Re: Can't Defrag Ext3 File System
On 5/22/05, Leonard Chatagnier <lenc@ruralcomm.com> wrote:
> Adam Fabian wrote:
>
> >On 5/20/05, Leonard Chatagnier <lenc@ruralcomm.com> wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> >>more than 5 months old and has never been defragged but I'm still very
> >>much a newbie.
> >>
> >>
> >
> >It's very unlikely that your filesystem needs defragmenting after 5
> >months. As other have already noted, ext3 isn't prone to
> >fragmentation. I wasn't even aware there was an ext2 defragmenting
> >utility, though. The traditional solution would be to use
> >dump/restore.
> >
> >
> >
> Ahhhh! That sounds like something that will read the hard drive and
> write back each file to the drive in a
> contiguous manner removing lost drive space something akin to MS
> defrag. Am I correct in my assumption?
> After scanning man dumpe2fs, I see mention of tune2fs and still wonder
> if I have to remove some ext3 fs features
> in order to run dump2fs on an ext3 fs. Do I? There were a couple more
> dump programs, dump2 and dump, I believe were the names. From the man,
> I believe you mean the dump2fs as it mentions ext3 in it. Am I correct
> here?
> If use of dump/restore is safe besides being the traditional solution,
> I'd be grad to try it out. Is it relatively safe for
> a newbie to use? Are there options I should use to assure not screwing
> up my HD?
> Thanks for your response and for seeing my request to copy my email
> address. It makes my response much easier to do.
> Leonard Chatagnier
Well, I trust *BSD's dump/restore completely. (I know more about *BSD
than Linux.) When I say "traditional," I mean that it's what UNIX
system administrators did on those extremely rare occasions when
fragmentation became a problem. I know a guy that used to do it on to
big reels of tape. Under Linux, I might be inclined to use GNU tar,
mke2fs, and untar the the files back onto the filesystem.
It's a waste of time with 4.5% fragmentation, though. I don't even
think Windows utilities recommend you defragment with less than 10%
fragmentation, as a rule. (Though the filesystems are dissimilar
enough that I don't necessarily mean to imply that I know a comparison
of this sort is relevant.)
--
Adam Fabian
(awfabian@gmail.com)
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