Since a while back, I'm using a tool to store all my passwords, website logins, program serial numbers etc. all RC4-encrypted and password-protected. Currently, the password tool (Pastor) and the data file are located on my Power Mac G5, which of course is a problem when I need to lookup a password when away from the G5, like at work for instance. Putting everything on a USB Flash Drives may be a good solution but I'm just exploring the possibility while I'm writing this, so let's see how it goes. When formatting a USB Flash Drive (or any drive for that matter) OS X offers the following 7 choices:

• UNIX File System
• MS-DOS File System
• MAC OS Standard
• MAC OS Extended (Case-sensitive)
• MAC OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled)
• MAC OS Extended
• MAC OS Extended (Journaled)

and the best format to chose really depends on the intended use of the drive. If the flash drive needs to be used on a Windows PC as well, then MS-DOS FAT32 File System is the one and only option available. The same is true for UNIX, which makes UNIX-FS the obvious, best choice.

But how do all these formats compare and which one should be used, if Macs running OS X are the only computers the Flash-Drive will ever be used with?

Mac OS Extended a.k.a. HFS Plus a.k.a. HFS+ seems to have a lot of advantages over MAC OS Standard a.k.a HFS.

• Mac OS Extended format is a hard disk format that increases the number of allocation blocks on the disk and also allows more than 65,000 files on the hard disk. However, Mac OS Extended format optimizes the storage capacity of large hard disks by decreasing the minimum size of a single file.
• MAC OS Standard a.k.a HFS on the other hand does not support file names > 31 chars, it does not support additional meta-information used by Mac OS X, has as limit of 65k allocation blocks, and is more error-prone than HFS+.
• Since the storage efficiency of Mac OS Extended format typically applies to 1 GB or larger volumes, Flash Drives with a capacity below 1 GB may still benefit from the MAC OS Standard format.

What about Journaling?

If journaling is turned on for a disk, Mac OS X maintains a continuous record of changes to files on the disk. If your computer stops because of a power failure or some other issue, Mac OS X uses the journal to recover the hard disk to the last acceptable state before it stopped. However, flash memory has a limit when it comes to how often a memory location can be changed and therefore, Journaling doesn't seem to be the first choice when it comes to Flash-Drives.

Storage Efficiency and Write Speed.

We used a Kingston 1 GB Data-Traveler Flash Drive and performed the following tests with every available format:

• Check available storage capacity after formating
• Copy 5 large files (total 580.4 MB) and 203 small files (total 812 KB) to the flash drive
• Measure transfer speed while coping the large files
• Check used storage after all files were transfered