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    #1

    Best filesystem for Backup Drive?

    Hi

    My brother in law has kindly given me a nearly new Seagate Freeagent 500 Gb drive, that he can't seem to get working properly with Windows 7. I'm going to use it for backup purposes only. It's currently formatted as ntfs which I believe is not appropriate for a linux backup drive.

    My question is though which one is the best one. On the assumption that journalling won't be important (or is it?) then I'm thinking ext2. However I wonder whether there are any advantages in using ext3 or ext4. Would appreciate some thoughts on this.

    Thanks

    ian
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    #2
    Re: Best filesystem for Backup Drive?

    I'm not sure it matters a lot. One could argue that a power loss is possible on a backup drive same as a system drive, therefore ext4 is justified. On the other hand, if that happened, you probably would not rely on the journal for data recovery, you would just delete everything and make a new backup. So maybe ext2 makes good sense here. There's certainly no reason to use ext3 for a new filesystem, ext4 is definitely improved if you opt to have journalling. If you do use ext4, you can reduce the "overhead" space that is reserved by default, since there is no system on the drive to make use of it.

    Code:
    sudo tune2fs -m 0 /dev/sdx1
    where "0" is the new reserved space.
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      #3
      Re: Best filesystem for Backup Drive?

      Well, for me, and I only have Linux on my laptops, and both are using ext4, I opt to format the backup drive to the same FS that I'm using - ext4. BTW, I have a Seagate 'Go' 500GB USB HD. I like it a lot.
      Windows no longer obstructs my view.
      Using Kubuntu Linux since March 23, 2007.
      "It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data." - Sherlock Holmes​
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        #4
        Re: Best filesystem for Backup Drive?

        Thanks for the input.

        I went for ext2 (although this was before I saw Snowhog's reply ).
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          #5
          Re: Best filesystem for Backup Drive?

          I would comment that it depends on the nature of your backups. If you're doing a full file-to-file copy you want a format with good multi-file performance and journalling lie ext4 or reiserfs. If your backing up using large containers (tarballs whatever...) XFS might be better...

          Please Read Me
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            #6
            Re: Best filesystem for Backup Drive?

            Basically I'll be backing up my home partition and saving backup copies of the camcorder movies I have made.
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              #7
              Re: Best filesystem for Backup Drive?

              reiserfs was once the best-performing Linux fileystem available, but due to the demise of Reiser and Namesys, and the lack of dedicated maintenance in succeeding years, I can't recommend it for new filesystems.

              http://arstechnica.com/old/content/2...-to-corpse.ars

              Even before Hans Reiser went off to the Big House, he had declared reiser3 in maintenance mode and was pushing reiser4:

              http://lwn.net/Articles/202780/

              One guy patched it to get it past the 2.6.39 kernel which drops the Big Kernel Lock:

              http://www.linux-magazine.com/Online...ig-Kernel-Lock

              But it looks to be on life support at this time. IMHO.
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                #8
                Re: Best filesystem for Backup Drive?

                I've used reiserfs for years without a single issue. Can't say the same for ext3 which basically sucks - slow and unreliable. Ext4 is better than ext3 and if you take the time to maximize performance by setting proper options, it can be faster than reiserfs. BTW, ext4 was intended as a interim filesystem until they could come up with something better (come on btrfs!). I avoid Ext4 for a long time because of that. At least reiserfs is stable - like 10 years stable now! I switched to ext4 only when I got my first SSD.

                Mostly now I use ext2 for boot partitions, ext4 on my SSDs, XFS for large file storage, and btrfs for everything else. There are a few reiserfs partitions "floating" around on some of my computers just because there's no reason to re-format them, but I agree reiserfs is getting long-in-the-tooth.

                Please Read Me
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                  #9
                  Re: Best filesystem for Backup Drive?

                  I also had good luck with a JFS filesystem for a 64-bit OS (JFS is native 64-bit code, and a very low CPU user). I ran a Debian OS on it for 2+ years with zero issues. I tried running a Linux OS (Kubuntu with a large Windows VM) on an XFS filesystem and it fell apart in 6 months, so XFS is best reserved for your partition where you keep the videos, according to my experience.

