On Mi, 12 aug 20, 20:14:03, 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? In my opinion using ext2 in 2020 is mostly pointless, beyond the rare situation where some software doesn't support ext4 (e.g. some odd/old bootloader, other OSs, etc.). Because it is getting significantly less use support for it is also more likely to bit rot. As far as I know ext3 is mostly ext2 with journalling added. In comparison ext4 was developed from scratch with journaling and support for other newer techniques, like better allocation of space to prevent fragmentation and improve performance. > (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.) As has been stated already, both btrfs and ZFS have built-in bitrot protections that are very useful for backups and archives. To achieve the same level of protection on ext4 you need additional tools. Kind regards, Andrei -- http://wiki.debian.org/FAQsFromDebianUser
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