Is there any point in converting the partition to ext4 in my situation? [Solved]

[Wirtualny]

I use MX Linux 23.2 by 98% of the time. For 2% of the time I use Windows. However, my largest data partition is formatted in NTFS, which I can access from both: Linux and Windows.

Should I reformat the abovementioned data partition to ext4?

If I do this, I will have problems accessing data from Windows (a rare situation). The question is, will I gain anything in return? Data security is my priority.

[Adrian]

What do you mean by data security, not losing data to corruption?

I think Linux accessing ext4 is more safe than NTFS, there are also ways to read ext4 partition from Windows see the first couple of responses here: https://superuser.com/questions/37512/h ... on-windows

[clampett]

Guru's correct me if I'm wrong, but Windows isn't considered safe when writing to ext4.
I use a windows extension to be able to read ext4 from my MX files. When writing data from W10, I use a shared USB on my router to write from W10 then copy over using MX.
I use a Windows system (separate system, not dual boot).
This way I know all Linux file info data on ext4 is preserved which is my priority.

[DukeComposed]

Should I reformat the abovementioned data partition to ext4?

If I do this, I will have problems accessing data from Windows (a rare situation). The question is, will I gain anything in return? Data security is my priority.

What, in exact words, do you know or believe ext4 does better or differently than NTFS, with respect to data security?

[Adrian]

Windows isn't considered safe when writing to ext4.

User seems to need to access data from ext4 very seldom, nothing was mentioned about writing to it, the solutions I linked to are for reading ext4 (ext2read and LinuxReader)

[Wirtualny]

What do you mean by data security, not losing data to corruption?

Yes.

User seems to need to access data from ext4 very seldom

Yes, but when I use Windows I modify files, not only read them. Anyway, I could live without it as a trade-off if it would give me more security in terms of a smaller risk of data corruption.

[Adrian]

Yeah, I think writing to ext4 from Linux should be safer than writing to NTFS. But you also need to have backups, that's the most important way to protect your data.

[Eadwine Rose]

I have a data drive NTFS, especially done that way so I can access it in any os, win or lin.

I care more about my ability to access the files than the safety there.. nobody else uses my system.

[Wirtualny]

Thank you for all the answers!

I will take the most important data to ext4 then.

[bobbee]

all of the files on an ntfs mount have full read write execut access under linux.
All those multicolor directory listings show up as all green.

So that might be a negative.. I know that I didn't care for that.

Those comments about safety.. I doubt that they were referring to somebody else using your data.. it was probably safe from data loss. I guess that is a possibility when running a non native file system.. both ways linux under windows and windows under linux. Although I would think that SMART enabled in the bios should help with data integrity.

I have never accessed ext4 from windows, so I can't speak to that. It it was me and I really needed to share storage, I would leave the NTFS. Mostly because that is what I have done so I know it.

But Myself, I run a server and do file sharing from there. That way, I have more storage and no problems with file system conflicts. I don't know if that is an option for you, but I think worth considering.