[H-GEN] Best FS for use with multiple Unix variants

[QuarkAV.com - Hilton Travis]

On 18/08/2009 6:56 AM, Arjen Lentz wrote:
> [ Humbug *General* list - semi-serious discussions about Humbug and     ]
> [ Unix-related topics. Posts from non-subscribed addresses will vanish. ]
>
> Hi Hilton
>
> ----- "QuarkAV.com - Hilton Travis"<hilton at quarkav.com>  wrote:
>    
>> Now I also go back and check, yes, that was the issue.  The guy
>> reformatted the drive (in the NSLU2, therefore reformatted the FS as
>> EXT3) and we were unable, even after posting to this list, to find any
>> way to recover data without sending it to CBL and paying over $2000.
>>
>> Was this an NTFS or FAT32 volume, I could have recovered 100% of the
>> files for under $250.
>>      
> The real problem there is lack of backup of relevant files, I'd say.
>
> Even if a filesystem can be recovered, the amount of time and/or effort involved is often disproportionate. I have clients for whom anything other than near-live copies would be fatal, so there a backup is nice to have but not even relevant for production. All things fail, so just taking that into account really helps.
>
>
> Cheers,
> Arjen.
>    
G'day Arjen,

I'm well aware of how important backups are and as I said, were he an IT 
client of mine, he would have been, too.  He contacted me after he 
formatted his HDD.  The issue with EXT3 was that it was very expensive 
to have the data recovered, whereas were it NTFS or FAT32 it would have 
been a few hundred dollars, tops.

The general comments I received when asking about getting an EXT3 fs 
recovered after a simple format were "don't like your chances".  In 
hindsight, this guy would have had a backup, however the choice of fs 
(in this case, by the maker of his NAS device) let him down, and this is 
why I posted this in reply to the OPs questions about which fs to use.

- Hilton Travis