today i was again thinking on backup solutions. my current backup harddisks use ext2 resp. ext3, a linux file system. but now i’m forced to use osx, as my linux machine completely died. it turns out that osx can read ext2/ext3 using ext2fsx, but that one is pretty instable and already killed one ext2 partition of mine (note: don’t mount anything as writeable!). i began looking for a file system which both osx and linux can write and read (and which is known to be stable). but… so far, i found: nothing. well, except fat32. i mean, hey, what the heck?! it can’t be that fat32 is the only one supported by both of them; fat32 is a relict from the stone age of computing, nothing which you want to use on a modern computer. well, maybe, but only if you store your stuff in tar files, another pretty antique, but at least somehow useful thing. this makes it pretty much impossible to browse the backup data, to see what’s in it, to easily extract certain files, but at least provides a working alternative. but, well, is this really the only one?!
another reason why we’re still in the stone age of computing…
felix.
settings.
other languages.
pages.
friends.
things i like to read.
categories.
recent posts.
archives.
places.
europe finland lapland ivalo france germany baden-württemberg lower saxony oldenburg north rhine-westphalia lüdinghausen saxony sächsische schweiz norway scandinavia lappland switzerland alps basel pratteln z-7 central switzerland glarus graubünden engadine ticino zürich zürcher oberland hinwil zürich üetliberg north america canada alberta calgary rocky mountains jasper newfoundland yukon oceans
comments.
ok, one thing to add: fat32 does not supports files larger than 4 gigabyte. wow. i didn’t thought it’s that antique…
[...] got another external hard drive today. the main reason is that i want to encrypt my (current) backup harddisk, which requires reformatting the disk. but if i do so, i’m left with nothing but the [...]