{ "version": "1.0.0", "segments": [ { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "0", "endTime": "5.167", "body": "My first job after college was as a Linux systems administrator at a hosting company." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "6.108", "endTime": "9.993", "body": "We offered shared and dedicated hosting on both Linux and Windows servers." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "11.134", "endTime": "15.861", "body": "The data center had rows of server racks and stacks of disks, which is where I first learned" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "15.861", "endTime": "17.603", "body": "how often hard disks can fail." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "19.065", "endTime": "20.146", "body": "One evening around 5pm." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "20.146", "endTime": "23.029", "body": "I was sitting inside one of our data center cages." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "23.97", "endTime": "31.417", "body": "Each data center client had their own secured cage to keep their equipment isolated, and it was my day to be on site." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "32.378", "endTime": "37.463", "body": "I was working on a support request for a business client who was having issues with their server." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "38.184", "endTime": "41.287", "body": "I SSH'd into the system and started troubleshooting." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "41.768", "endTime": "47.233", "body": "After running some tests and making temporary files, I decided to clean up my workspace." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "48.234", "endTime": "52.138", "body": "Out of habit, I typed rm-rf star." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "53.119", "endTime": "55.641", "body": "At first, nothing seemed unusual." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "56.022", "endTime": "60.806", "body": "The command ran for a few seconds, but then I realized something was wrong." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "61.207", "endTime": "63.049", "body": "It was taking too long." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "63.949", "endTime": "65.951", "body": "My stomach dropped as it hit me." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "66.232", "endTime": "68.234", "body": "I wasn't in the right directory." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "68.574", "endTime": "72.958", "body": "I had run the command one level too high and was deleting client data." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "73.819", "endTime": "78.844", "body": "I had only been at the job for a few months, and this wasn't something I could just undo." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "79.505", "endTime": "82.528", "body": "I wasn't pulling a cable or restarting a service." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "82.788", "endTime": "84.99", "body": "I was actively erasing files." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "85.871", "endTime": "89.475", "body": "Not knowing what else to do, I reached out to my colleagues for help." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "90.235", "endTime": "95.881", "body": "Thankfully, we were able to restore everything from backups, and the client never even knew anything had happened." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "96.982", "endTime": "101.467", "body": "So, moral of the story, backups, backups, backups." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "102.167", "endTime": "108.433", "body": "Just because your data lives in the cloud, doesn't mean a recent college graduate can't accidentally delete it." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "109.494", "endTime": "111.697", "body": "That day taught me a valuable lesson." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "112.097", "endTime": "121.727", "body": "And ever since, every time I use the rm command, I stop, double check the directory, and take a deep breath before pressing enter." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "122.888", "endTime": "128.453", "body": "The piece of a computer that holds everything precious to you, on this episode of In The Show." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "130.435", "endTime": "134.84", "body": "The wrong thing to do is just go out and buy a computer, and then learn about it." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "135.22", "endTime": "138.763", "body": "You'll learn, but you'll learn a lot of things that maybe you didn't want to learn." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "138.904", "endTime": "146.711", "body": "A computer that you buy today will likely be obsolete six months from now, and there's not a dang thing that you can do about it." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "148.473", "endTime": "156.501", "body": "My name is Josh, and I'm able to keep this podcast independent and advertisement-free because of support from listeners like you." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "156.861", "endTime": "164.329", "body": "If you are finding value in what I'm doing here, consider becoming a paid supporter at members.sideofburritos.com." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "164.529", "endTime": "173.938", "body": "And as a thank you, members get early access to new videos, ad-free versions of everything, bonus content, and access to a live monthly Q&A." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "173.938", "endTime": "177.301", "body": "Thanks for considering. Now let's get back to the show." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "178.663", "endTime": "183.428", "body": "Storage in a computer is where data is kept long-term, even when it is powered off." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "183.848", "endTime": "188.392", "body": "This includes your operating system, programs, documents, and games." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "188.873", "endTime": "193.477", "body": "But this storage can be slow compared to RAM, which we covered in the last episode." