RN42600 - EXT4 vs. NTFS for OS6 usb backup

[KenTanker0us1]

Hello friends, the title says it all. I read that EXT4 is faster and more efficient than NTFS.

On the other hand, it would be difficult to use with the PC unless I added a driver that isn't guaranteed not to have conflicts.

So just how much faster is EXT4? Say for a direct copy of a share to a usb WD Passport external 2TB drive?

*extra note: I can't find my NAS listed above so I just typed in the model number on the back, RN42600. I hope that's ok?

Thanks very much!

Ken

[StephenB · Accepted solution]

It's been a while since I tested this, but back in OS 6.5.0 firmware they switched to different NTFS drives in the NAS.  That increased performance to ~95 MB/s.

My advice is to use NTFS - a backup that is hard to read on your other devices isn't worth much.

Note that you can use rsync to get incremental backups to your USB drive.  The trick is to set the source up as "remote", and use 127.0.0.1 for the IP address.

[mdgm-ntgr]

Well you could give NTFS a try and see if the performance is fine for what you need and if it's not reformat to EXT4 and give that a try.

USB performance does vary a bit depending on the NAS model, USB disk model, filesystem etc.

[KenTanker0us1]

Hey mdgm, thanks for the reply.

Yeah that is exactly what I'm doing. I'm running a backup from a share on the NAS to a WDPassport 2TB through the front usb port using NTFS, and it's taking a while.

I'm just wondering if anybody has done any kind of comparison study between the two for these purposes. If necessary I'll do my own.

I'm also wondering if anybody has any experience with the EXT drivers available. I'm in Win7 Pro.

Again, thanks for any and all discussion/advice.

Ken

[StephenB · Accepted solution]

It's been a while since I tested this, but back in OS 6.5.0 firmware they switched to different NTFS drives in the NAS.  That increased performance to ~95 MB/s.

My advice is to use NTFS - a backup that is hard to read on your other devices isn't worth much.

Note that you can use rsync to get incremental backups to your USB drive.  The trick is to set the source up as "remote", and use 127.0.0.1 for the IP address.

[KenTanker0us1]

Hey StephenB, good to see you here.

Thanks for the advice. I will stick to NTFS.

This idea of using rsync for incremental backups sounds best. Ithink I might need some more detailed steps in this. If I understand you correctly, I would do this:

_New Backup Job:

From remote system

Host: 127.0.0.1

Protocol: remote:Rsync Server

Port: 873 ??

To ReadyNAS folder, USB port, or eSATA port

Location: /media/USB_HDD_1/

Does this look correct?

Also: what about snapshots, etc. do they take up much room on the usb drive?

Always good to have your expert help.

best

Ken

[KenTanker0us1]

Well, I've done some testing over the last couple of days. The rsync option took 26 minutes longer than the local option.

The local protocol went like this:

Backup Job Name: MANUAL_Library_to_Passport_2TB_01
Backup Job Type: Full
Protocol: local
Backup Source: [library]/
Backup Destination: [USB Front]/
Backup Start Time: Wed Mar 21 2018 19:04:21
Backup Finish Time: Wed Mar 21 2018 22:14:07
Backup Status: Success

*Time elapsed: 3h 9m 46 s

The rsync job went like this:

Backup Job Name: 2TB01_library
Backup Job Type: Incremental
Protocol: rsync
Backup Source: [remote:rsync]/127.0.0.1::library
Backup Destination: [USB_HDD_1]/library
Backup Start Time: Fri Mar 23 2018 1:32:49
Backup Finish Time: Fri Mar 23 2018 5:08:22
Backup Status: Success

*Time elapsed: 3h 35m 33s

The idea that the rsync will do incremental should make things faster from here on, I would think.

I'm posting this in case anybody else is looking for info. Thanks all.

[StephenB]

The port is 873.

You don't want to back up the snapshots, as each one will take the full space of the share on the USB disk.

In my own systems I use custom snapshot settings, with "allow snapshot access" unchecked.  With those settings, the snapshots aren't transferred.

If you are using smart snapshots, then you might want to test with a small share first, and then confirm that the snapshot isn't backed up.  

[KenTanker0us1]

Thanks, StephenB, I got the port set at 873 and have been doing backups to the WD drives successfully.

Re: snapshots

I don't fully understand the procedure but I suspect I'm not using snapshots because I don't see any mention of them in my backup jobs.

How would I know if I'm using snapshots?

As always, thanks very much.

[StephenB]

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@KenTanker0us1 wrote:

How would I know if I'm using snapshots?

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click on the settings wheel for a share, and then click on the snapshots tab.

[KenTanker0us1]

I just looked. Even before clicking on the setting wheel, there's a snapshots column in the share listing right there to see. Duh! Sometimes I miss the obvious.

I'm not using snapshots. I had been thinking that they had something to do with making incremental backups after the first time. But that's not what they are, are they? I still don't totally understand what they are for, but it's ok.

Backups are going very well to the usb port on the front of the NAS. Thanks!!

[StephenB]

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@KenTanker0us1 wrote:

I'm not using snapshots. I had been thinking that they had something to do with making incremental backups after the first time. But that's not what they are, are they?

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They enable the "restore previous versions" functionality for NAS shares: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/17119/windows-7-recover-lost-deleted-files.