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Cross-platform usable filesystem with large file support

What is the best filesystem to use cross-platform (Linux, Windows, OS X) which supports disk sizes of at least 2TB and file sizes >4GB?

I'm planning to use it on a USB drive on different computers.

Are there any filesystems that can be used on all the named OSes without installing additional drivers?

How to mount and unmount hard drives under Windows (the unix way)

On my work computer I have two USB hard drives that I use rarely. They have a power save mode that sends them into sleep after a couple of minutes of them being idle.

Whenever I open a context menu on a file, the drives are woken up (most likely caused by the "send to" handler). So I eject the drive, but I can't find a way to get it back, other than unplugging and replugging it in.

Is there a way to unmount the drives, and then remount them only when I actually need them? (On Windows 7 Ultimate.)

How to read and write Mac drives on Windows

I have some external hard drives that are Mac OS Extended (Journaled) formatted. What software can you recommend for working with those drives when under Windows? Do you have any experience with this?

Would be best if the software is free, but it doesn't have to be.

Hope someone can help!

Unplugging USB hard drive can damage computer? Seriously?

I’m reading through the manual for a Samsung portable USB hard drive, and I’ve come across this warning:

Detaching the USB cable while file transfer is in progress can damage your computer and/or [hard drive].

Here’s the original warning:

Seriously? I’m going to fry my computer by doing something USB was explicitly designed for right from the beginning—hot-plugging? Surely a computer doesn’t become damaged just because a data transfer fails.

How can I remount an ejected (not just unmounted) USB drive on Mac?

I frequently eject an usb stick, and then realize I still need it.

If I unmount the drive in Disk Utility, I can just remount it, but if I eject, it's gone.

• Not showed in Finder
• Not showed in diskutil
• Not showed in ls /dev
• Is still showed in System Information under USB.

How can I mount the disk without unplugging and inserting it?

Which virtual machine can boot from USB drive?

There are any desktop (not hipervisor) virtual machine software able to boot from USB drive? Which one and how?

What is the tolerable magnetic field (in Tesla) for a hard disk?

I was wondering what would be the safest magnetic field for a hard drive so that the data inside it is safe and not wiped off?

For example I have a 2.1 home theatre system and when I take my android phone near it to check the magnetic field range it gives me a reading of 1000 micro Tesla. Would that be considered safe for a nearby hard disk?

5400rpm HDD speeds in a USB 3.0 connectivity enclosure

I plan to replace my laptop's 5400rpm HDD with an SSD in the near future. I then want to make the old HDD an external HDD. I want to get it to work with USB 3.0.

1. Will I get better speeds from my 5400rpm hard drive when it is inside an enclosure providing USB 3.0 connectivity?
2. what will the possible speeds be?

How to copy files to read-only NTFS hard drive on a Mac?

I want to copy my some files from Mac (Macbook-Air) to an USB external hard drive, formatted as NTFS.

How is it possible? Because when I do copy my files from the Mac and go to paste them on the external HD there is no option for paste.

Why is my Seagate USB 3.0 drive showing corrupted data when plugged as an internal SATA drive?

I have a 3TB Seagate Backup Plus Desktop USB 3.0 drive, which works fine when in its enclosure, but when I get it off its enclosure and directly plug it as an internal SATA drive, it's just not properly recognized (it works again when used in the enclosure).
My systems’s motherboard is an ASUS P8P67 LE, which has two SATA 6.0 Gb/s and four SATA 3.0 Gb/s ports.

When used as an internal SATA drive Windows 7 asks if I want to format the drive, as if it didn’t have a proper filesystem, and if I use the DISKMGMT.MSC tool (typing that in the start menu) I get completely wrong information about the drive.

It says the drive has 3 partitions (349,31GB of RAW data and two unassigned partitions of 1698,68GB and 746,52GB). This information is plain wrong, since the drive, when used in the USB enclosure, works as a single NTFS partition (2794,52GB). How come it’s shown as 3 partitions without filesystem when connected through SATA?!

Is Seagate using some proprietary way of storing the data when using the drive in its provided USB 3.0 enclosure? I didn’t use any kind of encryption. I just plugged the drive with USB 3.0 and started using it straight away, since it apparently came pre-formatted with an NTFS filesystem.

How to detect if a USB port is 3.0 or 2.0?

I have a Toshiba Canvio 3.0 external HDD. It has USB 3.0. It flashes blue if you connect it to a USB 3.0 port. If it is a 2.0 port, the light becomes white.

Yesterday, I plugged it in and the light was blue. Now, I plugged it in the same port and the light is white.

Can I somehow detect if the USB port I just plugged in is 2.0 or 3.0? I want to know if there is a problem with the device or the USB port I'm using.

Edit: I'm using Windows 8.1

Permissionless external drive with NTFS

I have an external hard disk which has 1 partition, formatted in NTFS. I use this drive on multiple computers with a different logins on different machines, Windows XP and Windows 7. All files are plain old files, not OS encrypted or compressed.

Every now and then Windows 7 does not let me access some files, citing permission problems. I can circumvent this per case by taking ownership and setting appropriate permissions. This, however, is tedious. Is there a simple way to tell Windows to not enforce or store any permissions on any file/directory on a partition?

Is time a substitute for Safely Remove Hardware?

In Windows 7, before unplugging an external hard disk or flash drive, you are ideally supposed to use the Safely Remove Hardware option to make sure there aren't any writes still pending.

Suppose it has been several minutes since the last write nominally completed. Is it safe to assume that this is long enough for everything to be written to the disk, so that you can just go ahead and unplug the device?

How much time until an unused hard drive loses its data?

Do you guys know how much time needs to pass until the data stored on a hard drive starts to degrade?

To keep the data intact for long periods of time, I heard you need to periodically rewrite it on the hard drive, like every 5 years or so. Is it true?

How do I remove a MyBook's "WD SmartWare" virtual CD from my desktop?

I recently got a Western Digital MyBook external hard drive to enable Time Machine. It has its software installed on a "virtual CD" called "WD SmartWare" which shows up on the desktop any time the drive is plugged in. Since I will use this virtual drive only very rarely, how can I hide it from the desktop, while allowing other CDs to show up?