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "194.298", "endTime": "198.903", "body": "But RAM is temporary storage that the computer uses only when it's powered on." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "198.903", "endTime": "202.987", "body": "When you turn off your PC, data and RAM is lost." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "203.868", "endTime": "209.013", "body": "RAM is volatile and very fast, while storage is non-volatile and slower." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "209.774", "endTime": "213.978", "body": "Modern personal computers use a few main types of storage drives." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "214.438", "endTime": "226.75", "body": "Hard disk drives, HDDs, solid-state drives, SSDs, and non-volatile Memory Express solid-state disks, NVMe SSDs." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "227.671", "endTime": "229.593", "body": "An HDD is mechanical." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "230.234", "endTime": "238.042", "body": "Inside, it has spinning magnetic platters, called disks, and a moving read-write head, like a tiny record player." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "238.942", "endTime": "242.946", "body": "Because of this design, HDDs are physically limited in speed." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "243.527", "endTime": "247.05", "body": "The disk can only spin so fast, and the head can only move so quickly." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "247.05", "endTime": "255.839", "body": "A typical 3.5-inch desktop hard drive running at 7,200 RPM can deliver around 100-200 MB" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "255.839", "endTime": "262.165", "body": "per second in sequential data reads and writes, and even slower for random access." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "262.165", "endTime": "269.996", "body": "due to seek time. They also come in a 2.5 inch size, commonly used in laptops or external hard" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "269.996", "endTime": "276.806", "body": "drives. Hard drives are best used for large, inexpensive storage. If you need several terabytes" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "276.806", "endTime": "282.514", "body": "to store media, backups, or games on a budget, hard drives give the most capacity per dollar." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "283.175", "endTime": "289.524", "body": "They are common as secondary drives and desktops. For example, pairing a smaller SSD for the" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "289.524", "endTime": "296.514", "body": "operating system with a big HDD for files. Also, because they have moving parts, they are more" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "296.514", "endTime": "302.823", "body": "prone to physical failure and are more sensitive to physical movement. Noise and heat are additional" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "302.823", "endTime": "311.114", "body": "factors. You can hear them click during use. Solid state drives, or SSDs, have no moving parts." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "311.435", "endTime": "314.639", "body": "They use flash memory chips, similar to what's" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "314.639", "endTime": "319.465", "body": "in a USB thumb drive, but much faster and more sophisticated to store data." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "320.711", "endTime": "326.019", "body": "SSDs became popular in the late 2000s and quickly took over as the standard for running" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "326.019", "endTime": "332.955", "body": "operating systems and software due to their speed. A typical SSD using a SATA interface" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "332.955", "endTime": "340.454", "body": "can read and write around 500 to 550 megabytes per second, which is several times faster than a hard" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "340.454", "endTime": "348.295", "body": "drive. But beyond just throughput, SSDs have near instant seek times, meaning accessing small files" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "348.295", "endTime": "354.548", "body": "scattered around the drive is dramatically quicker. This is why a PC booting from an SSD" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "354.548", "endTime": "362.007", "body": "feels much quicker, as you are not waiting for a disk to spin. SSDs often come in a 2.5 inch" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "362.007", "endTime": "367.113", "body": "drive form factor with a SATA connector, making them an easy upgrade for older machines." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "368.051", "endTime": "374.779", "body": "There are also M.2 SATA SSDs. These are little gumstick-sized circuit boards that plug into an" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "374.779", "endTime": "380.711", "body": "M.2 slot, which perform the same as a 2.5-inch SATA drive, just in a different shape." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "381.995", "endTime": "388.132", "body": "A SATA SSD is a great all-purpose drive for your operating system, programs, and games." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "389.396", "endTime": "394.941", "body": "SSDs are also more shock-resistant, since there are no moving parts, and silence in operation." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "395.736", "endTime": "402.382", "body": "The cost per gigabyte has come down a lot, though hard drives are still cheaper for very large capacities." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "404.42", "endTime": "411.841", "body": "NVMe, non-volatile memory express, SSDs, are the latest generation of solid-state storage" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "411.841", "endTime": "417.019", "body": "that connect via the PCI Express bus instead of the older SATA interface." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "417.61", "endTime": "420.525", "body": "In practical terms, NVMe drives are..." