Excellent information. With this info, I'm just about ready to buy. Thanks!

Thanks for this information.

I might just switch to an other filesystem thanks to this info. I read here that FAT32 is the slowest of all filesystems discussed: http://www.pogoplugged.com/forum/thread/11554/Best-Filesystem-for-Pogoplug/?h...

Prior to the moment I bought my Pogoplug (DockStar actually) I used FAT32 as filesystem because this way I would be able to read and write content on it via my Mac or PC.

Now I might choose for one of the above Filesystems.

Ok, so, I've had several weeks of hell and wanted to fire out what I have learned in hopes it will help someone else.

I have a new POGOPLUG with 4 drives plugged into it. All of the drives are above 1TB and the enclosures they are in are by VanTec or WesternDigital.

I have folder after folder of hundreds and thousands of little text files that I use in the course of my business. Most of the files are 4-12k in size.

I've experienced what many of the above posters have written -- all of it actually.

Yes, the Pogoplug can handle most every drive format thrown at it and, yes, it can read and write to such. As long as I am writing larger files, NTFS or HFS+ work the best -- journalized or not -- though any format works. Yes, FAT is slower but isn't corrupted if you shut down/unplug incorrectly and, yes, it usually manages smaller files quicker.

BUT................

If you are writing a whole batch of little text files or other really small files rather quickly to ANYTHING BUT A FAT FORMATED DRIVE, you will get utter chaos.

Essentially, with those small files, you will see the files get randomly deleted, the file left but empty, the file duplicated with stuff missing or the most confusing sequence of unrelated errors thrown at you.

The worst is with a journaled HFS followed by NTFS format.

Throw Notational Velocity (Network capable text edit program) at it and it will read and write files so quickly that the POGOPLUG will wipe (make blank at zero bytes) over half the files in a given folder in one pass. In FAT format, it runs beautifully -- even if also syncing with SimpleText.ws.

It makes no difference which enclosure. It makes no difference which other format used and it makes no difference the number of drives plugged in or if they are set to some other format. It only matters the format of the drive you are reading and writing these smaller text files to.

I've been running with one HFS+ drive (Where I store 4gig + files) and all the rest FAT formatted for a week now with zero data loss -- even with multiple workstations pounding away at those text files for hours.

A single workstation changing two files at once can wreak havoc under HFS+.

It's like the file sizes are just too small for POGOPLUG to care about them or something...

so what is the best file system to use?

I was going to go with EXT3 as it's native to Linux and the PogoPlug. or do you use a certain file system for a distinct file type?

don;t want to use FAT or FAT32 as there are size limitations-2 gb and 32 gb and reports that FAT32 access is slow.

another thread reported file corruptions with NTFS.