Hi folks, in the last weks there were several issues with data transfer from ext4 to exfat. Most cases wanted to be done, to transfer seceral terrabyte of date to a MS-Windows system.
Thinking of it, IMO this is a bad choice. Olease let me explain: Besides to host tzerrabyte of important data on a windows system (which I never would do!), I see several issues when using harddrives for trasfer. First, you have to copy (let us say for example: 4 TB) via USB3 to a harddrive not in ext4. You may use rsync, but this will last very long. Then you will have to copy 4TB to the windows-system via usb3, whcih will last again long. So first bad thing: You have to copy twice and the copytime is twice, too. Second: USB has no correction in its transfer protocol, so there migjht be erros during tarnsfer. Yes, when using rsync they may be corrected. Third: the harddrive for transport may have physical or logical defects, which may cause problems. Fourth: exfat (needed or big files) does not have a journal like ext3 or ext4, so data may be going corrupt on the harddrive and could not be restored. Sixth: USB3 is (IMO) very slow against gigabit. All these should be thought of before one goes to work. A better solution IMO is, take the computer to the target host and connect it via gigabit network. Most notebooks and desktop computers and of course most modern servers already have gigabit network. Then connect to the target host and use rsync for tarnsfer. Yes, there is rsync available for windows, it is called grsync. Even it is not much secure, I see there no problem, because the target can be airgapped during transfer. The advantage of doing so: - gigabit is much faster than usb3, saves much time - you only have to copy the data once, saves more time - you have much lesser error sources - you do not to hassle with several partition formats - using grsync you have correction during transfer - all in all, you will have much less pain This came in my mind during the days and I wanted to share it with you, maybe it will be usefull for one or another. Last but not least: I may be completely wrong with my thoughts, so please don't blame me. Best regards Hans
