Hello everyone,

i'm looking for some advice/opinion on my problem. im currently using windows xp and been trying out debian linux in virtualbox, i would like to move completely to debian linux and put windows xp in virtualbox, i have a 500gb external HD formatted to ntfs. what file system do you think is better to use for my external HD once i move to debian linux completely?

i would like to use btrfs but i doubt xp would be able to read it soon.

what im thinking is to use btrfs/ext4 for the external HD

create a small partition formatted to fat32, then direct Windows xp virtualbox to get the files from there. in a way both os can read files from the external HD.

i can also use ext3 for the external HD, i've been reading that its very stable and there are drivers for windows that can read it, but haven't tried it yet.

or i can stick with ntfs and use the ntfs3g to access the files in debian, but im a bit worried of corruption and what not.

what is your preferred file system for an external HD with a Windows XP VM?


TIA

Linux can read fat32 and ntfs file systems with the proper kernel modules. So you will want to do some module setup for that and format with ntfs for your Windows system.

---------- Post added 04-05-12 at 09:45 AM ----------

http://linuxconfig.org/How_to_mount_...d_write_access

Is a good resource. You will need to verify the ntfs and ms-dos which ntfs depends on are loaded.

Why do you want to put the VM on a MS format anyway?

I might stick with ext2 if you want fast. Ext4 might be best choice. Dunno if all the bugs are out of btfs yet.

If you need to have access to some windows system then it would be easy to create two partitions. One ntfs or fat32 and the other in some native linux. Store the virtual machine virtual hard drive on the linux format.

In almost any case, the limit might be the usb 2.0 part of the deal.

If you are only running XP in VirtualBox then just use any Linux file system you want (I think Ext3 or Ext4 are probably a good choice though) and share folders to your XP box -- then it doesn't matter what XP can read because it's seeing them as shares.

@Kustom42, jefro, 273

thanks guys! this isn't a problem after all!

Use ext3