Backng up question.

[Chris Lappe]

Before switching to Linux, I backed up all my documents from XP to a Western Digital Passport drive, which was formatted in ntfs. After installing Ubuntu Fiesty Fawn, I could only read the drive at first, then I found I had to enable ntfs support and did and can now read/write the drive fine.

My question is, after I move all my files back to the HD under Linux, should I leave the WD drive ntfs or should I reformat it to something else to use it for backing up under Linux?

[IsaacKuo]

This is going to depend on what your needs are.

If you're absolutely sure that you won't need to back up any files bigger than 4gigs (like a full DVD .iso image), then FAT32 is the best format to use, overall. FAT32 ensures maximum compatability with Windows, Linux, Mac, or any other sort of computer you might attach the drive to. But FAT32 can't handle any individual file bigger than 4gigabytes in size.

If you don't care about Windows compatability, then the ext2 Linux filesystem may be a better idea. The reason is that ext2 can handle all *nix permissions. In particular, it works well with "rsync", a neat utility which can, among other things, backup folders efficiently by only copying over files which have changed.

Personally, I always use FAT32 for all external drives.

[Chris Lappe]

Thanks, I think the largest file I have ever worked with was 100MB, so since this is a portable drive that I "might" need to connect to someone elses box, I thikn I will stay with FAT32.

Thanks again!