted into a format the other computer will understand before it's sent. That way a linux computer formatted with XFS Windows machine formatted with NTFS can read and write to each other without any hassle at all

ahh i didnt no that ^ i didnt think writing to ntfs from linux was possible full stop

nice :-)
dave

If it's over a network then filesystems don't even rate in the equation. If you've got a linux machine copying files to a Windows machine over a network, the Windows machine doesn't know what filesystem it's coming from nor does it care. Basically, you copy the file, Samba uses the linux filesystem drivers to pull the file off the disk and sent it to the Windows machine. The network stack in Windows reads this incoming data, figured out that it's a file transfer and uses it's native NTFS drivers to write the file to disk.

well explained cheers :-) ......that saves me worrying about ntfs write support does it not? if I just use samba .....say I wanted to transfer filea from 193.168.168.231 [tux linuxbox] to 192.168.168.232 [xpbox] c:\mysharedfolder

dave

All network filesystems work on a file level: "open such-and-so file, move to byte #31234 and read 5678 bytes," and so on. So they don't care what kind of format is used by the drive.

Yes, Windows does contain an Installable File Systems (IFS) facility, and third-party drivers do exist for most formats. But usually, each computer uses a filesystem that is efficient and "friendly" for it. Even though FAT32 is comparatively-dirt, NTFS is quite well-designed. On Linux, I've had good success with ReiserFS as well as the venerable 'ext3'.