PsyhackologicalAug 8, 2024

What file systems are you using on your devices and why?

https://lemmy.ml/post/18929658

What file systems are you using on your devices and why? - Lemmy

I want to learn more about file systems from the practical point of view so I know what to expect, how to approach them and what experience positive or negative you had / have. I found this wikipedia’s comparison but I want your hands-on views. For now my mental list is - NTFS - for some reason TVs on USB love these and also Windows + Linux can read and write this - Ext4 - solid fs with journaling but Linux specific - Btrfs - some modern fs with snapshot capability, Linux specific - xfs - servers really like these as they are performant, Linux specific - FAT32 - limited but recognizable everywhere - exFAT - like FAT32 but less recognizable and less limited

Show threadhenfredemarsAug 8, 2024

I care a lot about filesystems.

BTRFS in FS-managed RAID configuration for automatic self-healing and snapshots for instant automated backups (though I keep a traditional backup too for protection against bugs and user error).

Storage is cheap compared to how much I value my data. BTRFS has very good support on Linux, integration with some backup tools, and I really want to use a FS that has full data checksums to make sure the data stays correct at rest. I like that I don’t have to use equal sized drives and can use whatever I have available, though I would appreciate a better read distribution model rather than the current number than where it just chooses a random drive to read from when multiple copies are available.

Disadvantages include difficulty accessing from Windows in my experience, less than stellar performance on HDDs, not very space efficient for small files systems because of the bulky metadata, and some uncommon RAID types don’t work correctly and will eat your data. I also don’t recommend it for use of USB because many such devices don’t correctly implement sync, and this is very important to stay on the correct transaction number and prevent file system inconsistencies. If I had to boot from USB, I wouldn’t pick BTRFS.

I don’t think exFAT or FAT32 offer POSIX permissions. I’m not sure if you could have a file system there.

Show thread_thebrain_Aug 8, 2024

Have you seen/tried github.com/maharmstone/btrfs ?

I have heard it is decent but have never had a need to try it.

GitHub - maharmstone/btrfs: WinBtrfs - an open-source btrfs driver for Windows

WinBtrfs - an open-source btrfs driver for Windows - maharmstone/btrfs

GitHub
Show threadhenfredemarsAug 9, 2024
Yes I have and it caused file system corruption the two times I tried it. Something wasn’t quite right.
Show thread_thebrain_
Good to know. I know a couple of people in the steam deck world who dual boot windows and steamos and have their games on a btrfs partition that use it so they don’t need games installed twice … I have no desire to do this so I have never tried.
Aug 9, 2024 at 2:07amWeb
Show threadhenfredemarsAug 9, 2024
It’s possible I was just unlucky, but data corruption makes it harder for me to sleep at night. I choose to be a little more conservative and consider that tool beta quality.