[KDE] BTRFS has turned much my Home directory into trashcan

[sparxz]

Recently I tried out BTRFS in a reinstall due to problems with SystemD over-run.
I did this as Home directory only, as could not install BTRFS as the root system.

Wish I hadn't, as I was warned not to. EXT4 was working fine, and I should have been more grateful !!!

90% of my Home user files including hidden, are now gone.
This is my bigget data loss in years. My last back up was about seven days ago,
before I did the re-install.

Doing a backup now of remaing intact files.

This will be my second major down-time in a week, when I have to create a new Home directory in EXT4,
and move data back. I have lost alot of work files.

BTRFS seemed to work better many years ago when I used it on SUSE.
I may use ZFS when it is more mature-accessable on Linux.

This is my current partition setup.
https://imgur.com/aBIGM90
<a href="https://imgur.com/aBIGM90"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/aBIGM90.jpg" title="source: imgur.com" /></a>

I have just read thread https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showth...st-home-folder
and can say my /mnt/ is empty.

Any thoughts before I resize Partitions ?

Thanks

[Snowhog]

I'm saying this, not to pour salt into your wound, but for any others who read this thread.

Before making ANY MAJOR changes to ones system, ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS, create an offline (to external media) backup BEFORE HAND. PERIOD.

[sparxz]

You are right to say this.

And thats, exaclty what I did, made an off-line external media backup.

I used to work for a company, that made me leave every evening with
the physical daily back-up, weekly back-up, and monthly back-up tapes.

My 'mistake' today was not having a daily back up for myself, to limit damage.
I have lost a week of work. This 'never' happned me with EXT3 or EXT4,
and rarely with NTFS, as I had some tools for even partial recovery.
I also once had a catastrophic loss of data(same as today) with XFS.

It seems that what BTRFS and XFS have in common, 'no warning', and 90% or total loss of data.
NTFS often gives warning, and a chance to interviene.
I have not used XFS all these years later, and I will not risk BTRFS again, even with
a daily back-up fall back. Even back-ups fail.
Happned me too many years ago, and blissfuly unaware until I needed to recover backup.

[oshunluvr]

I've been using BTRFS since tools version 0.19. like eight-ten years, as have others here. I've never lost a bit of data using BTRFS unless it was related to user error. Furthermore, your inability to install BTRFS for your system install along with the other problems you are having indicates the problem is not likely the file system you're using but either a lack of understanding of what your attempting to do or how BTRFS works, or some other issues.

I currently have a 20 TB server, a performance desktop machine, and a laptop, all using BTRFS in one fashion or another without flaws. Using automatic snapshots, backups, and having 8 different distros all installed to a single BTRFS file system is a small part of what I do with BTRFS that isn't even possible with any other file system.

Obviously, Linux is about freedom of choice and you're free to use or not use any file system you choose, but in my opinion your assessment of BTRFS being the root cause of your problem is incorrect.

In answer to your initial question

Any thoughts before I resize Partitions ?

Yes. Backup your data, plan your partitions carefully, then leave it be. Resizing partitions is one of the most deadly file system activities and one of the many advantages of using BTRFS and subvolumes. Subvolumes all share partition space without resizing and potentially wrecking your drive - no need to partition at all.

Good luck.

[Thomas00]

@sparzx, can you add a bit more detail to how this happend? Think It may be a good idea to dig into this some more because if it’s not file system related the same thing may happen to you again on ext4 or whatever you chose next.

[GreyGeek]

Recently I tried out BTRFS in a reinstall due to problems with SystemD over-run.
I did this as Home directory only, as could not install BTRFS as the root system.

I've never heard of "Systemd overruns", but be that as it may, who told you that attempting to install BTRFS using only @home and not @ was a good idea?
Exactly WHAT prevented you from selecting "BTRFS" as the file system and "/" as the root?