Setting up portable harddrive for Linux AND Windows.

warren_1979 · 7 Nov 2008 at 13:28

Hi.

I've bought a WD passport harddrive for use with my Aspire One and Windows XP. The Aspire uses Linpus lite, which is a Linux distro based on Fedora 8 I think. I'm wondering what file system I'll need to use if I want to use it with XP as well.

Will I need to partition the drive half Linux file system and have XP?

Thanks.

yashiro · 7 Nov 2008 at 13:41

Options:

- Format it as Fat32 using some third party app.
- Install the NTFS-3g driver on Linpus and format the drive as NTFS.
- Install the Ext driver for Windows http://www.fs-driver.org/ and format the drive as Ext2 (inode<128).

jkmoogle · 7 Nov 2008 at 14:03

Probably better to go for the second option from the previous post, Fat32 has some limitations such as only allowing files of up to 4GB (?) I believe. Either that or maybe research a way for getting EXT3 drivers into windows (Note that i haven't checked what FS is on the aspire one for my second option)

warren_1979 · 7 Nov 2008 at 14:25

Ok cheers for the quick replies.

I might go with yashiro's second option and get NTFS-3g driver installed onto my aspire, then format it as NTFS.

Thanks.

GarethDW · 7 Nov 2008 at 14:30

yep, follow #2 in yashiro's post

BigglesPiP · 7 Nov 2008 at 17:58

I say follow #3 and keep a small FAT32/NTFS partition on the drive with the ext driver on it.

brummie · 7 Nov 2008 at 19:55

I'd go #2 - it's easier