Can I use a 500 GB exFAT drive?

[Bosse_B]

I am running Raspbian on a Pi, which is dedicated as a VPN server and file exchange unit.
For the latter I need a hard disk rather than an SDcard and I have a 500 GB 2.5" USB drive available.
Currently it is formatted NTFS, but I have read about the problems Linux has writing to such drives so I am wondering if I could format it exFAT in Windows7 and then use it also on the Pi???
Files would either be written on Windows and then read on the Pi (via VPN) with the disk moved there
or
written via VPN to the disk plugged into the Pi and then the disk would move over to Windows for the files to be used.
Or simpler, I could SAMBA mount it on the Pi so that the Win7 computer can access it directly via the network.

But the crucial point is: Can it be formatted exFAT and still be used on the Pi?

If so, how should I configure usbmount to handle this drive when it is plugged in?

[default_user8]

IMO you should format to ext3 or ext4, and leave it connected to your pi. Access via samba over the network from your windows machines. Unless you absolutely need to connect it directly to a windows machine. In that case you can leave it NTFS, some say linux doesn't play nice with NTFS but i had origninally set my drives up that way and never had any issues.

[ghans]

NTFS drives are just slow on the Pi. As default_user8 said , unless you directly connect the drive
to your PC , you could format it with ext3/4 and share it via Samba , Windows has no problems with
this.

ghans

[Bosse_B]

Well,
the problem is that on the far end of the VPN tunnel my daughter needs to move the drive to other units after I upload the files to it from here. Depending on where the files are intended to go it could be a PS3, a Windows laptop or a Mac computer.
So I figured that a USB connected drive would be the best approach:
- plug it into the Pi and then let me upload the files
- unplug it and move it to one of the other devices listed above
- read and process the files

What I am doing right now is to simulate this behavior at home so I can then tell her what to buy and plug into her Pi (which I set up a few weeks ago when I visited her).

Maybe I should just go for a fairly big USB thumb drive after all? I guess these are the most universal storage devices by using FAT32, but I think there is a file size limit in that case. AFAIK the biggest file in a FAT32 drive is 4 GB?

[ghans]

Can't the Mac access Samba shares , too ? And I guess the Playstation supports UPnP/DLNA ?

ghans