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Forum: General Discussion

Topic: Best file system to use on an external *Mac and Windows use*

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So, format all my external drives to exFAT so they both work on Mac and Windows. I got a new Lacie drive and it was FAT32.. however I had file corruption issues with this drive, recently lost 6000+ files so I completely reformatted it to exFAT and restored all my files form backup. Im just looking to what everyone is saying. I update my music on Windows and DJ on a Mac
 
Posted Mon 03 Apr 17 @ 4:34 pm
I know a user who is solely using Lacies which are FAT32.

Pro FAT32:
Compatible with nearly every device

Con FAT32:
File size is limited to 4 GB. Might be a problem for long videos.


Pro exFat:
New file system format. No file size limit.

Con exFat:
Might not be compatible to all devices (other media players, smart TVs ...)
 
So it seems im on a good choice. My Lacie came FAT32 while my backups were exFAT, not sure that matters but I reformatted my Lacie to exFAT and restored my music just so all file systems match. I feel better that way
 
If you format your external drive as NTFS for Windows it can be read on a Mac but can't save, modify or save queue points, etc.

The solution I've been using for over 6 years, a plugin called NTFS for Mac OS X by Paragon Software.
https://www.paragon-software.com/home/ntfs-mac/

Works in the background for reading & writing to NTFS external drives. Also, my Mac is Bootcamped with Windows 7 on an NTFS partition. Means working with the Mac side I can still access with read & write to the NTFS partition seamlessly.

This is on a mid 2010 Mac that has been updated with all the operating systems through to Sierra that I'm using now. They update it as soon as Apple release a new OS X.

Never had a problem in over 6 years
 
While exFAT is considered the best option for both Windows and MAC simultaneous use, I'm too using NTFS drives with Paragon installed on my MAC.
The reason is that NTFS is a much better filesystem than exFAT and it's also considered to be much more reliable as well
 
PhantomDeejay wrote :
While exFAT is considered the best option for both Windows and MAC simultaneous use, I'm too using NTFS drives with Paragon installed on my MAC.
The reason is that NTFS is a much better filesystem than exFAT and it's also considered to be much more reliable as well


I may have to look into that. I have NEVER had an issue with exFAT though
 
I must say ...... NTFS is king...

Over many years with computers, for durability and recovery its the only file system I would use . Only revert back to FAT for portability on USB drives, never for long term storage.

But then I am a pc user..... Most other operating systems have tools or plugins to allow full access to NTFS.
 
DJ Andrew Ryan wrote :
[quote=PhantomDeejay]While exFAT is considered the best option for both Windows and MAC simultaneous use, I'm too using NTFS drives with Paragon installed on my MAC.
The reason is that NTFS is a much better filesystem than exFAT and it's also considered to be much more reliable as well

So.. if I format a Drive to NTFS and install Paragon on my Mac and put my entire library onto that drive, It will read and write to that drive just fine? not issues or slowdowns? Im mainly a video DJ so my files are large. I mean exFAT has ran fine, what advantages will I gain using NTFS?
 
Another NTFS/Paragon user here too; I stuck with it over exFAT because the latter has no journaling. No issues here, performance is fine, easily as good as a native HFS+ drive.
 
i also use paragon but still tend to format new drives to one of the fat formats just incase i have to connect to someone elses machine that doesnt run paragon. i just think its an all round safer option in regards to compatibility.

ive never had any issues with any of the formats other than the limited file size on FAT23, but its never really been much of an issue due to two reasons:

A: i just batch transfer smaller files instead of huge folders of content.
B: i dont have many large files (videos etc)

one issue i did have recently was discovering i had formatted one of my drives to osx journaled and id picked up this hdd instead of my ntfs. resulting in it not being able to be read by a windows machine. luckily it wasn't for performance use i was just dragging some music off the drive to put in the car. ive since reformatted to fat32 and reloaded the data.
 
SBDJ wrote :
Another NTFS/Paragon user here too; I stuck with it over exFAT because the latter has no journaling. No issues here, performance is fine, easily as good as a native HFS+ drive.


I know about the journaling feature, for just storing your DJ files, whats the advantage? I gig out with 02 identical drives, both exFAT , so if something happens, I had a back up and yet a 3rd drive at home, all exFAT. Just discussing here as it interests me. Another thing I do is I update all my music using a Windows 10 system. Windows explorer has a much better way of sorting than Mac for all the types of music I grab, my Windows machine is much powerful than my DJ machine for making my own edits, MixedInKey, and running some pool software that seems to be a CPU hog but doesnt slow my Windows down, Plus my Gig mac rarely sees an internet connection, Only sometimes as I like VDJ8 to ping home with my Sets and other stuff it may be doing, so that is why I chose the exFAT so it can work on both OS's. and also, my drives are plug and play to start DJing on aother system of any kind should my Mac take a Dump*I even travel with a 2nd mac, although its a 2009 and Id just stick to Audio with that one.
 
DJ Andrew Ryan wrote :
SBDJ wrote :
Another NTFS/Paragon user here too; I stuck with it over exFAT because the latter has no journaling. No issues here, performance is fine, easily as good as a native HFS+ drive.


I know about the journaling feature, for just storing your DJ files, whats the advantage? I gig out with 02 identical drives, both exFAT , so if something happens, I had a back up and yet a 3rd drive at home, all exFAT. Just discussing here as it interests me. Another thing I do is I update all my music using a Windows 10 system. Windows explorer has a much better way of sorting than Mac for all the types of music I grab, my Windows machine is much powerful than my DJ machine for making my own edits, MixedInKey, and running some pool software that seems to be a CPU hog but doesnt slow my Windows down, Plus my Gig mac rarely sees an internet connection, Only sometimes as I like VDJ8 to ping home with my Sets and other stuff it may be doing, so that is why I chose the exFAT so it can work on both OS's. and also, my drives are plug and play to start DJing on aother system of any kind should my Mac take a Dump*I even travel with a 2nd mac, although its a 2009 and Id just stick to Audio with that one.


someone can correct me if im wrong here but as far as im aware the journaling feature improves read / write / access speeds on the drive. in a similar way ram stores bites of info to allow faster locating and access of system files.

again correct me if im wrong as im not overly educated on the journaling myself
 
 


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