[ale] Local File Storage options

[DJ-Pfulio]

If Calvin means a dual-boot situation, there isn't much choice except NTFS. Just
be certain to disable the Windows hibernation/startup defaults that don't
properly close the file system at shutdown. If he forgets to do that,

a) the NTFS file system won't be closed by Windows8/Win10 at shutdown
b) Linux OSes won't be able to have Read-Write access to the file system
c) Linux tools might be prevented from having **any** access to the file system,
if anything bad happens.

Disable hibernation in Windows.
Disable Fast Startup in Windows.

If Calvin means having network access to the storage from other machines, then
only use Linux file systems like ext4/xfs/zfs and share using network protocols.
NFS for all Unix-like OSes and SMB 2.1+ protocol for Windows.  Win7 and later
support SMB2.1, so we don't have to have terrible CIFS security, just bad CIFS
security.

It would be much easier to get/build a NAS.

If you have more money than time, get a commercial NAS.

If you have more time than money, you can easily make a NAS from some of the
faster ARM SBCs that support SATA and USB3 with real GigE networking.

Or an Intel compatible, very cheap, computer can be built. About 6 yrs ago, I
built a NAS using parts. Bought a $50 CPU, $50 microATX motherboard, and $26 of
RAM - reused an old case, old PSU, some old HDDs, loaded Ubuntu Server - BAM - I
had a NAS that supported 6 HDDs for $126 total.  Today, that box has 4 internal
HDDs, a 4-disk external eSATA and 2 USB3 connected disks. Most are 4TB Red
disks, but the USB3 disks are 8TB each, partitioned to be 2x4TB. 4TB is my
largest backup partition, so I don't want and storage to be larger than that.

A little extra info.
I think the mount.ntfs and mount.ntfs-3g drivers are the same. It is possible to
have chown and chmod work on NTFS storage if you setup a Wuser-to-Luser mapping
file inside the file system. Come out on a Sunday and I can help people do that.
For stand-alone Windows systems (not using AD), it isn't THAT hard. There are
tools to get the list of Windows uuids.  On Linux, the passwd and groups
databases are all that is needed.  I've been using this about 3 months and on
the Linux side, it has been working where I don't even consider it odd anymore.
I barely use it with Windows, so there could be issues, but the storage is NTFS,
so there is always "Take Control" as an option.

When mounting NTFS partitions in Linux, there are some performance enhancing
options to make FUSE suck a little less. From my autofs auto.misc file:
/misc/250G -nodev,permissions,windows_names,nosuid,noatime,async,big_writes,time
out=2,fstype=ntfs,uid=1000,gid=1000,fmask=0002,dmask=0002 LABEL=250G


Of course, a backup solution should be part of any storage planning.  Sometimes
there is no other solution except to wipe the main disks and restore the backup.

Forget exFAT.
Forget vFAT/FAT32.

NTFS is so much better.


On 8/2/19 12:57 PM, Niel M. Bornstein via Ale wrote:
> I think the question was about how to share a local disk partitions across
> different OSes on the same machine - meaning dual boot, I assume. 
> 
> On Fri, Aug 2, 2019 at 12:56 PM Raj Wurttemberg via Ale <ale at ale.org
> <mailto:ale at ale.org>> wrote:
> 
>     Jim K's options are all very good.
> 
>     At work, I usually build a Linux file server and install Samba for the
>     Windows servers. The Linux servers access the shares via NFS.
> 
>     I went the easy way for home and got a QNAP NAS (Synology is also good) so
>     that I can access all of my files on Windows and Linux. FreeNAS, QNAP,
>     Synology, etc... are great multiprotocol file servers.
> 
>     /Raj
> 
>     -----Original Message-----
>     From: Ale <ale-bounces at ale.org <mailto:ale-bounces at ale.org>> On Behalf Of
>     Calvin Harrigan via Ale
>     Sent: Friday, August 2, 2019 12:15 PM
>     To: Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts <ale at ale.org <mailto:ale at ale.org>>
>     Subject: [ale] Local File Storage options
> 
>     Hi all,
> 
>          I've found myself in a situation where I need to share several large
>     partitions on a single machine across Windows 10 and Linux (ubuntu
>     18.04)
> 
>     What would be the best filesystem option for sharing read/write access to
>     these partitions?  I thought about using NTFS with ntfs-3g under linux, but
>     because of the proprietary nature of NTFS, I'm reluctant. I'm afraid of
>     catastrophic filesystem failure in the event of a driver error.  Is
>     VFAT(fat32) a viable option?  It officially has a limit of 32GB, though I
>     know it can go as high as 2TB.  It offers no features of a modern filesystem
>     though.  EXT4 doesn't have a practical driver based solution for windows. 
>     There are programs like Ext2Fsd, but I have the same issues with it as I do
>     with ntfs-3g.
> 
>     Any suggestions would be appreciated.