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "419.588", "endTime": "426.014", "body": "extremely fast, often 5-7 times faster than the SATA SSDs in sequential throughput," }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "427.136", "endTime": "435.154", "body": "where SATA tops out around 600MB per second, an NVMe SSD on PCIe 3, which those terms will" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "435.154", "endTime": "443.131", "body": "cover in a future episode on motherboards, can hit around 3,500MB per second, and newer PCIe 4" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "443.131", "endTime": "449.946", "body": "models can go up to 7,000MB per second, and even faster on cutting-edge PCIe 5 drives." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "450.966", "endTime": "457.413", "body": "These drives typically use the same M.2 form factor, the same gumstick shape, or sometimes" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "457.413", "endTime": "465.411", "body": "as PCIe expansion cards. NVMe drives achieve this speed by using multiple PCIe lanes and a" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "465.411", "endTime": "472.062", "body": "streamlined protocol designed for flash, instead of the old ATA-SATA designed for spinning disks." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "472.062", "endTime": "478.29", "body": "NVMe SSDs are ideal for performance-critical tasks. If you're doing heavy video editing," }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "478.751", "endTime": "484.8", "body": "large file transfers, running virtual machines, or just want the fastest boot and application" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "484.8", "endTime": "492.651", "body": "load times, NVMe is the way to go. As of now, NVMe drives are typically a bit more expensive" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "492.651", "endTime": "499.52", "body": "per gigabyte than SATA SSDs and require a relatively modern motherboard with M.2 slots" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "499.52", "endTime": "505.769", "body": "or PCIe slots for an adapter. Also NVMe drives can run hotter due to their speed," }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "506.01", "endTime": "510.256", "body": "so many come with little heat sinks and it's good to have some airflow over them." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "512.118", "endTime": "519.629", "body": "In the past, nearly all desktop and laptop storage was a removable drive. You could swap out the hard" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "519.629", "endTime": "524.115", "body": "drive or SSD. Nowadays, especially in slim laptops," }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "524.115", "endTime": "524.456", "body": "people who would be using the new laptop of the SSDs in a можputers' station." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "524.456", "endTime": "524.536", "body": "This case is not as good as the limit." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "524.536", "endTime": "529.972", "body": "tablets, and some premium devices, storage may be soldered directly to the motherboard." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "530.774", "endTime": "536.27", "body": "This means you are unable to remove the storage chips. Now you may be wondering why solder the" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "536.27", "endTime": "542.95", "body": "storage. For manufacturers, this approach saves space and can be more power efficient. It allows" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "542.95", "endTime": "548.867", "body": "devices to be thinner and have one less connector that could potentially fail. Apple and some Windows" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "548.867", "endTime": "554.945", "body": "Ultrabook makers do this to achieve very slim form factors. There's also a minor benefit of" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "554.945", "endTime": "560.822", "body": "potentially higher speeds if they use multiple chips in parallel, which Apple's recent MacBooks do" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "560.822", "endTime": "567.081", "body": "this. It also lets the manufacturer prevent the user from upgrading hardware themselves and forcing" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "567.081", "endTime": "574.242", "body": "them to buy a completely new device. So big corporations love this. Now there's one topic" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "574.242", "endTime": "577.01", "body": "I've always loved when it comes to storage, and that's RAID." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "577.837", "endTime": "581.103", "body": "RAID stands for Redundant Array of Independent Discs." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "581.6", "endTime": "588.836", "body": "If you have multiple drives, you can combine them in a RAID setup for better performance and or data safety." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "589.787", "endTime": "598.037", "body": "RAID is basically a method to group drives together to act as one unit, using techniques like striping, mirroring, and parity." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "598.74", "endTime": "605.046", "body": "This is more common in servers and enthusiast setups than in a typical single PC build," }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "605.046", "endTime": "612.923", "body": "but if you are building a NAS or just want extra protection or speed with several drives, it's good to know the options." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "613.688", "endTime": "616.789", "body": "Before we get into it, RAID is not a backup." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "617.223", "endTime": "623.529", "body": "If malware deletes files or you accidentally format data, that deletion is mirrored to the other drives." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "624.088", "endTime": "630.311", "body": "RAID only protects against hardware failure, so you would still want external backups for critical data." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "630.175", "endTime": "636.797", "body": "Now let's talk about the most common RAID levels. The first is RAID 0 which is striping. This mode" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "636.797", "endTime": "641.856", "body": "takes two or more drives and stripes the data across them for speed and combined capacity." