SK0-004 · Question #905
A USB drive has been purchased to move files between Windows, *nix, and Macintosh servers. Which of the following filesystems is the BEST choice to ensure the drive can read and be written to by all…
The correct answer is B. FAT32. FAT32 is the only filesystem among the choices that all three operating systems - Windows, Linux/Unix, and macOS - can natively read from and write to without additional drivers.
Question
A USB drive has been purchased to move files between Windows, *nix, and Macintosh servers. Which of the following filesystems is the BEST choice to ensure the drive can read and be written to by all of the servers?
Options
- Aext2
- BFAT32
- CNTFS
- DUFS
How the community answered
(58 responses)- A2% (1)
- B93% (54)
- C2% (1)
- D3% (2)
Why each option
FAT32 is the only filesystem among the choices that all three operating systems - Windows, Linux/Unix, and macOS - can natively read from and write to without additional drivers.
ext2 is a Linux-native filesystem; Windows has no built-in ext2 driver and macOS requires third-party software to write to ext2 volumes.
FAT32 is a legacy but universally supported filesystem that Windows, all major Linux distributions, and macOS all implement natively in their kernels, providing full read and write access. Because it was designed as a cross-platform standard for removable media, it is the standard choice when interoperability across heterogeneous operating systems is the primary requirement.
NTFS is Windows-native; macOS can only read NTFS volumes by default and requires third-party tools to write, making it unsuitable for seamless cross-platform use.
UFS (Unix File System) is native to BSD and older Unix systems and is not supported natively by Windows or modern macOS.
Concept tested: Cross-platform removable media filesystem compatibility
Source: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/fileio/file-system-functionality-comparison
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