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Re: Recommendation for filesystem for USB external drive for backups

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On 8/12/20 5:14 PM, rhkramer@gmail.com wrote:
> I'm getting closer to setting up a consistent backup plan, backing up to an
> external USB drive.  I'm wondering about a reasonable filesystem to use, I
> think I want to stay in the ext2/3/4 family, and I'm wondering if there is any
> good reason to use anything beyond ext2?
> 
> (Some day I'll try ZFS or BTRFS for my "system" filesystems, but don't see any
> point (and don't want to learn) either of them at this point -- I don't see
> much need for a backup filesystem.)
> 
> But, I'll listen to opinions ;-)

Without knowing anything about your resources, needs, expectations, 
"consistent backup plan", etc., and given the choices ext2, ext3, or 
ext4 for an external USB drive presumably to store backup repositories, 
I would also pick ext4.


But, none of the ext* filesystems have bit rot protection.  btrfs and 
ZFS do.


btrfs is supported by the Debian Installer.  I used btrfs for Debian 
system disks for several years.  I discovered too late that btrfs 
requires routine maintenance (to balance its binary trees?).  The disks 
got progressively slower and software started misbehaving.  Notably, 
Thunderbird began losing messages when moving them from an IMAP folder 
to a local folder (!).  I went back to ext4 for my Debian system disks.


Due to GPL and CDDL license conflicts, Debian does not support ZFS OOTB. 
  Notably, the Debian Installer lacks support for ZFS.  (Some brave and 
skilled people have figured out how to install Debian with ZFS on root; 
STFW for details.)  There is a 'contrib' ZFS kernel package available 
that can be installed on a working Debian system.  This makes it 
possible to use ZFS for most everything except boot and root.  ZFS is 
mature and reliable.  I use ZFS for FreeBSD system disks, file server 
live data, backups, archives, and images.  Migrating to ZFS was 
non-trivial, and I am still wresting with disaster preparedness.


David

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Recommendation for filesystem for USB external drive for backups rhkramer@gmail.com - 2020-08-13 02:20 +0200
  Re: Recommendation for filesystem for USB external drive for backups Keith Bainbridge <keithrbaugroups@gmail.com> - 2020-08-13 02:40 +0200
  Re: Recommendation for filesystem for USB external drive for backups Ben Caradoc-Davies <ben@transient.nz> - 2020-08-13 03:00 +0200
    Re: Recommendation for filesystem for USB external drive for backups <tomas@tuxteam.de> - 2020-08-13 11:00 +0200
  Re: Recommendation for filesystem for USB external drive for backups Mark Allums <maa@allums.com> - 2020-08-13 03:20 +0200
  Re: Recommendation for filesystem for USB external drive for  backups Charles Curley <charlescurley@charlescurley.com> - 2020-08-13 05:20 +0200
    Re: Recommendation for filesystem for USB external drive for backups <tomas@tuxteam.de> - 2020-08-13 11:00 +0200
  Re: Recommendation for filesystem for USB external drive for backups David Christensen <dpchrist@holgerdanske.com> - 2020-08-13 10:40 +0200
    Re: Recommendation for filesystem for USB external drive for backups Tom Dial <tddial@comcast.net> - 2020-08-13 20:10 +0200
      Re: Recommendation for filesystem for USB external drive for backups rhkramer@gmail.com - 2020-08-13 22:00 +0200
        Re: Recommendation for filesystem for USB external drive for backups David Christensen <dpchrist@holgerdanske.com> - 2020-08-13 22:20 +0200
          Re: Recommendation for filesystem for USB external drive for backups Greg Wooledge <wooledg@eeg.ccf.org> - 2020-08-13 22:40 +0200
            Re: Recommendation for filesystem for USB external drive for backups Dan Ritter <dsr@randomstring.org> - 2020-08-13 23:00 +0200
              Re: Recommendation for filesystem for USB external drive for backups ghe2001 <ghe2001@protonmail.com> - 2020-08-13 23:40 +0200
                Re: Recommendation for filesystem for USB external drive for backups Jonathan Dowland <jon+debian-user@dow.land> - 2020-08-14 11:40 +0200
                Re: Recommendation for filesystem for USB external drive for backups <tomas@tuxteam.de> - 2020-08-14 12:00 +0200
          Re: Recommendation for filesystem for USB external drive for backups rhkramer@gmail.com - 2020-08-14 03:30 +0200
            Re: Recommendation for filesystem for USB external drive for backups David Christensen <dpchrist@holgerdanske.com> - 2020-08-14 07:10 +0200
        Re: Recommendation for filesystem for USB external drive for backups Tom Dial <tddial@comcast.net> - 2020-08-14 04:50 +0200
    Re: Recommendation for filesystem for USB external drive for backups David Christensen <dpchrist@holgerdanske.com> - 2020-08-20 00:10 +0200
      Re: Recommendation for filesystem for USB external drive for backups Ben Caradoc-Davies <ben@transient.nz> - 2020-08-20 01:40 +0200
        Re: Recommendation for filesystem for USB external drive for backups Michael Stone <mstone@debian.org> - 2020-08-20 04:20 +0200
  Re: Recommendation for filesystem for USB external drive for  backups local10 <local10@tutanota.com> - 2020-08-13 21:50 +0200
  Re: Recommendation for filesystem for USB external drive for backups Andrei POPESCU <andreimpopescu@gmail.com> - 2020-08-14 07:30 +0200
    Re: Recommendation for filesystem for USB external drive for backups David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2020-08-14 17:40 +0200
      Re: Recommendation for filesystem for USB external drive for backups Andrei POPESCU <andreimpopescu@gmail.com> - 2020-08-15 13:00 +0200

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