Silly question, but not to me.

[Yogi]

Good-bye Icey. I'm impressed that you stayed around this long, and I am hopeful that your original question was fully answered.

As for Gary and myself, we are indeed ol' rag chewers, although I concede that Gary is much better at it than am I. I'm the guy with the insatiable curiosity and a limited amount of knowledge about many things. For example, I know that Gary has captured the essence of the FAT file system which has been abandoned when 3 1/4" floppy disks bit the dust. Every operating system that caters to personal computing these days still supports the FAT format, and that includes Gary's favorite, Linux. But, around the time when Microsoft's Windows 9x series of operating systems lost popularity, the file system of choice became NTFS. NTFS uses a B+ tree to keep track of things instead of the allocation tables found in obsolete disk formats. That's about the extent of what I know. Perhaps my rag chewing friend could enlighten us on the pros and cons of FAT and NTFS. Curious minds want to know.

[Kellemora]

I use NTFS on my external drives, and EXT3 on my internal drives.
I have no idea what file system my NAS uses, unless RAID5 is a file system.

The reason I use NTFS on the externals, is so they are readable by Windows computers.
Important documents written and stored in .odt format, are also stored in .doc format and as a .pdf.
Images are stored in .tif format, often with a reduced size .jpg.
From what I understand, regardless of how a Windows drive is now mapped, it is still done bead on a string method, so the NTFS file system, still requires defragging.
I don't normally have to defrag the externals, because files are only written to them for storage purposes.

I have not delved into how the file allocations are handled in many years. I just know that I have two (maybe more) files where these tables are stored, so if one does become corrupted, I can switch to the other to save the data on the drive.

My daily work is stored and retrieved from the NAS, then the file backed up to a new folder on the external. Which is mirrored from the detached garage office to the house office and to an out-state drive in Missouri.
The file folders for each project are dated, and when I store the 7th new folder, the oldest folder is deleted. This does not mean I am losing early revisions, or in the case of writing, my original first draft, because it is contained, along with everything else, in the folder I'm copying to the external. This is one way I keep a corrupt file from corrupting the earlier data. I don't overwrite old files. Old HD's are used to store monthly backups of important data. Then stuck on a shelf.

File storage system are continually improving. Albeit with a few glitches here and there, which is why I don't use EXT4 yet.
Since I really don't care how the systems internals work, as long as they work. I don't keep up with the changes or how they function. I no longer work on my own cars either. They got to darn complicated. And a pain in the arse to work on besides.

[Yogi]

The answer is NTFS is self healing and does not have to be defragged any more than does an EXT file system. And yes, it is possible to do that. :grin:

As you say, it doesn't really matter how things work as long as the end results is what you need and can afford.

[Ice.Maiden]

Just popped back to say that yes, my original question's been answered, thank you. I hardly dared to venture onto here with such a feeble question, but the explanations were fine. I've also now half-painted the wall, but haven't got to where the computer is yet ... and the wires, and all my boxed files and .....

Well, thanks anyway. : )

[Yogi]

One clever thing I like to do is take a picture of the back of the computer showing where all the wires are connected. Then it's easy putting the right wires into the right place if something should happen to them.

And, you know that the only dumb question is the question never asked. You are always welcome to post in this and any of our forums. It gives us old guys something to ramble on about after we actually answer the questions. :lmao1:

[Ice.Maiden]

LOL - thank you. If I hear gales of mirth erupting, I don't mind - I can take it. Us Brits are used to being laughed at anyway! : )

Would you believe, I DID once have some pics taken of all the cables and what have you. Then I couldn't find them when they were needed!! Got it in the end though - I found someone to do it for me, and he gave an exasperated sigh after the two-minute job was finished.

Anyway, thanks. I'll try not to drop into this forum too often!

[Kellemora]

Pictures wouldn't help my mess! Even the color coded plugs are of little help, hi hi.....
I have KVM's with USB ports, KVM without ports, used for swapping monitors around.
A few High Speed USB switches (Hubs), multi-port LAN switches (Hubs), etc.
And most of my devices, DVD's, Cardreaders, etc. are all external types. (Saves opening the cases).
And on my newest computer, I have wires sticking out of the case to plug in older style hard drives, without having to install them. Told you I was Crazy!

[Kellemora]

And if you thought that was bad. Down at the house we have the frau's computer, the NAS, the Ooma Telephone, Routers, Modem, Dish TV online controller, more hubs for USB and LAN, and my backup external drives.
I need a bigger boat!

[Ice.Maiden]

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