ext2 vs ext3 on usb-is ext2 better for health of usb?

linus72 · 06-08-2009, 05:06 PM

Meaning, is ext2 a better choice for a usb booting a distro via grub?
I ahve heard that ext3 does alot of read/writes due to journaling.
anyone know?
thanks

DragonSlayer48DX · 06-08-2009, 06:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by linus72

Meaning, is ext2 a better choice for a usb booting a distro via grub?
I ahve heard that ext3 does alot of read/writes due to journaling.
anyone know?
thanks

Yes, EXT3 is a journaling file system, EXT2 is not, and therefore would be better for the USB stick.

Cheers

linus72 · 06-08-2009, 06:31 PM

OK, so everyone Note what it says for USB's in ext2 link above, thanks Dragonslayer48dx.

Quote:

ext2 is still the filesystem of choice for flash-based storage media (such as SD cards, SSDs, and USB flash drives) since its lack of a journal minimizes the number of writes. Flash devices have only a limited number of write cycles.

So, ext3 is a No-No

onebuck · 06-08-2009, 06:45 PM

Hi,

To generally lump that 'SSD' drives will fault is not valid. You need to define the type of 'SSD'. There are more types then Flash based 'SSD' units.

Do some google searches for 'SSD' using different cell types.

linus72 · 06-08-2009, 06:58 PM

I was only really thinking about usb's.
I have two usb's, a 2GB and 4GB Kingston DataTravelers.
I was using ext3 but have now re-formatted it ext2.

syg00 · 06-08-2009, 07:10 PM

There are mount options that limit the writing to disk - especially noatime and nodiratime. Given the safety the journal affords, I would never use ext2 - except for /boot which has almost no updates.
You will probably throw the device away before you wear it out.

DragonSlayer48DX · 06-08-2009, 07:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by syg00

Given the safety the journal affords, I would never use ext2 - except for /boot which has almost no updates.

That may only be a matter of opinion. Can you define the 'safety'? I have PuppyLinux installed to HDD on EXT2- I fail to see the problem.

syg00 · 06-08-2009, 07:26 PM

Follow your ext3 link above to "journaled file system" - read that. Seems a reasonable summation.

DragonSlayer48DX · 06-08-2009, 07:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by syg00

Follow your ext3 link above to "journaled file system" - read that. Seems a reasonable summation.

I must be really old-school; I still depend on back-ups in case of problems.

linus72 · 06-08-2009, 07:43 PM

Being that all my usb's, pc's and my laptop's are basically "test-beds", data is not as important as reliability and durability.
I will stay with ext2 on usb; as it's life is stressful enough-Every download at my site has went thru both my usb's an uncountable amount of times!!

rikxik · 06-08-2009, 10:44 PM

Or you can simply use the ol' FAT32 if you care about reading/writing from both Windows and Linux.

DragonSlayer48DX · 06-08-2009, 11:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rikxik

Or you can simply use the ol' FAT32 if you care about reading/writing from both Windows and Linux.

Hehehehe...

There's a reason why MS dropped FAT32- It was more waste of space than Windows.

Cheers

rikxik · 06-09-2009, 11:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dragonslayer48dx

Hehehehe...

There's a reason why MS dropped FAT32- It was more waste of space than Windows.

Cheers

Storage space is cheap now with even 32Gb usb flash drives prices quite reasonably. Its the flexibility which is priceless.

DragonSlayer48DX · 06-10-2009, 04:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rikxik

Storage space is cheap now with even 32Gb usb flash drives prices quite reasonably. Its the flexibility which is priceless.

True, if you're going to be using the device on both OSes, then FAT32 may be your best 'lame duck' fs. From what I've gathered of Linus72 though, he doesn't do Windows.

Cheers