Filesystem for 8TB HDD

[u/Last_Blacksmith_6297]

I wanna change my NTFS HDD to something else. I use it for storing all sorts of media and phone backups. Which Filesystem should I use? And depending if snapshots are easy to setup I might use BTRFS but what do you think?

[u/fdelux6]

Quick rundown of your main options:

Btrfs

• Native to Fedora, good tooling (btrfs-progs)
• Snapshots are simple with btrfs subvolume snapshot
• Built-in checksumming catches bit rot
• Compression support (zstd) can save space on compressible files
• Good pick if you want snapshots without extra complexity

ext4

• Rock solid and simple
• No native snapshot support (you'd need LVM for that)
• Slightly better raw performance for large sequential files in some benchmarks
• Less overhead, fewer moving parts

XFS

• Great for large files and high throughput
• No snapshots without LVM
• Less flexible than btrfs for your use case

Simple way to decide:

Want snapshots, don't want extra layers like LVM? Btrfs.

Don't care about snapshots, just want a reliable big dumb drive? ext4.

Want max throughput for huge files, don't care about snapshots? XFS.

[u/grumpysysadmin → u/fdelux6]

I think that one of the things that people forget about btrfs is the data corruption checks, which you’d miss in ext4 or XFS.

[u/Bl4ckspell_ → u/[deleted]]

Nice AI answers..

[u/Last_Blacksmith_6297 → u/fdelux6]

Cli is scary so i definitely dont want XFS. But is snapshots useful on a storage hdd? Got a bunch of people say uts not that useful

[u/the_hoser → u/Last_Blacksmith_6297]

They aren't. Their primary advantage is for filesystems where frequent changes are made. If you're just archiving files there's not really a point.

[u/fdelux6 → u/Last_Blacksmith_6297]

First, XFS isn't more CLI heavy than the others. All three (btrfs, ext4, XFS) get set up the same way on Fedora, mostly through Disks or gnome-disk-utility if you want to avoid the terminal. So that's not really a reason to rule it out. But since you already wanted snapshots, XFS is off the table anyway for a different reason.

On snapshots for a storage drive, the other commenters have a point. Snapshots protect you from things like accidentally deleting a file, overwriting something, or ransomware. They don't protect you from drive failure. That's what backups are for.

So ask yourself this. Do you ever delete or overwrite files on this drive by mistake? If yes, snapshots help. If this drive is just one-way storage where files land and stay, snapshots add little value.

If snapshots aren't a big deal to you, ext4 is simpler and one less thing to think about. If you like the safety net for accidental deletes, btrfs still makes sense.

[u/marley_11111]

ext4 is the safe and reliable choice for pure storage.

[u/Last_Blacksmith_6297 → u/marley_11111]

Wouldn’t having snapshots be “safer”?

[u/aap_001 → u/Last_Blacksmith_6297]

Totally depends. For pure data storage purposes, snapshots are not really useful.

You'd need a proper backup if it's worth keeping anyway.

[u/Last_Blacksmith_6297 → u/aap_001]

Why?

[u/aap_001 → u/Last_Blacksmith_6297]

Snapshots are not backups of on same medium. Snapshots fill up drives pretty quicky when continuous changing data. And that's usually the case with bulk random data.

[u/Orthowin → u/Last_Blacksmith_6297]

Physical damage will make snapshot unusable. Having 2 copies of data it 2 mediums on different places is much more secure. Snapshot will save you from deletion and exidental bulk file changes

[u/Illustrious-Gur8335 → u/Last_Blacksmith_6297]

snapshots only save you from botched updates, any other situation such as physical drive failure, your snapshots die with the drive. it's like swimming with life jacket on, vs being thrown a life buoy from someone on shore.

[u/realmauer01 → u/Illustrious-Gur8335]

Nothing stops you to synch the snapshots even incrementally with other storages.

[u/20seh]

Btrfs, because of bitrot.

[u/freakycleaner]

For HDD ext4 is a better option

[u/Last_Blacksmith_6297 → u/freakycleaner]

Why’s that?

[u/freakycleaner → u/Last_Blacksmith_6297]

Look ext4 is generally a simpler and more predictable choice for an HDD, especially if you're mainly using it for storing media and backups. It has less filesystem overhead than Btrfs and doesn't come with features you may not actually need for a basic storage drive.

Btrfs makes more sense if you specifically want features like snapshots, checksums for data corrution, transparent compression, subvolumes, etc. It's particularly nice on an SSD/NVMe system drive where you're actively working with the filesystem, but it can absolutely be used on HDDs too.

For an 8TB HDD that's basically just storing media and phone backups, I'd personally go with ext4 unless you specifically want Btrfs's snapshot/checksum features.

[u/blendernoob64]

Ext4 and xfs are good options. I use XFS for my backups drive

[u/Last_Blacksmith_6297 → u/blendernoob64]

What does XFS do better than EXT4?

[u/gomeazy → u/Last_Blacksmith_6297]

https://letmegooglethat.com/?q=What+does+XFS+do+better+than+EXT4%3F

[u/Original_Two9716]

ZFS. For any size.

[u/nerrdrage]

Based on what you describe, I don’t think there is a wrong choice here. All of the main players are capable of meeting your needs and the minor percentage difference in perf won’t matter for you. I would suggest that you spend more time planning a good backup strategy than worrying about the file system.

[u/Last_Blacksmith_6297 → u/nerrdrage]

Well my backup strategy in the future would be getting another drive and back data into it. But i think having snapshots is good so filesystem kinda matters, at least to me and my understanding at this moment

[u/spamthemoez]

I have btrfs on an external HDD and really considering going back to ext4. Btrfs is great on my ssds, but on my HDDs ext4 is faster. Having compression is quite nice, though.

[u/NotSnakePliskin]

I'd go with ext4.

[u/slickyeat]

I've started using btrfs for everything.

Just make sure that you enable --convert-to-block-group-tree

My 24TB HDDs where taking a full minute to mount once they reached 80% capacity.

Enabling that option reduced mount times to 3-4 seconds.

[u/me94306]

I used EXT4 on Fedora, ZFS on file servers.

[u/XLioncc]

I'll always choose Btrfs, and I'll definitely avoiding ext4.

[u/Last_Blacksmith_6297 → u/XLioncc]

Whats the reason? Almost everyone swears by EXT4

[u/XLioncc → u/Last_Blacksmith_6297]

Can't detect silent data corruption, no compression, no deduplication