NTFS fixes many of the Nasty Nasty problems of [FAT32]. It supports long file names properly, has permissions, even has alternative streams for files. [NTFS] like pretty much everyone else now uses zones of data with information about that zone being stored at the beginning or end. 

  

 Linux can read NTFS drives usually, and it can write to them sometimes without completely screwing them up. This situation appears to be improved in the near future as a new developer has stepped forward to work on the [NTFS] driver. Check out the [Linux NTFS Project | http://linux-ntfs.sourceforge.net/]. An intesting stopgap solution is [Captive | http://www.jankratochvil.net/project/captive/], which runs MicrosoftWindows' own __ntfs.sys__ so you get feature complete, safe read/write support for [NTFS] volumes under [Linux].