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I have created NTFS file partition drive with some space leftin Ubuntu, does using NTFS format drive ok to use or should I convert it to ext4?

Are there any disadvantages of using NTFS file system in Ubuntu?

2 Answers 2

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I can think of two disadvantages:

  • When I use NTFS in Linux I found that performance is worse than ext4, particularly when opening with the file manager a directory containing several hundred or more files/folders (it takes way more time to load) or when copying large amounts of data like 1 GB or more (that's my personal experience after comparing copying the same set of data using the same media and changing the file system)

  • If the file system is not cleanly unmounted (i.e. power shortage), it refuses to mount unless it's checked with an NTFS file system check utility or is forced to mount, which most of the times you need to do manually (that is, using terminal). Most of the times the file system check is automatically done when is ext4.

Given that, and if you are going to use Linux only, I think that is better to use ext4, however if you have a dual boot computer (Linux and Windows) and you're going to open that partition in Windows, go ahead and keep the NTFS partition to share files between the two OS.

In that scenario, keep in mind that (and this can count as a disadvantage) you can create names in Linux with characters that are reserved in Windows, so you can't open that files in Windows. i. e. you can create a file named "file#1.txt" in Linux, but that file can't be opened in Windows since "#" character reserved in Windows.

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Using NTFS file system in ubuntu 14.04, does it harm hard disk?

No. Harm it does not. But the question is a bit strange (why would a filesystem harm a hard disk?)

Are there any disadvantages of using ntfs file system in ubuntu?

You can not install Ubuntu on NTFS. The "/" and the "/home/ partition depend on POSIX (the chmod and chown permissions is part of that) and NTFS does not support that.

You can put "/" and "/home/" on EXT and have the directories in "/home/" (ie. Documents, Pictures, Downloads) on a NTFS filesystem and even share that amongst other users on that system. In general you can put all your personal data on NTFS.

If you do use NTFS it is advised to always have a Windows on that system (dual boot; you can hide the boot menu so you do not see it unless you boot into grub yourself and pick Windows to boot from). If the gets damaged it is best to use dedicated Windows repair tools.

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