BTRFS or EXT4 filesystem for 2TB external drive

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Ockie

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Hi guys. So I want to change my 2TB external drive from NTFS to either BTRFS or EXT4. I have read that BTRFS is much newer than EXT4. What do you guys suggest?
 
I would suggest you stick to NTFS for externals. However if you plan on never moving that drive anywhere and will only ever use it on Linux than use EXT4. BTRFS is still a very young filesystem.
 
exFAT would actually be a better option as it's more compatible across OS's.
 
DrJohnZoidberg said:
I would suggest you stick to NTFS for externals. However if you plan on never moving that drive anywhere and will only ever use it on Linux than use EXT4. BTRFS is still a very young filesystem.
Click to expand...

Nope...only gets used on my Ubuntu machines.
Dankie meneer. Will go with EXT4 then. Best tool to do this is still Gparted?
 
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Ockie said:
Gparted has got a gui though I think that you can install for Ubuntu.
Click to expand...

It does indeed. It should actually be pre-installed already IIRC.

For the record, I also support the ext4 option.
 
Another vote for EXT4. BTRFS is a more advanced file system (even the lead developer of EXT4 says so). The problem though is lack of maturity, as stated above. The EXT4 system has been through a learning curve that means that there is greater confidence in it not corrupting your files. The delayed write issues causing corruption in EXT4 (in 2011 if I remember) highlighted that it was not only the file system that mattered but also the experience of the developers of the distributions that it was incorporated in.
 
If the option is either EXT4 or BTRFS, go with EXT4. EXT4 works well up to 15TB. Thereafter I would go with XFS.

BTRFS is great when you need to manage multiple drives in a fileserver, and need more than just a filesystem. It does however require to be at least always on the latest kernel, which you only really get with Gentoo and Archlinux and derivatives.

My personal choice for externals however is exFAT. Not because its M$, but for compatibility reasons. Easiest filesystem to get to work on all of OSX, Windows and Linux.
 
Ockie said:
Ja. I had to else it would not let me work on it. Options were greyd out untill I unmounted it.
Click to expand...

Sorry, I honestly haven't worked with gparted in ages, cannot remember how it works. Essentially the best thing is to unmount, delete all the current partitions on the disk then create a new partition and select ext4 as filesystem. It should automatically format and everything when you click apply.
 
DrJohnZoidberg said:
Sorry, I honestly haven't worked with gparted in ages, cannot remember how it works. Essentially the best thing is to unmount, delete all the current partitions on the disk then create a new partition and select ext4 as filesystem. It should automatically format and everything when you click apply.
Click to expand...

That is pretty much what I did. Going to boot the live CD and see how it handles the drive to make sure there is not some kind of bugger up with my Ubuntu install.
 
So live cd reads it fine and the disk utility file system check says the disk is fine and smart status reports back as healthy. When I try and mount it on my actual Ubuntu it comes up with this:


Error mounting system-managed device /dev/sdb1: Command-line `mount "/mnt/usb-Seagate_External_2GHP3F06-0:0-part1"' exited with non-zero exit status 32: mount: /dev/sdb1 already mounted or /mnt/usb-Seagate_External_2GHP3F06-0:0-part1 busy
(udisks-error-quark, 0)
 
Ockie said:
So live cd reads it fine and the disk utility file system check says the disk is fine and smart status reports back as healthy. When I try and mount it on my actual Ubuntu it comes up with this:


Error mounting system-managed device /dev/sdb1: Command-line `mount "/mnt/usb-Seagate_External_2GHP3F06-0:0-part1"' exited with non-zero exit status 32: mount: /dev/sdb1 already mounted or /mnt/usb-Seagate_External_2GHP3F06-0:0-part1 busy
(udisks-error-quark, 0)
Click to expand...

Did you format it after creating the partition?

Otherwise update your kernel.
 
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