I'm using Linux Mint 22.2 as my main OS and I'm pondering whether to fully switch from Windows. I have a data drive for backups and I want to use Timeshift for system backups, but it doesn't support NTFS. I'm considering formatting it as exFAT since it's supported by both Linux and Windows, but I've heard it has some limitations. Has anyone here had success using exFAT for a data drive across these two operating systems? What are the pros and cons? Any better filesystem suggestions? Thanks!
5 Answers
exFAT does work across almost all platforms, including Linux and macOS, but it’s very basic. If you're looking for filesystem features, you might want to consider something like Btrfs or a Linux-native format like ext4, especially since Timeshift doesn’t support NTFS anyway. Just keep in mind, Timeshift is primarily a Linux tool and won’t interact well with Windows. Might be worth rethinking your backup strategy in that case!
I’ve never had issues with using exFAT for media and documents. It’s unjournaled, so there's less safety if writing when there's a power issue, but I don’t use it strictly for backups. Just make sure you're not relying solely on it for critical backups because if anything goes wrong during a write, it could corrupt files. Also, remember that Linux's exfatprogs toolset can’t resize partitions, but you should be able to adjust that through Windows.
Just a heads-up, exFAT can waste space. If you’re writing large files, it’ll work great, but if it's a lot of smaller files, you might want to consider alternatives.
If you're moving frequently between Windows and Linux, exFAT really is your best option. It’s widely compatible and straightforward.
I've used the btrfs driver on Windows without any issues. I got a few terabytes to work with both systems, and syncing my game saves was my priority. By the way, for Timeshift backups, you need to ensure that directories start with a @ for the root and home; hopefully that's already set up for you!
That’s good to know! I'm trying to avoid any third-party solutions but may have to reconsider. Can you explain what you meant by getting a few terabytes? Were you talking about having separate drives for data?
Thanks for the heads-up! My data drive holds a mixture of videos, applications, and backups of my SSD. I often throw everything onto a second external drive too, so good to know about the resizing limits.