[kwlug-disc] USB key filesystem for backups

[Paul Nijjar]

On Fri, Aug 05, 2011 at 05:58:13PM -0400, Kyle Spaans wrote:
> 2011/8/5 Paul Nijjar <paul_nijjar at yahoo.ca>:
> > I played around with JFSS2 formatting and gave up. I did not want to
> > use FAT. So I ended up using ext3, which is bad because it will kill
> > my USB key sooner.
> 
> Hmm? I think you may be the victim of a misunderstanding. :) 

I am the victim of many misunderstandings.

> JFFS2 is a "flash memory filesystem", but your "USB Flash Memory
> Key" is not one of these. See
> http://www.linux-mtd.infradead.org/faq/general.html#L_mtd_vs_hdd.

That was a helpful link. Thank you. I also found this helpful: 

http://www.linux-mtd.infradead.org/doc/ubifs.html#L_raw_vs_ftl


> Sure, the same kind of NAND Flash memory is used deep inside of your
> USB key, but the layer on top of that does the wear leveling etc that
> JFFS2 tries to accomplish for raw Flash memory.
> 
> > What should I use to format this key? How should I do it?
> 
> ext[234]

>From reading the links above, it sounds to me like if my USB key is
not doing a good job of wear-levelling, then I could indeed be killing
my USB key sooner by using ext3 (with its fixed journal) rather than ext2.
Is that a true statement, or am I playing the victim card again?

- Paul

-- 
http://pnijjar.freeshell.org