From owner-freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Fri Jul 10 00:22:12 2015 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@mailman.ysv.freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1]) by mailman.ysv.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id CECE339F7 for ; Fri, 10 Jul 2015 00:22:12 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from cary@sdf.org) Received: from cdptpa-oedge-vip.email.rr.com (cdptpa-outbound-snat.email.rr.com [107.14.166.232]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9276DA5D for ; Fri, 10 Jul 2015 00:22:11 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from cary@sdf.org) Received: from [67.49.10.59] ([67.49.10.59:13319] helo=bsdstb.Belkin.invalid) by cdptpa-oedge03 (envelope-from ) (ecelerity 3.5.0.35861 r(Momo-dev:tip)) with ESMTP id 8C/19-13217-D201F955; Fri, 10 Jul 2015 00:22:05 +0000 From: Cary To: Don whY Cc: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: format/newfs larger external consumer drives In-Reply-To: <559EDAB8.9080804@gmx.com> (message from Don whY on Thu, 09 Jul 2015 13:34:00 -0700) Date: Thu, 09 Jul 2015 17:22:03 -0700 Message-ID: <86fv4wdfpw.fsf@bsdstb.Belkin> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain X-RR-Connecting-IP: 107.14.168.142:25 X-Cloudmark-Score: 0 X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.20 Precedence: list List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 10 Jul 2015 00:22:12 -0000 Don whY writes: > Hi, > > When building a filesystem (FFS) on these 1/2/3/4TB external USB > drives, any suggestions? E.g., changing block sizes? Cut into > multiple slices to make fsck's job easier (as well as *recovery*)? > > Any other pointers? > > [Note that I'm not looking for "performance" -- otherwise I wouldn't > be going the external route -- but, rather, "bulk, semi-offline > storage"] > > Thx, > --don Before worrying about fsck(8) I recommend you think about using geom(8) to put a journal on the device if your plan is to create a FFS filesystem. The journal consumes some drive space but for any filesystem over 20-30 GB it won't limit your storage capacity very much. I do not have any external drives formatted with FFS, and I would be interested to know myself if it is at all possible to use gjournal(8) with an external usb drive. Someone else on the list must know the answer to that question. You should read the man page for gjournal(8) and note the part about disabling soft-updates and using the async mount(8) option. There is a short intro to the topic in the handbook. http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/books/handbook/geom-gjournal.html Cary