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Curious if NTFS would be my best bet? I’ll have two m.2 drives, one with each OS on it, and then a bunch of drives connected to the mobo.

Would both OSes be able read/write to the drives with no issues?

I don’t think I’d ever drive share to MacOS but can that read/write as well?

Thanks!

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    I have not had any issues with reading and writing to NTFS drives from both Ubuntu and Windows. However, one thing to remember is that Ubuntu will not run nor can it be installed into a NTFS partition.
    – Terrance
    Aug 6, 2022 at 14:51
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    Thank you for your comment. Right, I won’t need the OS partition to be readable just the extra drives I have connected for data. Aug 6, 2022 at 17:13
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    Linux doesn't have filesystem repair tools (fsck, chkdsk) for NTFS, so if you can't read some files on Linux, repair the filesystem on Windows first. For exFAT, both Linux and Windows can repair it.
    – pts
    Aug 8, 2022 at 0:51
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    Linux can be slower than Windows for both NTFS and exFAT, because it may be using an unoptimized driver. Measure the file read/write speed by copying a large file. Maybe Ubuntu 22.04 is fast for exFAT, I haven't checked.
    – pts
    Aug 8, 2022 at 0:54
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    I agree with @pts, that you should use Microsoft tools to repair Microsoft file systems, NTFS, exFAT (and of course Linux tools to repair Linux file systems, for example ext4).
    – sudodus
    Aug 8, 2022 at 8:24

2 Answers 2

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  • Yes, NTFS is a good file system for data (read and write access) from both operating systems (Linux and Windows), and it has a journal, which makes it robust.

  • For USB pendrives and memory cards you can also consider exFAT.

  • MacOS does not read standard Linux file systems (e.g. ext4), and not NTFS, but FAT32 and exFAT should work will all three 'main' OS systems.


You find more details at


Edit: In dual boot systems with Ubuntu and Windows, it is a good idea to turn off 'Fast Startup' in Windows, in order to avoid this 'semi-hibernation' that leaves the file systems [that were mounted by Windows] in a 'dirty' state.

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    @ChrisThomas, You are welcome and good luck with your dual boot system :-)
    – sudodus
    Aug 6, 2022 at 17:17
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    There is a caveat for NTFS. If Windows was hibernated (or quick shut-down, which actually is logout+hibernation) then Linux driver for NTFS will see it as "not closed", which Ubuntu prefers to mount as Read Only. askubuntu.com/questions/70281/…
    – PTwr
    Aug 7, 2022 at 5:53
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    @PTwr, that's right. So it is a good idea to turn off 'Fast Startup' in Windows, in order to turn off this 'semi-hibernation' that leaves the mounted file systems in a 'dirty' state.
    – sudodus
    Aug 7, 2022 at 8:00
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    Another caveat for exFAT is turned out Windows can't defrag nor easily resize the partition, not a problem with USB drives and memory cards, but for external HDD/SSD, it's something to keep in mind.
    – Martheen
    Aug 8, 2022 at 4:29
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    Ubuntu may be more optimized for ext4. See the comments to the OP
    – qwr
    Aug 8, 2022 at 5:22
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Btrfs should also work, you'll need a driver tho, on Windows that is.

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