Linux, Fat32, & Defrag

[soulestream]

Background: I have a 250gGB external harddrive hooked to my linux server. It is formatted fat32 because while 90% of the time it is hooked to the server as a backup, the other 10% of time its being used to backup peoples computers I am working on. (Windows). FAT32 gives my the flexability I need without having to setup extra software on the windows PC to see the drive.

I know linux handles files very well and doesnt need defragmenting.
Many of the files written to the drive are done by Windows.

Question.

1. As linux doesnt handle writing to the drive sometimes, do I need to defragment the drive every now and then or does it somehow fix it.

2. If i defragment it with Windows(or another tool) is it going to mess up Linux reading the drive?

I imagine the second question will be NO, but i just wanted to make sure


soule

[dkeav]

fragmentation on "non-system" drives is not a problem, so dont worry about it

[Modorf]

Fat32 is fat32. using a windows defrag on the drive is safe.

[lugoteehalt]

Here's a good defrag programme:
http://potentproducts.com/download/ms/windowsme.html

[Sepero]

Perhaps you could consider changing it to a Linux FS(definitely journaled). You could just as easily backup other peoples HD's with a LiveCD.

[Calipso]

Perhaps you could consider changing it to a Linux FS(definitely journaled). You could just as easily backup other peoples HD's with a LiveCD.

hmm....why didnt I think of that. I have a spare hdd using fat32 in order to be able to back peoples stuff up. Formatting it as EXT3 and then keeping a small cd with DSL on it around sounds like a great idea!

[soulestream]

thats a great idea, till DSL or another live cd doesnt reconize your USB ports. :rolleyes:

Which happens quite abit on Dell's for some reason.

you could go through the process of setting them up, but fat32 is just faster/easier in that case.

soule

[Sepero]

thats a great idea, till DSL or another live cd doesnt reconize your USB ports. :rolleyes:

Which happens quite abit on Dell's for some reason.You mean you're not usin good ol' parallel ports? ;)



you could go through the process of setting them up, but fat32 is just faster/easier in that case.Now are you saying that the LiveCD doesn't *recognize* the USB ports -or- that it doesn't automatically set them up for you?

If it's the latter, you could create a script to take care of it for you. It would be worth it to switch to ext3.

Remember, lose the customers data once == lose the customer forever.

(Then again, what do I know...)

[Calipso]

sorry to dig up a thread thats a few months old but I think its better than starting a new thread on the same topic.

fragmentation on "non-system" drives is not a problem, so dont worry about it
Now whats considered as a "non-system" drive?? Obviously a portable hdd would count. Should I worry about fragmentation on a vFAT partition on my main hdd on my linux desktop?? I dual-boot and therefore use one big vfat partition as a partition that I can use in both Operating Systems...winxp and linux.

I just started thinking about this today.

[Sepero]

Now whats considered as a "non-system" drive??Nothing, and that quote doesn't mean much of anything. I don't know why he even said that.

Any native Linux filesystem(ext2/3, reiserfs) will take care of fragmentation itself. I don't know if Linux manages FAT systems as well though.

[serz]

You actually fragment a partition, not the harddisk itself..

[jamesbandido]

this may sound so noob, but why does linux doesnt require a defrag ?

[happybunny]

http://geekblog.oneandoneis2.org/index.php/2006/08/17/why_doesn_t_linux_need_defragmenting

it doesn't write data to the disk in a "fragmenting" way.

[jamesbandido]

@happybunny, thank you for the link ... it was quite a long read but it was very much well worth it ...

have a nice weekend !!!

[Satanic Atheist]

Linux filesystems such as Ext3 and ReiserFS shift data around the drive to minimize fragmentation (they actively defrag themselves as the disk is being used). NTFS is also supposed to do the same and shouldn't require defragging (but we all know it does).

Fragmentation of a partition isn't as much of a problem as it used to be. I remember one occasion when I couldn't install a program (I think it was a game) because the partition was "too fragmented". I still don't understand what difference that's going to make...

Windows has "system" files that cannot be moved during a defrag, but does Linux have the same problem? I suspect that Linux won't care what gets shifted around (example - "rm -rf /" won't bring the machine to it's knees, it'll just be less than useful).

Anyway, as for the backup system, a friend of mine runs a computer shop nearby and most of his work is backing up and reinstalling Windows. His method is to use two large hard disks fitted into his main computer in a RAID-1 mirror configuration (as Sepero said, lose the data and lose the customer forever). When he gets a machine to reinstall, he takes out the hard drive and connects it physically to his machine (usually on a USB-IDE connector but without an external caddy) and then dd's the information across. Once the backup is verified, the drive is wiped with dd and it's reinstalled. The image that he created can be mounted on a loopback device and then stuff copied back over either via the network, by DVDs or removing the hard drive once it's reinstalled and connecting it back to his machine. He's never lost a customer's data this way and he has to do this several times a week.

James