Author Topic: What is the best filesystem for a 2TB external drive? (Read 1777 times)

-Maxx- · May 13, 2013, 09:25:25 PM

Recently, my 500gb harddrive died due to it being really old, it stopped, and bam.
I saved up my files onto a flashy incase anything would happen, so i went out today and bought a western digital 2 tb hard drive.
what would the best filesystem be if i were needing to format it?

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dotdot: revolutions · May 13, 2013, 09:26:45 PM

What OS are you on? On Windows I'd totes recommend NTFS.

-Maxx- · May 13, 2013, 09:27:28 PM

Quote from: dotdot: revolutions on May 13, 2013, 09:26:45 PM

What OS are you on? On Windows I'd totes recommend NTFS.

Windows.

WALK2222 · May 13, 2013, 09:34:43 PM

If you plan on using this drive on both Mac and Windows I would suggest Fat32. If it is only Windows, and never a Mac OS you could just go with NTFS. However, NTFS (obviously) isn't compatible with Mac OsX

Scorch · May 13, 2013, 10:03:06 PM

I've been researching external hard drives for a few days, and decided to look more into the WD passport. In one review on amazon this guy said that since the passports are usb powered, you should plug it in to the back of your computer because those have more power. People that had problems before plugged it in to the back/bought a powered usb hub and it fixed their problems. He also said you should do the 'remove hardware' thing, and not just unplug the external.

So if you got a usb powered external, plug it into the back :D

Executive · May 13, 2013, 10:11:03 PM

FAT16.
lol just kidding you should use NTFS

KoopaScooper · May 13, 2013, 10:47:07 PM

Quote from: Executive on May 13, 2013, 10:11:03 PM

FAT16.

FAT16 only supports up to 4GB.

The filesystem type should depend on what operating systems you're going to use it with. NTFS would be recommended for Windows only, EXT4 for Linux, HPFS for OS X, while FAT(32) is compatible with everything.