-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA512 > Out of interest why would a journaling FS wear out the drive quicker? > I haven't seen comment of this in my searches. The reason has to do with the way journaling filesystems work. The summary is this. Journaling filesystems contain a log or journal of changes they are going to make to the filesystem. If you create a new file, for example, the changes to the filesystem necessary to create the file are recorded in the journal. Then the changes are made to the actual filesystem. What this does is to provide filesystem consistancy in the event your system crashes in the middle of a change to the filesystem. That way you don't have to do an extensive check of the filesystem to bring it to a consistant state. Replaying the journal takes anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes, instead of the filesystem check taking anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours. I should point out that most journaling filesystems don't journal all data you write. They only journal changes to the metadata (structures used to keep track of files in the filesystem). This is done for performance reasons. Now the reason why journaling filesystems ware out your drive faster is that the filesystem typically allocates a specific portion for the journal, then continuously writes to it every time a change is made to the filesystem. Most flash drives have a chip which is rated for a maximum of about 100000 writes. The constant writing and rewriting of the portion allocated for the journal causes the chip to ware out rather quickly. A write to the journal is generated for, well, just about everything on a journaling filesystem mounted read-write. The following are examples: * File creation and removal * Editing a file * Any access of a file (if noatime option is not in use) * Creation and removal of directories Hope this helps. Joe -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.7 (MingW32) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iQEVAwUBR4JcLch8jNraUiwqAQqHEgf/c14yOScbLCUgFg5BNLxKzYfN+LMQEYEj 2ta6f85CnzTPmwLZtUjrecXfxTwQ1OKiPTuZMsJQLe7TOzgXNM1kIwc2L9lBbwv/ mpq7um8Q419Q0CS6fmLjpvbeFpwWilJO+jWPBPUU++9ZwL8Hh8/kUTAhLTsBR97C U+CxEBKGsOZkwlL/R0wQJtP5r5Nuu42lcchQRSnwQKZp9oiBRaKc/QFqy0PGufxr zrzhLO95lYRJA8if97jB0QEJwtiv9YqYGSvRriFUVYqqLTErGVfffK/W5N87lj// 4JYedwcxGAj4iJhhrgkAXygMgoD37WSKPOaVk5e93w4I/FO3QgCCGQ== =eDJN -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
