[Discuss] Ext4, ugh! Re: Disk recovery utilities - dealing with deleted files

[richb at pioneer.ci.net (Rich Braun)]

Edward Ned Harvey (blu) stated:
>> Well, ext4 performs so much better.  If the only risk is the lack of
>> availability of undelete tools, then I say, the better solution is to use
>> ext4 and backups.

Jack echoed:
> Ed, that seems like a better approach for most uses.

But think about my use case:  something like 95% of my data volume consists of
videos, be they ISOs of my DVD collection, stuff recorded off the air, or
home-video recordings.

I care a whole LOT more about maintaining data integrity than I do about
performance.  The only performance I really need is the ability to stream the
videos on demand, and the systems are 10x more powerful than that.

So for me, the claimed performance increase of ext3 over ext4 (which is
actually quite small) isn't a factor in the decision.  And I'll wager a lot of
other people who think enough about this would come to a similar conclusion.

Now that I've read more about the innards of ext4, I'm simply not impressed,
and I agree with Ted Ts'o's criticisms of it.  The fact that it discards
crucial data immediately upon file deletion is a non-starter for me. (Having
started my career in filesystem internals, long ago.)

-rich