Which filesystem to use?

  • Hey fellows,


    some time ago I was usinf OMV with ext (think it was 4, can'T remember). But when I crashed my OS I was unable to recover files by another linux system. So I had to use a backup of the OS to recover all my data.
    To avoid this, I'd like to know which filesystem is recommended on OMV3 right now.
    I'd prefer NTFS or exFat, as Windows supports this out of the box. But I've read it might slow down OMV.
    So is there any filesystem that's supportet by OMV, and Windows natively?


    Or shall I use ext4 and install ext4 drivers on Windows 10 in case of me crashing my OS, again? ;)

    • Offizieller Beitrag

    That is very strange that another linux system couldn't read an ext4 partition unless it was part of a raid array that wouldn't start. ext4 is the default filesystem. I wouldn't trust using Windows to read a Linux filesystem.

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  • Well I didn't have a raid system in use. Even a fresh installation of OMV couldn'T help in that case. But using an old backup helped.
    I just want to make sure I'll still have access to my data when my OS crashes ;)


    So which filesystem would you guys recomment?

  • no file system will help if your raid crushes, unless it is a raid1 or raid 10 setup , than you can still start up raid in degrade mode using what ever usable drive(s) you have left.
    any other raid-levels are tricky or impossible to recover.

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    • Offizieller Beitrag

    Typically I say xfs if most files are large and ext4 otherwise. If you don't have battery backup (UPS), don't use xfs.

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  • Thanks for your advice.
    Whats the size-border between small and big?
    I'd like to share my whole music library (MP3) for all my devices (tablet, notebook, phone) as well as bigger video files and small documents as source codes and office documents.


    Building a UPS would be a nice weekendproject ;)
    I'm just collecting LiPos for another project - so that wouldn't be a problem!

    • Offizieller Beitrag

    There is no border. It is just a general statement. Both filesystems work well. You can't go wrong with ext4.

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  • The overall features and support for Ext4 filesystem makes it the logical choice. Ext4 has many benfits over exFAY and ntfs, journaling alone makes it more robust. If you have another linux system for recovery anyway, I dont really see why you need to investigate M$ filesystems.

    • Offizieller Beitrag

    No one suggested a Microsoft filesystem and I would vote against using them. The question was which one to use between xfs and ext4.

    omv 7.0-32 sandworm | 64 bit | 6.5 proxmox kernel

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  • I'd say XFS, it supports fun things like defragging and such built in unlike EXT4. True that XFS can be alittle slower if you have a crap ton of tiny files, but the feature set more than makes up for it.


    If you are running a newer kernel (like >= 4.4) I'd say BTRFS.

    • Offizieller Beitrag

    Is BTRFS and RAID5 now stable?

    NO. From what I have read in various places, it needs to be re-written.

    omv 7.0-32 sandworm | 64 bit | 6.5 proxmox kernel

    plugins :: omvextrasorg 7.0 | kvm 7.0.9 | compose 7.0.9 | cputemp 7.0 | mergerfs 7.0.3


    omv-extras.org plugins source code and issue tracker - github


    Please try ctrl-shift-R and read this before posting a question.

    Please put your OMV system details in your signature.
    Please don't PM for support... Too many PMs!

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