Re: NTFS compatability

On Fri, Nov 16, 2007 at 02:42:09PM -0800, Frank Drobot wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I have some basic questions about NTFS support in NetBSD:
> 
> (1) If I create a 5GB file on a Windows PC on USB device formatted for NTFS can I then insert that
> USB device into a system running NetBSD and read that file?

That may work with the in-kernel NTFS driver, though I've
never verified that.
I would assume ntfs-3g would support it as well (see below).

> 
> (2) Given the statement below can I write a 5GB file using NetBSD on a USB device mounted as a
> NTFS volume and then insert that USB device into a Windows PC system and read that file?

Using netbsd-current, puffs, librefuse, and ntfs-3g, that should work.
At least it should work better than whatever ntfs write support the
in-kernel driver has.

> (3) Can I format a USB device with NetBSD as a NTFS volume?
 
Probably, to the extent 3rd-party software such as ntfsprogs
(pkgsrc/sysutils/ntfsprogs)  can.

> (4) Given the statement below which, if any, write operations work for NTFS filesystems?

Using 'file-system NTFS' (the in-kernel NTFS) ... you probably
need to back up that volume before you try any writes.

Supposedly ntfs-3g works much better.

> "NetBSD supports a number of different filesystems (for a complete list 
> see fstab(5) including FAT, FAT32, NTFS4 and NTFS5 from Microsoft. 
> Currently only read support works reliably for NTFS filesystems. Long 
> filenames are supported on both FAT and NTFS."
> 
> Thanks in advance for any information.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Frank Drobot

	Jonathan Kollasch

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