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    ext4 and ext3

    Discussion in 'Linux Compatibility and Software' started by puter1, Mar 19, 2010.

  1. puter1

    puter1 Notebook Deity

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    I'm not using an 'ext4 distro' yet but I like Lucid so far or at least last time I tried it on the live CD.

    If I install it, I believe it is using ext4 but my storage drives are formatted in ext3 and there's data on it. One drive is full and one drive has about 60GB out of 1TB so far.

    My options are to leave it be for now and to switch it to ext4. I'm hesitant to do that until:
    A) I install an ext4 distro
    B) I find out more about ext4

    Can Lucid or an ext4 system read and access ext3 easily? Anything I need to know?

    I read that it's backward compatible but I am just curious what the real world experience is.

    I guess I should boot up a Live CD of Lucid and try it. But, I'm lazy and thought I'd ask here. ;)

    I haven't installed Lucid because I'm currently cleaning up my OS drive. I'm out of disk space on my partitions so I'm copying data to my storage drive. I might change my drive/disk structure, too. I plan on having a new 100GB+ partition for VirtualBox.

    Anyway, I hope to figure this stuff out. I doubt it's anything to lose sleep about but I read some complaints and concerns about ext4 on Phoronix so it would be good to receive some feedback on ext4 and what it means for our Linux file systems.
     
    puter1, Mar 19, 2010
    #1
  2. zephyrus17

    zephyrus17 Notebook Deity

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    ext4 is backward compatible all the way to ext2. No problem. It's a pretty stable filesystem. I've been using it for a year. no problems at all
     
    zephyrus17, Mar 19, 2010
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  3. Saisei

    Saisei Notebook Deity

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    I use Exts on android and was wondering if it's faster than EXT3 or 2.
     
    Saisei, Mar 19, 2010
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  4. zephyrus17

    zephyrus17 Notebook Deity

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    exts? Do you mean extfs?
     
    zephyrus17, Mar 19, 2010
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  5. Saisei

    Saisei Notebook Deity

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    Yes I do(ext2/3/4)
     
    Saisei, Mar 20, 2010
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  6. zephyrus17

    zephyrus17 Notebook Deity

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    ext3 is ext2 with 'journaling' enabled. Basically it's safer for data security but a tiny bit slower. ext4 is the latest filesystem inspired from ext3. Much faster and very stable, at least from my usage. Stick to ext4 whenever possible. ext4 is backward compatible to ext3 and ext2
     
    zephyrus17, Mar 21, 2010
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  7. puter1

    puter1 Notebook Deity

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    Cool, thanks for the replies, xephyrus17!

    I researched a bit more, reading on phoronix, Ubuntu and OpenSUSE forums among others and I'm fairly satisfied that it's a relatively safe fs to choose.

    Some people claim the jury is still out but seems okay so far.
     
    puter1, Mar 21, 2010
    #7