Best file-system for use with multiple operating systems?

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1

I want to use some external hard-drives on several machines which could be running versions of either Linux or Windows (XP or Vista).

Which is the best file-system to format these drives for so that they can be fully used by either OS?

While I’m here, what about OS X? Does it use vanilla Linux/Unix FSs?

2

Ext3 I’d say. It has pretty good drivers for Win and, iirc, for Mac

there’s also an xfs driver for Win, but I don’t know its state nor do I know if it supports Mac

3

Thanks, mc8. I should’ve said that the drives might get attached to Windoze systems where there’s little or no possibility of installing any extra software.

4

Then go with FAT, supported by default on all platforms (Mac, Linux, Windows, Solaris, BSD)

5

Thank you. In that case I guess there’s nothing better than FAT32.