[ale] Cross Platform File Systems (was re: external hard drive)

[m-aaron-r]

I'm in process on a project where cross platform file system
compatibility is an issue.  The project involves digitizing and
reviving an archive of 30+ hours of multi layered, real time
Amiga Video Animation art that was recorded live onto
3/4 inch U-Matic video tapes circa 1989-92.

I now have several hundred gigs of DV.mov video files on
external hard drives in native Mac OSeX file format.  I need
to copy these gigs onto an empty (blank) TB SATA drive
provided by one of the other animation artists on the project
(the one who stored all the video tapes for all these years).
Unfortunately, he is a windisease victim, so I really need to
use NTFS for him, given that most of these files are at least
10GB in size.

First hurdle was that all of my (many) external Firewire drive
cases are designed for IDE (PATA) drives. Fortunately I also
have a little open cable device that interfaces USB 2.0 to SATA
drives that includes the needed power supply adaptor.

Even with both Mac and Linux at my disposal, the process of
testing the drive, formatting it with the NTFS file system and
copying the files has been very problematic.

Native Mac OSeX does not support NTFS for writing or disk
formatting, though it will mount NTFS as Read Only.  Linux
NTFS support is native now, though enabling NTFS write
support requires a couple extra steps with Ubuntu.

Easiest way to test the drive was to use the Mac OSeX disk
utility.  I was able to format in FAT 32, but for unknown reasons
the systems was very stubborn about formatting the drive as
a single partition regardless of the FS I selected.  Disk utility
has never given me any difficulties before. Very weird.

After formatting and testing the drive on the Mac, I hooked
it up to my Ubuntu 9.10 system, which is where I planned
to do the actual NTFS formatting and file transfer since
Linux supports both Mac HFS and Windisease NTFS file
systems.  More weirdness in that even when formatted in
FAT 32, none of the partitions I made on the Mac were
being recognized in Ubuntu.  I ignored that and moved
on to trying to format the drive in NTFS on Linus, but I
couldn't get any of the GUI partitioning and formatting
tools available in Ubuntu to work for me. (argh).

After hours of futzing with this Hitachi TB SATA drive, I
finally gave up and took the drive to Stargate Computers
around the corner and had our friend Sukru format it in
NTFS on a windisease system for me.  Took the disk
home, plugged that back into my Ubuntu box via USB,
and plugged the Mac OSeX HFS drive via Firewire. With
both drives powered up at startup, they were both auto
mounted by the system and I am successfully transferring
the files.

Of course, the big frustration here is that all these problems
stem from the fact that all Windisease OS products are
defective by design. If Windisease were any kind of
competent OS it would, at the very least,  include native
support for reading commonly used file systems outside
of its user abusive proprietary junk.

I did look into FUSE for Mac OSeX, but the installation
and implementation did NOT look to be trivial -- at least
not as trivial as I wanted it to be in terms of time and effort
for a one time need.  Has anyone here successfully
installed FUSE on an OSeX system??

As a recommendation for anyone needing a cross platform
file system, I would say the most functional choice is to go
with the Mac OSeX native HFS file system, then repair the
defective windisease system(s) that need to access the
drive with something like FUSE.  There are also low cost
proprietary products for reading HFS under Windisease,
but I haven't looked at these since the Xcrement Pile days
and can't say if they are available for newer versions of
Windisease.

peace
aaron



















On 2010/01/27, at 11:50 , Robert Coggins wrote:

> Do macs work with NTFS?  If not am I safe to assume there is a mac  
> port
> of FUSE?
>
> Rob
>
> On 01/27/2010 11:46 AM, Damon L. Chesser wrote:
>> On Wed, 2010-01-27 at 09:55 -0600, Preston Boyington wrote:
>>> Robert Coggins wrote:
>>>> Speaking of drives, I just bought a 500 gig portable drive that I  
>>>> will
>>>> be mostly using with linux and mac.  Sometimes I might connect it  
>>>> to a
>>>> windows box.  What is the best file system to use so that the drive
>>>> works between all three?  Right now it is vfat but I am limited  
>>>> to 4 gig
>>>> files.  I would like to keep some virtuals on it...
>>>>
>>> <snipped>
>>>
>>> wouldn't this be a case for NTFS?  not a fan of it, but FUSE will  
>>> allow
>>> read and write on mac/linux with 3g-ntfs.
>>>
>>> i used to use Ext2 on Windows via a plugin, but patching my linux  
>>> boxes
>>> was always easier and more reliable.
>>>
>>
>> As a home user, this is exactly what I do (Ubuntu x64 9.10).  I  
>> just got
>> a 1TB USB disk, plugged it in:  Linux sees it just fine as does  
>> Windows
>> 7.  Not sure what I would do in a data center (USB drives are good  
>> for
>> manual backus given the size and cost of them.) as I have not  
>> actually
>> had to do that.
>>
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