Reformat NTFS drive or use Paragon NTFS 14?

[pjny]

Hi,

I am reorganizing my archive of family photos/data on 500gb-1.5TB 3.5" drives from back when I was using Windows.

Drives from 2000-2010 were formatted NTFS(and a few were ExFaT) and I am wondering if I should leave them as they are or reformatting them as OS X Extended (Journaled). I can upgrade to Paragon NTFS 14 from 12 to edit data on the drives but I would feel better using native formatted drives on Sierra and beyond.

Will there be any benefit to formatting in OS X Extended (Journaled) vs keeping them on NTFS/Exfat? Someone mentioned Apple formatted drive is better in case of improper shutdowns. Or should I wait and reformat for when APFS comes out?

I have about 30 TB of data from 2000-2016.

any advice on consolidating all this data for easy, one device access? I looked into Synology NAS and g-tech xl(too expensive).

thanks.

 

[Kissmyne]

I mainly use ExFAT formatted drives since I often alternate between macOS and Windows, which both are able to read natively.

I don't really utilize unsupported filesystems on an OS, thus as effective as Paragon NTFS has been known to be, I don't personally suggest that for that particular reason.

Formatting in HFS+ allows for you to utilize Time Machine for backups(if desired), as well as other filesystem depended apps(HFS+ utilizes resource forks that the other two do not so some MAC ONLY apps will not function correctly without HFS+). Read support for HFS+ in windows is buggy at best.. so only use this in a Mac Only setup.