[sf-lug] filesystem for a 3TB external USB drive

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Josh Greenland (joshuag1 at mindspring.com):

> I don't know why EXT2 has even been mentioned as a possibility.

If I recall correctly the context in which a couple of other posters
mentioned it, it was always either 'ext2/ext3' or in a context making
likely that the writer meant 'the filesystem that is variously known as
ext2 or ext3 depending on whether you use it with or without a journal'.

> Unlike maybe just about all the other file systems people are
> talking about in this thread, it's not a journaled file system,
> which I understand to mean that it would be a lot more likely to be
> corrupted if it's shut down in a bad way, for instance power is cut
> off before dismounting.  I wouldn't even consider it.

Then, there are use cases you probably haven't yet considered.

:r /etc/fstab


# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
proc            /proc           proc    defaults        0       0
/dev/sda7       /               ext3    defaults,errors=remount-ro 0       1
/dev/sda1       /boot           ext2    defaults        0       2
/dev/md3        /home           ext3    defaults        0       2
/dev/sda8       /recovery       ext3    defaults        0       2
/dev/sda9       /usr            ext2    nodev,ro        0       2
/dev/md4        /usr/local      ext3    defaults        0       2
/dev/sda6       /var            ext2    noatime,nodev,nosuid 0       2
/dev/md1        /var/lib        ext3    nodev           0       2
/dev/md2        /var/spool      ext3    defaults        0       2
/dev/md0        /var/www        ext3    nodev,nosuid    0       2
/dev/sda5       none            swap    sw              0       0
/dev/sdb8       none            swap    sw              0       0
/dev/sdc8       none            swap    sw              0       0
/dev/hda        /media/cdrom0   udf,iso9660 user,noauto     0       0


On this server, the /boot, and /usr filesystems are normally
mounted read-only.  /var is mounted read-write but, by the inherent
nature of its contents, is (other than the three carveouts listed lower)
dispensible.  As with the noatime mount option on the /var mount, I get
a premium of significantly increased mass-storage performance: the ext2
filesystem is an extremely fast one.