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "642.506", "endTime": "649.677", "body": "For example, if you have two 2TB drives in RAID 0, it will appear as one 4TB drive." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "650.551", "endTime": "655.284", "body": "Reads and writes can go roughly two times faster because both disks will work in parallel." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "656.097", "endTime": "662.74", "body": "The downside is there is no redundancy at all. If any one drive in the array fails, the entire array" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "662.74", "endTime": "670.256", "body": "and all data is lost because each file is split between drives. RAID 0 is purely for performance." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "670.967", "endTime": "675.599", "body": "With today's super fast SSDs, RAID 0 has lost some of the appeal." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "677.001", "endTime": "682.649", "body": "The next one is RAID 1 which is mirroring. This setup requires two drives of the same" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "681.958", "endTime": "687.693", "body": "size. The system writes identical data to both drives, essentially making an automatic duplicate" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "687.693", "endTime": "694.049", "body": "of everything in real time. If one drive dies, you have an exact copy on the other, so your data is" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "694.049", "endTime": "701.728", "body": "safe. The trade-off is you only get the capacity of one drive. Two 2TB drives in RAID 1 give you" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "701.728", "endTime": "708.706", "body": "2TB of usable storage, since the second drive is a mirror. Performance-wise, you don't gain" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "708.706", "endTime": "714.501", "body": "write speed because it must write everything twice, but reads can be a bit faster, as it can" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "714.501", "endTime": "720.597", "body": "read different parts from each disk simultaneously. RAID 1 is a simple way to add fault tolerance" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "720.597", "endTime": "726.071", "body": "against drive failure. It's popular for boot drives in servers, or anyone who absolutely" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "726.071", "endTime": "734.372", "body": "can't afford downtime from a single drive failing. The next is RAID 5, which is striping plus" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "734.372", "endTime": "734.412", "body": "REST" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "734.412", "endTime": "734.432", "body": "REST" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "734.432", "endTime": "740", "body": "Parity, RAID 5 uses at least three drives and combines them in a way that gives you" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "740", "endTime": "742.804", "body": "both extra speed and one drive fault tolerance." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "743.925", "endTime": "749.473", "body": "Data is striped across the drives, like RAID 0, with an added parity block distributed" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "749.473", "endTime": "750.314", "body": "among the drives." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "751.336", "endTime": "755.522", "body": "Parity is a calculated checksum that can rebuild the data of one failed drive." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "756.703", "endTime": "761.029", "body": "So any one drive can fail and you won't lose any data, and then you can replace the bad" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "761.029", "endTime": "763.273", "body": "drive and the array rebuilds itself." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "764.554", "endTime": "767.899", "body": "The usable capacity of RAID 5 is N-1 drives." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "769.141", "endTime": "776.672", "body": "For example, if you have three 2TB drives in RAID 5, that gives you 4TB of usable storage." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "778.534", "endTime": "783.141", "body": "Performance wise, the read speeds are good, often better than a single drive since it can" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "783.141", "endTime": "786.906", "body": "be read from multiple disks, and write speeds are a bit slower than RAID 5." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "786.906", "endTime": "793.588", "body": "zero because of the overhead of calculating parity. RAID 5 is common in NAS devices and" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "793.588", "endTime": "800.05", "body": "servers for a balanced approach. Many consumer motherboards even support RAID 5 via fake RAID," }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "800.732", "endTime": "806.651", "body": "or you can set it up in software on Windows and Linux. It's a nice option if you have three or" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "806.651", "endTime": "812.972", "body": "four drives and want a single large volume with some safety net. Keep in mind, if a drive fails," }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "812.972", "endTime": "817.849", "body": "the array is running in a degraded state. There's no protection until you replace the drive," }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "818.029", "endTime": "823.126", "body": "and rebuilding can be intensive, which means that the array can fail during the rebuild." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "824.049", "endTime": "828.905", "body": "So if you have a single drive failure and during the rebuild another drive fails," }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "829.166", "endTime": "836.049", "body": "that means your RAID 5 array will lose all data, which leads us to RAID 6, which is what I use in" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "836.049", "endTime": "839.38", "body": "my NAS. RAID 6 or RAID Z2." