Puppy vs. exFAT

[JASpup]

This unused USB hd crackles and chugs when I plug it in like a needle stuck at the end of a record. Ready to send it back where it came, I booted Windows and it looks normal.

It's formatted MBR/exFAT. I look in GParted and exFAT is greyed-out as a partition option.

File System Support reads only Move and Copy operations are supported with exFAT.

Is there a known compatibility layer and should I run it, or should I just reformat the drive?

[TerryH]

It's similar to when ntfs was introduced, limited or no access. Look in PPM to see what exfat components are available for the pppy you are using. I'm not sure if all are required, exfat-fuse, exfat-utils, exfatprogs.

[JASpup]

I thought something might be in there. I think fate is Windows to reformat the thing. Puppy treats it like it's warped.

[Jafadmin]

exFAT is not open source. It is patented by Microsoft. THAT is why there is little if no support for it in linux.

It would violate the General Public License: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/licenses.html

[JASpup]

exFAT is not open source. It is patented by Microsoft. THAT is why there is little if no support for it in linux.

It would violate the General Public License: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/licenses.html

Oh, then I definitely don't want exFAT.

I'm getting too squirrelly on this disk, being 2T when need isn't half, not anticipating snags trying to copy multiple Windows boot partitions then eventually Linux.

As it stands there's one XP partition, one 32-Win7 partition, both NTFS, and the disk will only be read on my 32 machines.

It's supposed to only need ntfs-3g (or ntfsprogs?), but the latest is installed on the 64 and the struggle is real.

There are too many pitfalls trying to multiboot, but it's the best use of the space.

I would go one big FAT32, but I'd never want to back it up.