What Format for Storage Drive on Dual-Boot?

[EddyMac]

I've just built a dual-boot computer (El Capitan and Windows 10) for my kids from spare parts. OS X and Windows 10 are each on their own SSD. I have a spare 1 TB drive for storage (pictures, videos, etc.). How should I format that disk so that it's available to both operating systems?

 

[P1LGRIM]

I've just built a dual-boot computer (El Capitan and Windows 10) for my kids from spare parts. OS X and Windows 10 are each on their own SSD. I have a spare 1 TB drive for storage (pictures, videos, etc.). How should I format that disk so that it's available to both operating systems?

Sharing data between operating systems can be a bit of a minefield - Whatever you do, don't be tempted to use Ex-FAT.

An idea to consider would be a NAS box.
I have a Synology DS115j which you buy as an empty box and drop the hard drive of your choice into it (mine is 3TB).
I run a Plex server on it, record TV, and an iTunes library as well as storing files.
It also works as a Time Machine for backups.

 

[Going Bald]

I've just built a dual-boot computer (El Capitan and Windows 10) for my kids from spare parts. OS X and Windows 10 are each on their own SSD. I have a spare 1 TB drive for storage (pictures, videos, etc.). How should I format that disk so that it's available to both operating systems?

For any HDD less than 2TB in size you can format the drive MBR/FAT32 (MBR/MSDOS FAT in OS X disk utility) and both OS X and Windows can natively read/write the drive.

 

[EddyMac]

For any HDD less than 2TB in size you can format the drive MBR/FAT32 (MBR/MSDOS FAT in OS X disk utility) and both OS X and Windows can natively read/write the drive.

Awesome! That's what I was hoping for.

@P1LGRIM thank you for your suggestion also. The only problem with using a NAS is that this computer will be in one of the kid's bedrooms with no ethernet so the only connection would be wireless.

 

[P1LGRIM]

Awesome! That's what I was hoping for.

@P1LGRIM thank you for your suggestion also. The only problem with using a NAS is that this computer will be in one of the kid's bedrooms with no ethernet so the only connection would be wireless.

I see, you could get around it by using Powerline but @Going Bald's solution seems easiest and most economic.

 

[kiiroaka]

I have a spare 1 TB drive for storage (pictures, videos, etc.).

FAT32 has a max size of 4GB for any single file, so you may have problems with some videos.

http://www.genie9.com/Support/KB/KnowledgeArticle.aspx?KBID=113
http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/windows-and-office/format-fat32-drives-beyond-32gb-limit/

Luckily you only have a 1TB HDD. If you had a 3 or 4 TB drive you would have to have two partitions, each of which would have to be less than 2TB.

The only problem with using a NAS is that this computer will be in one of the kid's bedrooms with no ethernet so the only connection would be wireless.

Then you would need to install the fastest wireless solution you can find for a reasonable amount of money (IOW, not the cheapest. Increase the price until you squeal. Or you hit AC1900.)

Otherwise, set up a Media Centre...

http://lifehacker.com/turn-an-old-pc-into-a-nas-vpn-media-streamer-and-mor-1516484110
http://lifehacker.com/turn-an-old-computer-into-a-do-anything-home-server-wit-510023147

16 exbibytes (264 bytes): maximum size of a single file

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZFS

I'd probably try to get it running on a Raspberry. A nice NAS enclosure with a Raspberry inside. Yeah, that's the ticket. You get the idea - a cheap NUC, ATOM or ARM processor box connected to a big HD. I wonder if anyone has figured out how to make that work. You know, like a $30 Android box. http://www.androidauthority.com/best-android-media-center-apps-581324/ For me, Kodi is the obvious solution. http://www.cnet.com/news/build-your-own-home-media-center-part-2-using-kodi/#!

 

[EddyMac]

OK thanks. Any video editing will be done on the Mac side, so I think I'm going to just format this has HFS+. Then later if I find they need storage on the Windows 10 side I'll just pop another 1 TB drive in and format it NTFS.

One other question:
I was going to enable TRIM in OS X but hesitated because I'm not sure how that would affect the SSD that has Windows 10 on it. Can anyone help me out there? Should I enable TRIM in OS X or not?

 

[Going Bald]

OK thanks. Any video editing will be done on the Mac side, so I think I'm going to just format this has HFS+. Then later if I find they need storage on the Windows 10 side I'll just pop another 1 TB drive in and format it NTFS.

One other question:
I was going to enable TRIM in OS X but hesitated because I'm not sure how that would affect the SSD that has Windows 10 on it. Can anyone help me out there? Should I enable TRIM in OS X or not?

You can enable trim or leave it alone - the firmware of most SSDs has a garbage collection app included in it and, if you just walk away for an hour or two, the drive firmware will take care of it. This is why Windows does not use TRIM at all and MS recommends disabling the auto defrag app if using a SSD.

 

[kiiroaka]

You probably should enable TRIM on both OSes, and chances are that if you have a current drive TRIM is enabled by default, internally. Under Windows you will want to disable defragging, SWAP, Indexing, crash dumps, turning off browser caching, etc. That's why it makes sense to have as much memory as possible - so that Swapping, and therefore disc thrashing, is minimized.

 

[Going Bald]

You probably should enable TRIM on both OSes, and chances are that if you have a current drive TRIM is enabled by default, internally. Under Windows you will want to disable defragging, SWAP, Indexing, crash dumps, turning off browser caching, etc. That's why it makes sense to have as much memory as possible - so that Swapping, and therefore disc thrashing, is minimized.

If you do a bit of research you will find that all the TRIM does is to send a signal to the SSD firmware to initialize garbage collection. There is no way to tell if the SSD firmware responds or ignores the command.

Since the system does not care if your secondary SSD needs to be trimmed by the OS, it will initiate TRIM on all connected SSDs.
This is something I do not think should be done in a multi-boot OS situation. Each OS should take care of its own SSD or let the SSD firmware take care of it.