"Ease of Use" question on an external USB hard drive

Help and Support
1

I love OSMC and have been using it, or it’s predecessors, for years. Thank you.

I’m trying to build an “easy to use” appliance for my (grown) daughter. At home, I’ve always used network shares for my files. In this case I’ll need an external drive, connected through the USB (2) port.

I considered formatting the drive with NTFS. That way the external drive could be easily disconnected and attached to a laptop, etc., for drive access. However I’ve read that NTFS has “poor performance” under *nix/RPi. If that’s the case I’ll need to format EXT3 or 4 which means I can no longer (easily) mount it on a Windows machine.

Q1) Can I install Samba on OSMC/RPi and is that the approach you’d suggest for “ease of access” to the OSMC data drive? ?

Q2) What format for the HD? Do you agree with poor performance for NTFS (needed for a 5TB drive)? Assuming so, any preference, on OSMC/RPI 2, between EXT3 or 4?

I just need a sanity check here for a practical solution that’s easy to use for a novice, once I’ve set it up.

Thanks in advance.

2

I have used an NTFS formatted 4TB drive with Vero/OSMC and didn’t encounter any problems with it at all.

3
  1. Samba is a default service in OSMC
  2. I got 2 EXT4 drives, no problems (performance no idea)

Practical: tell not to unplug the power (only on total hang) :smiley:
When OSMC gets slow,inaccessible by http, have putty(windows/linux) or VX ConnectBot(android) at hand and learn 1 command “reboot”