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "839.38", "endTime": "844.722", "body": "is dual parity. This is an extension of RAID 5 with two parity blocks instead of one," }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "844.983", "endTime": "848.276", "body": "which allows for two drives to fail without losing any data." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "849.22", "endTime": "854.401", "body": "Standard RAID 6 is often found in enterprise arrays or paranoid home users like myself." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "855.185", "endTime": "860.828", "body": "You need at least four drives for RAID 6, since two drives worth of space will be taken up by" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "860.828", "endTime": "868.499", "body": "parity information. For example, if you have four 2TB drives in RAID 6, this gives you 4TB" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "868.499", "endTime": "875.869", "body": "of usable storage. With more drives, the efficiency gets better. If you have six 2TB drives in RAID 6," }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "876.11", "endTime": "882.275", "body": "this gives you 8TB of usable storage. The benefit is higher fault tolerance. You can handle two" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "882.275", "endTime": "888.139", "body": "simultaneous drive failures, which is reassuring for large arrays or when using not-so-reliable" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "888.139", "endTime": "891.854", "body": "disks. It also makes array rebuilds less." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "891.854", "endTime": "896.674", "body": "risky, as you can have another drive fail during the rebuild and your data will still be safe." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "897.844", "endTime": "903.168", "body": "The bottom line on RAID is that for most single PC builders, you will not bother with RAID at all." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "903.712", "endTime": "909.52", "body": "You'll use one fast SSD for the OS and maybe a hard drive for data and keep regular backups." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "910.327", "endTime": "915.691", "body": "And always weigh the complexity versus benefit, because sometimes a good backup strategy is" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "915.691", "endTime": "921.802", "body": "better than a complex RAID setup for home use. Now when you format a drive, you choose a file" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "921.802", "endTime": "927.791", "body": "system, which is the way files are organized on that drive. Different operating systems favor" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "927.791", "endTime": "935.193", "body": "different file systems. NTFS, or New Technology File System, is the default file system for modern" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "935.193", "endTime": "941.969", "body": "Windows. If you format a drive in a Windows machine for internal use, you'll likely use NTFS." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "942.251", "endTime": "944.328", "body": "It supports large file sizes," }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "944.328", "endTime": "952.119", "body": "no 4GB limit like older FAT32, large partitions, file permissions and encryption, BitLocker uses" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "952.119", "endTime": "959.289", "body": "NTFS, compression and journaling, which helps recover from crashes. You'll want to use NTFS" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "959.289", "endTime": "966.159", "body": "for your Windows C drive and any other internal disks on a Windows PC. Other OSs can usually read" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "966.159", "endTime": "973.109", "body": "NTFS, but writing to NTFS from, say, macOS requires special drivers. Linux can read and" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "973.109", "endTime": "978.797", "body": "write to NTFS with proper software, but generally NTFS is best when the drive will be used with" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "978.797", "endTime": "987.409", "body": "Windows. XFAT, or Extended File Allocation Table, is a file system made by Microsoft as a replacement" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "987.409", "endTime": "994.96", "body": "for FAT32, introduced in 2006. Its main advantage is broad compatibility. It works on Windows," }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "995.32", "endTime": "996.802", "body": "macOS and modern Linux." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "996.802", "endTime": "1002.443", "body": "out of the box, and it supports large files, unlike FAT32's 4GB cap." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "1003.326", "endTime": "1008.104", "body": "XFAT does not have all the features of NTFS. It has no permissions or journaling," }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "1008.425", "endTime": "1015.19", "body": "but that's okay for portable storage. XFAT is ideal for formatting external drives or USB sticks" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "1015.19", "endTime": "1022.056", "body": "that you want to use on multiple platforms. It's also commonly used on SD cards. Just note that" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "1022.056", "endTime": "1027.175", "body": "because it lacks journaling, if the drive is unplugged during a write, there's a high chance" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "1027.175", "endTime": "1037.011", "body": "of corruption, so always eject safely. ext4, which is 4th Extended File System, is the standard file" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "1037.011", "endTime": "1044.037", "body": "system for Linux distributions. Many use ext4 by default for their main partitions. It's a journaling" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "1044.037", "endTime": "1049.276", "body": "file system, reliable and quite performant on Linux. It supports large volumes," }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "1049.276", "endTime": "1055.565", "body": "and files, and has features like extents that reduce fragmentation. For Windows users," }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "1056.106", "endTime": "1061.073", "body": "ext4 isn't directly usable. Windows doesn't natively read ext4," }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "1061.333", "endTime": "1065.459", "body": "so it's mostly for Linux-only environments or Android devices." