Leif Posted March 25, 2004 Share Posted March 25, 2004 When installing OSX for the first time and/or reinstalling. what are the advantages and disadvantages of the different file systems available. mac os extended mac os extended journaled enabled? (what is journaling) ms dos file system unix i think thats all of them please correct me if i am wrong. also is there a format that is readible by both mac and pc systems? ie like my external hard drive. can the unix file system be read by windows? if i formated my external ms dos would i be able to use it on pcs just as easily as i do my mac? thanks for the help in advance. i'm simply asking out of curiousity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the evn show Posted March 25, 2004 Share Posted March 25, 2004 mac os extended is regular old HFS+ - it's the standard mac file system up until 10.2, there was a patch (10.2.6 i think) that enabled journaling on HFS+ but it wasn't mac-os-level-easy to enable until 10.3 mac os extended journaled is the same old HFS+ but the data is written in such a way that you can always guarantee that a write finished, or did not finish - that means the disk is "consistent" at all times. Imagine you're saving a file and the power goes out. on a normal file-system when you boot up the disk may have partially written data on it which could break everything. On a journaled file system the data is first written to a 'journal' which is like a list of things to write, from there it makes it is written to the actual disk. If the writing is interrupted the system can "play back" the journal and either finish all writes, or not do any. You are 100% sure the file is either on the disk perfectly, or not on the disk at all. NTFS is a journaled file system - that's why when you just mash the power button on a windows system with NTFS drives it doesn't have to do that "scandisk" junk, but it does with FAT32 drives. UNIX File systems are case-preserving, case-sensitive. They offer higher performance than HFS+ but they lack a lot of features (like resource forks), classic does not work on them, and it can break some software. Apple doesn't recommend using UFS unless you have a good reason and you understand all of the implications, it's recommended that you use it IN ADDITION to HFS+, where your system and mac os applications are on the HFS+ drive. MS-DOS File system is ugly old fat32 from the windows world. Yes, macs can read and write this no problem which I believe answers your next question. Windows only reads two file systems: FAT, and NTFS. OS X reads about half a dozen if memory serves, and you can add more if you want to get your hands dirty with the code. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leif Posted March 25, 2004 Author Share Posted March 25, 2004 hey cool thanks for the help :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southern Patriot Posted March 26, 2004 Share Posted March 26, 2004 NTFS is a journaled file system - that's why when you just mash the power button on a windows system with NTFS drives it doesn't have to do that "scandisk" junk, but it does with FAT32 drives.problem which I believe answers your next question. Well, actually NTFS is only partially journaled. http://www.backupbook.com/03Freezes_and_Cr...Journaling.html There is some interesting info there on journaling, including the following: Some say that Windows NTFS does not really offer a journaled file system. The current version of NTFS (the predominant file system within Windows 2000 and XP), does not handle full-fledged journaling; change-journal logs note alterations to files but can?t provide enough information to reverse them. Microsoft won?t be offering full-fledged journaling until it releases the next major version of Windows which is expected in 2005. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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