what do i format my hard drive as?

[zombine210]

i bought a 1Tb drive for my file server. i'm running linux and will save files for mostly windows machines. what format does my drive has to be?

ext3, ntfs, or nfs? wait, can you format a drive in nfs

i've read some guides on doing this, but they all mention something different. some say ntfs others fat32, one guy uses ext3

 

[The_Other_One]

So it's going to be a non-removable drive? If you're sticking with Linux (on the driver) I'd go ahead and format it to ext3. If you're dual booting or it's removable and will be connected to a Windows machine, use FAT32.

 

[zombine210]

So it's going to be a non-removable drive? If you're sticking with Linux (on the driver) I'd go ahead and format it to ext3. If you're dual booting or it's removable and will be connected to a Windows machine, use FAT32.

it's an internal hard drive connected to a sata controller.

the os, ubuntu server 9.10, is on it's own 20gb drive, and i won't be dual booting.

i ask because the guide i was following said to format as ntfs at the very beginning, but i skipped that part. i'm almost at the end, installing and configuring samba, but my drive is already screwed on and i don't want to take it out to format it

 

[zombine210]

ok, i really need to get this set up. if i want to use my 1tb drive as storage/data backup for windows machines, can it be ext3??

also, i would like the ability to remove the hdd, in the unfortunate event that anything goes wrong with my server. and still be able to extract the data.

kthnx