                  Most of my data are on my 2-drive btrfs filesystem, which shows no issues of any kind after running 9 or 10 months. For the SSDs, I use ext4 and turn the journalling frequency way down with the "commit=xxx" option -- usually 120 which is 2 minutes. The SSD in my EeePC is 3 years old now, but admittedly doesn't get frequent use. The SSD in my Toshiba NB205 is a little over one year old now, and it gets multiple workouts per week. And the RevoDrive SSD in my desktop is also 9 months old, and runs pretty close to 24/7. On one partition of the RevoDrive is my Debian OS, and on the other partition is a big Win 7 VM, and that one gets used multiple times per week too.

                  (I suppose now that I wrote this something is about to break ..... )
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                    #10
                    Re: Best filesystem for Backup Drive?

                    Originally posted by oshunluvr
                    come on btrfs!
                    FWIW, I did a quick install of Oneiric alpha 3 on my netbook the other day. Ubiquity now allows you to put /boot on a btrfs partition, yay!
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                      #11
                      Re: Best filesystem for Backup Drive?

                      Originally posted by oshunluvr
                      ...but I agree reiserfs is getting long-in-the-tooth.
                      Ya think? Reiserfs is a 'dead' FS. No development on it has taken place since the developer was convicted of murdering his wife and was sentanced to 15 years to life. To my knowledge, Hans Reiser has never released his source code for others to maintain, which many wish he would, as the reiserfs FS seems to be one of the best Linux FS to have been developed.
                      Windows no longer obstructs my view.
                      Using Kubuntu Linux since March 23, 2007.
                      "It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data." - Sherlock Holmes​
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                        #12
                        Re: Best filesystem for Backup Drive?

                        At the time, reiserfs was so far ahead of the others it was staggering.

                        Now, not so much.

                        Although "dead" in the sense that latin is dead - meaning no longer under development, but still used.

                        One can only imagine how far reiser4 would have taken us, but btrfs is awesome. I was actually in the process of building my server using Solaris so I could use zfs when I discovered btrfs.

                        I have been using btrfs daily for about 18 months.

                        Please Read Me
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                          #13
                          Re: Best filesystem for Backup Drive?

                          Originally posted by oshunluvr
                          I have been using btrfs daily for about 18 months.
                          What are the advantages/disadvantages of btrfs vs ext4? I've been very happy with ext4 - no issues of any kind using it.
                          Windows no longer obstructs my view.
                          Using Kubuntu Linux since March 23, 2007.
                          "It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data." - Sherlock Holmes​
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                            #14
                            Re: Best filesystem for Backup Drive?

                            I would say that the only serious advantage of btrfs is with larger multi-drive filesystems -- that's where it really shines. For example, I installed a pair of WD1002 (1T) drives on a Marvell SATA 3 controller, and then installed a btrfs filesystem directly on the devices (no partitions). In this configuration, the metadata are mirrored on the two drives, but the data are striped in RAID 0 fashion. oshunluvr installed his btrfs across 3 or 4 partitions on different hard drives. btrfs allows you to add or remove a partition while the filesystem is mounted. Stuff like that.
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                              #15
                              Re: Best filesystem for Backup Drive?

                              Yeah, I think a lot of it's features are intended for multi-drive systems. On my desktop (was 4, now 3) 4x500gb hard drives and I used RAID0 for performance and RAID5 for some performance with some data safety. All was well for a long time bit as soon as you want to add or subtract a drive or move some partitions around or (the big one) re-size something, you have to take all your data down, delete the RAID, re-configure, and restore your data.

                              With btrfs, I can "delete" or add a partition from/to the array on the fly with the array still mounted! Pretty amazing really. You supposedly (I haven't tried it) can re-size the filesystem and shrink or grow the partition.

                              One issue btrfs has is it doesn't handle vastly different partition sizes well in an array. I have a server with 2x1tb and 2x2tb drives. If I wanted a single device I from all 4 drives I would end up with only 4TB available. But, I need only partition the two larger drives into 1TB partitions, create a 6 device array and voila, 6TB device. LVM can do this but it's not nearly as easy to use and btrfs has built-in error checking.

                              My actual server set-up is way more complicated than a single 6TB device, but you get the idea.

                              There are some benefits even in a single drive system. You can create subvolumes and snapshots and other fun tricks.

                              http://www.funtoo.org/wiki/BTRFS_Fun

                              Please Read Me
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