exFAT partition got corrupted, but was easily fixed. How did this happen?

[1nfinity0nhigh]

rMBP 15 (late 2013), 1 TB SSD.

I made an 750 GB exFAT partition in Disk Utility so I can share data between OS X and Windows (on an NTFS Bootcamp partition). I copied ~55 gigglebytes of files from my external HDD to the exFAT partition last night, finished copying, then booted into Windows 8.1. Windows was unable to read the partition, and said the disk (partition) needed to be formatted. I go back into OS X 10.9, and the Data (exFAT) partition is unreadable by OS X too. Disk utility can't verify nor repair it. I search online, and entered this into terminal (without the $):

$ sudo fsck_exfat -d disk0s4

where disk0s4 was the exfat partition. Then I ran Disk Utility repair, repair returned errors, but after that the drive was fine for both Windows and OSX.

Any idea how my partition got corrupted? And how I can prevent this from happening? It's p spooky when the partition that holds ALL of your data suddenly becomes unreadable by 2 operating systems. Even though it was easily fixed this time, I'd rather not have to worry about having to test my luck again. Thanks

 

[Weaselboy]

exFAT is not a journaled file system, so it is more prone to these types of disk corruption errors. You can help prevent that by being very careful to wait for copies to complete before shutting down and always making sure you eject the drive before powering down or logging out.

 

[1nfinity0nhigh]

Thanks! So I'm guessing maybe the drive was still performing read/write actions (even though Finder said the files were transferred), and I turned the computer off in the process?

Is there a way to have OS X automatically "eject" the partition before shutdown?

Also, are there any journaled and/or "safer" file systems that I can use for both OS X and Windows?

 

[Weaselboy]

Thanks! So I'm guessing maybe the drive was still performing read/write actions (even though Finder said the files were transferred), and I turned the computer off in the process?

Is there a way to have OS X automatically "eject" the partition before shutdown?

Also, are there any journaled and/or "safer" file systems that I can use for both OS X and Windows?

Actually, the OS will eject for you when you shutdown, but the advantage of doing it yourself manually is if there happens to be a file copy still in progress you will get a popup message telling you that. If you automate that, you miss the warning and kind of defeat the purpose.

What you could do that is more stable is just use NTFS on the drive. OS X can natively read NTFS then you add Paragon NTFS to your Mac to be able to write to NTFS also.

 

[1nfinity0nhigh]

Thanks for your suggestion! I'm assuming this software is legit/reliable because I remember seeing an ad for it before.

So NTFS is a more reliable/safe file system in terms of preventing corruption and data loss?

Will I need to do any special actions to read/write? Or will it truly make OS X natively handle NTFS 100% as well as it handles HFS+? Like can I modify/create files in Terminal?

 

[Weaselboy]

Thanks for your suggestion! I'm assuming this software is legit/reliable because I remember seeing an ad for it before.

So NTFS is a more reliable/safe file system in terms of preventing corruption and data loss?

Will I need to do any special actions to read/write? Or will it truly make OS X natively handle NTFS 100% as well as it handles HFS+? Like can I modify/create files in Terminal?

Yep... its legit. Lots of people here use it. Once installed you can read/write to NTFS just like on Windows. It will be much less susceptible to file corruption than exFAT is.

 

[1nfinity0nhigh]

Wow, Paragon NTFS is amazing. It's completely seamless, totally worth $20 (gonna buy it right before trial ends). You wouldn't even be able to tell that OS X doesn't natively support NTFS. All my programs and even terminal can completely interact with the NTFS partitions. Thank you so much!

 

[MisterMe]

exFAT is not a journaled file system, so it is more prone to these types of disk corruption errors. You can help prevent that by being very careful to wait for copies to complete before shutting down and always making sure you eject the drive before powering down or logging out.

I would go one step further. FAT32 and older FAT-based file systems used two (2) alternating File Allocation Tables. exFAT uses only one. With two FATs, the file system has an opportunity to repair itself if one table is corrupted. Having only one table, exFAT does not have this opportunity.

Quite frankly, I don't see the point of exFAT. NTFS has its issues, but it is much safer than exFAT. Heck, FAT32 is safer than exFAT. For my Windows-compatible storage needs, I use Tuxera's free NTFS-3G driver. For those who rely on Windows-compatible storage, your recommendation of Paragon NTFS is the recommendation that I would make.

 

[simplyctsk]

I would go one step further. FAT32 and older FAT-based file systems used two (2) alternating File Allocation Tables. exFAT uses only one. With two FATs, the file system has an opportunity to repair itself if one table is corrupted. Having only one table, exFAT does not have this opportunity.

Quite frankly, I don't see the point of exFAT. NTFS has its issues, but it is much safer than exFAT. Heck, FAT32 is safer than exFAT. For my Windows-compatible storage needs, I use Tuxera's free NTFS-3G driver. For those who rely on Windows-compatible storage, your recommendation of Paragon NTFS is the recommendation that I would make.

this is such a saviour and changes everything i had known until now about file system of which is safer.. ") thanks!!

i would also recommend FUSE or Tuxera NTFS for seamless transition.. doesnt know if it can be compared with paragon..

 

[GewOne]

No progress has been made in the field of ExFAT volumes over the last half decade?
I think I've lost all data on my 500 GB external hard drive. I'm devastated.