Drobo to be shared between OS X and Windows?

[keogh]

Howdy guys,

This could probably go in the Windows or Apple forum I suppose, but I'm an Apple dude, so it's here.

I currently have a old skool, 4 bay Drobo that contains a lot of stuff. I got this back when I was a Windows user and it still is formatted with NTFS, so although my OS X install can read it, it can't write.

I use OS X mainly, but do use Windows a lot too, and the files on the Drobo are more for the Windows install, but would be nice to be able to read and write to it from OS X too.

So is there any safe/fast file system I can use on the Drobo that both OS X and Windows can fully utilise? I'm not really interested in FAT32 due to its 4GB issues, so is there anything else?

If not, I'm considering upgrading to the new Drobo that sits on the network instead of the USB/FireWire connection. Of course this allows all connected computers to read and write to it, if I got this, what would be the best file system to format this too? I know it wouldn't really matter as Windows and OS X could write to it, but are there any advantages over Extended (Journaled) to NTFS?

Any recommendations appreciated!

ta

 

[keogh]

I used NTFS-3G before and that was rubbish, it was so slow at the smallest tasks, so I got put off NTFS add ons for OS X. Is the PARAGON one mentioned above an improvement on NTFS-3G?

 

[keogh]

I like the look of exFAT, but some discussions on the web advise to avoid it, cos its new and not full proof yet? How safe is it do you think?

 

[keogh]

I downloaded the free trial of Paragon's NTFS for Mac, and it's pretty good. Very fast and feels native, so I am gonna buy that and use that I think. For £12+ it's pretty reasonable.

It's way better than that NTFS-3G that is for sure!