File System for external HD (iTunes)

[Carlos Camacho]

Hi all,

My Mac is connected to an external USB HD and it's formatted with HFS+. I'd like to access this HD via LAN on a PC also running iTunes. There was a story on Slashdot about best file systems for such a case, but I didn't have time to read it all. Fat32, which the Mac supports has it's limits. What are you all using? People on Slashdot were metioning EXT3. Comments?

[AndyKorth]

I've found FAT32 to be a gigantic pain. I had an external drive formatted thusly and I couldn't copy more than a handful of files at a time before something would fail, canceling the whole copy. Apparently it was often illegal characters that weren't supported by the file system, but the error was completely unclear. Long file names and files larger than 2gb would also hose it. Furthermore, every file you put on the drive would lose some creation/last modified information (I forget which).

Also consider NFS or mounting the drive with samba. If you want to just play music off it, use daap.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Audio_Access_Protocol

[MattDiamond]

iTunes can share music playlists, so you could easily set up the Mac to share the music, and the PC would see them.

Of course, to play music purchased from the iTunes Music Store both computers need to be authorized (you can authorize up to three computers for one music account.)

[Tools10]

Isn't it 5 computers or has something changed?
I know that I've had more than 3 computers authorized but that was over a year ago.

[Zwilnik]

yup, it's still 5.

They've improved the 'reset all' functionality now too. It used to only allow you to reset all your licenses once a year (usually needed when you've re-installed a licenced Mac or PC and forgot to unlicense it first).

[Duane]

ext3 isn't supported by OSX, last time I checked, and fat 32 is horrible. If you're brave, you could try ntfs3g and FUSE, but personally I'd stick with HFS+ or UFS. Or possibly zfs, when it comes out :D

[hokan]

I saved a couple of links to stuff that looked promising from the slashdot disccusion (about filesystems usable on mac/win/linux):

http://www.ntfs-3g.org/
http://sourceforge.net/projects/ext2fsx/
http://e2fsprogs.sourceforge.net/ext2.html
http://www.fs-driver.org/
http://lifehacker.com/software/windows/readwrite-to-ntfs-drives-on-your-mac-270976.php

[OneSadCookie]

If the disk is always plugged into the mac, and shared with the PC via the network, why is its filesystem at all relevant?

If it's not, why not do it that way ;)

[Carlos Camacho]

>ext3 isn't supported by OSX,
There is a driver for it.

OSC, does this mean that when she plugs in her iPod to her Windows machine, she will be able to copy songs from my machine across the network to her iTunes and then into her iPod?

You see, I always thought that sure, you can have a Mac and PC, etc share Playlists, but for the actual copying of the songs to the iPod, you need to have them saved locally.

[OneSadCookie]

I'm talking about an SMB mount of the USB drive on your PC, not sharing playlists via iTunes.