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "1066.781", "endTime": "1071.327", "body": "The last one I want to cover is ZFS, which stands for Zetabyte File System." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "1071.708", "endTime": "1077.616", "body": "This is kind of a random one, but it's what I use on my NAS. ZFS is an advanced file system," }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "1077.616", "endTime": "1083.324", "body": "originally from Sun Microsystems, but it's now open source and popular in server and NAS" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "1083.324", "endTime": "1090.474", "body": "communities. It's more than just a file system, it's also a volume manager. ZFS has features like" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "1090.474", "endTime": "1098.085", "body": "pooled storage, copy-on-write, built-in RAID, RAID-Z, snapshots, checksumming for data integrity," }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "1098.406", "endTime": "1101.65", "body": "and transparent compression. It's designed to" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "1101.65", "endTime": "1101.75", "body": "preferable." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "1101.75", "endTime": "1107.443", "body": "rent data corruption, and handle massive amounts of data. Like I mentioned, you'd typically use" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "1107.443", "endTime": "1113.376", "body": "ZFS in a NAS or storage server scenario, especially if you want the benefits of RAID Z1," }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "1113.556", "endTime": "1122.516", "body": "2, or 3 and self-healing data. TrueNAS, which I use, is a popular free NAS OS, uses ZFS exclusively." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "1123.658", "endTime": "1128.208", "body": "ZFS is great if you have a bunch of drives and want a very resilient storage pool." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "1128.208", "endTime": "1134.381", "body": "It does come with some overhead, it likes having plenty of RAM, and is more complex to administer." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "1135.764", "endTime": "1140.936", "body": "ZFS is worth knowing about, but it's not the go-to for a simple PC storage setup." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "1142.499", "endTime": "1147.41", "body": "Lastly, it's important to mention full disk encryption. This is a security feature," }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "1147.71", "endTime": "1154.224", "body": "not a type of drive, but it relates to how you use storage. Full disk encryption means all the data" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "1154.224", "endTime": "1157.938", "body": "the drive is encrypted, such that without the correct password or key, it's unreadable." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "1158.555", "endTime": "1161.612", "body": "If someone steals your laptop or drive, encryption protects your personal data" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "1161.612", "endTime": "1165.218", "body": "from being accessed by the thief. On Windows, the common solution is BitLocker," }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "1165.272", "endTime": "1169.816", "body": "which can encrypt your entire SSD or hard drive. On macOS, there's FileVault. And on Linux," }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "1169.951", "endTime": "1172.525", "body": "you have tools like Lux or various encryption options during installation." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "1173.302", "endTime": "1175.823", "body": "When you enable these, you typically enter a passphrase at boot," }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "1175.97", "endTime": "1179.349", "body": "or it ties it to your login, and then the drive is decrypted on the fly as you use it." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "1179.751", "endTime": "1181.816", "body": "Full disk encryption can lead to some performance reduction," }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "1182.03", "endTime": "1185.717", "body": "but in my opinion, it's a non-negotiable. Take the potential performance hit," }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "1185.824", "endTime": "1187.259", "body": "and make sure your data is secure." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "1188.72", "endTime": "1189.35", "body": "In the shulls," }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "1197.756", "endTime": "1197.998", "body": "錦" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "1198.145", "endTime": "1198.762", "body": "錦" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "1203.4", "endTime": "1206.698", "body": "錦" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "1206.698", "endTime": "1213.269", "body": "Written, researched, and recorded by me, the Fat32 Podcaster." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "1214.273", "endTime": "1220.204", "body": "If you are listening in an app that lets you rate shows, please take a minute to rate this one." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "1220.729", "endTime": "1222.873", "body": "I would truly appreciate it." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "1224.995", "endTime": "1228.166", "body": "This one time I dared my friend to eat a hard drive." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "1228.896", "endTime": "1231.543", "body": "He asked, how was he supposed to do that?" }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "1232.318", "endTime": "1235.352", "body": "I told him, one bite at a time." }, { "speaker": "Josh", "startTime": "1237.634", "endTime": "1241.626", "body": "That's it, take care, and I'll see you next time." } ] }