Big hard drive, which format to use? (ext3 or ext4)

joe.pelayo · #1 10th March 2009, 02:14 AM

Hello everybody.

Today I bought a large external hard drive (Seagate FreeAgent Drive) with 750GB of storage space. I've decided to make two partitions on it, a 60GB NTFS (in case someone plugs it in a Windows machine), and the rest will go in another huge partition. I am not sure, however, which file format to use.

Should I use ext3 or ext4? What are the advantages? (I've read there are some performance improvements) Any bad experience with ext4 here?

Since most of you are knowledgeable about these things I considered it best to ask here.

Thanks.
Joe.

PatMcLJr · #2 10th March 2009, 02:22 AM

I'll chime in here even though I know squat about it.

for the same reasons, what are you going to plug it into? If you want to say move some stuff over to Mint, or Slackware or whatever, will it have the new and greatest file format ext4 I think that is?

If it's only going to be used with your box then whatever flavor you like. I think fedora uses xfs now. My 2 cents, I might put a fat32 on there and a big ext3 so it has it all and is very portable.

blind fold on, OK fire away,
Pat Jr.

joe.pelayo · #3 10th March 2009, 03:26 AM

I guess I'll make it ext4. Since my Fedora 10 boxes will be the only ones to access it I guess I am in the safe side.

I'll 'physically' install it in my desk (have to move around some things), so any second thoughts are appreciated.

Thanks.
Joe.

Astrals · #4 22nd March 2009, 02:44 PM

I use ext4 for some of my external hd's and I have found it as everyone tells you faster and just as reliable.
Also I just backed up my internal drive and the so called up to 60 second wait for my systems does not happen.
Plus you can also format your old USB sticks to ext4.
I'll be using ext4 now for all my data + some crypto work for some drives.
Hope this helps.

aleph · #5 22nd March 2009, 02:48 PM

EXT4 is not prime time yet. There are still rough edges to be cleared. If all you want is reliable storage, just go with the tried-and-true solutions.

http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl.../03/19/1730247

Jake · #6 22nd March 2009, 03:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aleph

EXT4 is not prime time yet. There are still rough edges to be cleared. If all you want is reliable storage, just go with the tried-and-true solutions.

http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl.../03/19/1730247

Great, I find this out after I just installed a new internal HDD formatted to ext4, and copied over 100GB of data to it

(Though it was quick, copied over 100GB of data at roughly 45MB/s from one drive to another. (SATA1))

aleph · #7 23rd March 2009, 02:25 AM

The nature of that "data loss bug" in EXT4 is still debated. Some say the users/developers are not yet ready for EXT4 while others say EXT4 is a premature filesystem. Anyway, as long as there is a debate, I don't think EXT4 is OK to go for general use.

joe.pelayo · #8 23rd March 2009, 03:40 AM

Hi guys.

To start with, thanks for your replies. As of now the HDD is already formatted as ext4 and has my data on it.

Frankly I can't appreciate a difference in performance due to the file system, however I haven't had any problem, so I am OK with it. Considering I don't use it for any fancy application (just storage purposes), I can't imagine the problems that 'could' arise.

Thanks.
Joe.

ararunprasad · #9 23rd March 2009, 09:35 AM

hi,this arun.. I was encountered a problem while working with fedora 9. fedora 9 is unable to work with my laptops touch pad.It is working well but unable to use the left click on my touch pad..

Jake · #10 23rd March 2009, 11:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ararunprasad

hi,this arun.. I was encountered a problem while working with fedora 9. fedora 9 is unable to work with my laptops touch pad.It is working well but unable to use the left click on my touch pad..

This is were you need to post about your issue

.

Also, may need to provide a bit more information there.

mrwinkee · #11 1st April 2009, 03:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aleph

The nature of that "data loss bug" in EXT4 is still debated. Some say the users/developers are not yet ready for EXT4 while others say EXT4 is a premature filesystem. Anyway, as long as there is a debate, I don't think EXT4 is OK to go for general use.

Will the user on a clean install have a choice between ext3 and ext4? Based on the discussions I have read there does not seem to be a consensus as to the safety of ext4.

Besides I hear there will be a new filesystem from Oracle coming soon. I think it is called btrfs or something like that.

***Firewing1*** · #12 1st April 2009, 03:28 AM

While it does look promising, I wouldn't hold my breath just yet: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Btrfs
It was supposed to be finalized last year and it's still under heavy development.

Jake · #13 1st April 2009, 02:02 PM

Well, in 10 years none of the newer Linux people, or windows or unix ppl will care about file systems

as they'll be used to having everything saved in a cloud, though I refuse to had all my stuff in a cloud rather than here.

Then btrfs will be done..

and not used

mauser1891 · #14 17th April 2009, 07:07 AM

I use ext3 on my WD MyBook (1T) since the oem fat32 didn't support files larger than 4g.
It's my files, I don't support any microsoft file systems. Only linux.