What file system to format the EXT HDD?

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jonnypb
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What file system to format the EXT HDD?

Post by jonnypb »

Hi,

I have a qnap ts-119 and want to backup my nas to an external 2TB samsung drive. I'll probably just use the built-in backup utility unless someone tells me if there is a better one.

What should I format the EXT HDD as, EXT3, EXT4 or NTFS. I've read that a couple people have said that NTFS is quite slow on ARM based devices?

If I were to format it as EXT3 or EXT4 would I be able to unplug it and read the contents on a windows PC?

Thanks
TonyPh12345
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Re: What file system to format the EXT HDD?

Post by TonyPh12345 »

If you expect to read it NATIVELY on a Windows PC, it must be NTFS. EXT3 and EXT4 are Linux-specific file systems.

There are some Windows utilities "Out There" that can read EXT3/EXT4 filesystems but support for it is dodgy at best.
jonnypb
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Re: What file system to format the EXT HDD?

Post by jonnypb »

TonyPh12345 wrote:If you expect to read it NATIVELY on a Windows PC, it must be NTFS. EXT3 and EXT4 are Linux-specific file systems.

There are some Windows utilities "Out There" that can read EXT3/EXT4 filesystems but support for it is dodgy at best.
OK thanks. I guess my main preference is to format it with a system that will give the best performance and it is purely for backup purposes so if my nas ever dies I can restore onto a new one.

Is there a big performance on a qnap nas between NTFS and EXT4?

Thanks
P3R
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Re: What file system to format the EXT HDD?

Post by P3R »

jonnypb wrote:I guess my main preference is to format it with a system that will give the best performance and it is purely for backup purposes so if my nas ever dies I can restore onto a new one.
If so, Ext 4 is the choice for you.
Is there a big performance on a qnap nas between NTFS and EXT4?
When I tested on my TS-419P it was at least 50 % slower with NTFS compared to Ext 4 when copying a large number of pretty small files. I was pretty surprised by that result as Smallnetbuilder.com claims, that in their testing NTFS is even faster than Ext 3 on Intel-based models.

Then again I'm not sure that speed should be the only focus. When using the backup synchronize function (as I do 98 times out of 100) my incremental backups are finished in a few minutes, so 50 % slower isn't really an issue.
RAID have never ever been a replacement for backups. Without backups on a different system (preferably placed at another site), you will eventually lose data!

A non-RAID configuration (including RAID 0, which isn't really RAID) with a backup on a separate media protects your data far better than any RAID-volume without backup.

All data storage consists of both the primary storage and the backups. It's your money and your data, spend the storage budget wisely or pay with your data!
getlitleye
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Re: What file system to format the EXT HDD?

Post by getlitleye »

Hi,

I have problem i reinstalled Windows and now i use NTFS, but my old HD(MAXTOR) is on FAT32
and there are files what i need, so formatting isn't the right choice, what to do then?
P3R
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Re: What file system to format the EXT HDD?

Post by P3R »

getlitleye wrote:I have problem i reinstalled Windows and now i use NTFS, but my old HD(MAXTOR) is on FAT32
and there are files what i need, so formatting isn't the right choice, what to do then?
Off topic here but simply connect the disk to your Windows computer and read the data from it. Having Windows installed on NTFS doesn't prevent it from still reading FAT-disks.
RAID have never ever been a replacement for backups. Without backups on a different system (preferably placed at another site), you will eventually lose data!

A non-RAID configuration (including RAID 0, which isn't really RAID) with a backup on a separate media protects your data far better than any RAID-volume without backup.

All data storage consists of both the primary storage and the backups. It's your money and your data, spend the storage budget wisely or pay with your data!
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