First things first: what exactly is a “file system”? Well, it’s basically just a fancy way of organizing all those files on your hard drive so you can easily find and access them. In Linux, there are several different file systems available (like ext4 or btrfs), but we’re going to focus on the most popular one: ext4.
So how does it work? Well, let’s say you have a brand new external hard drive that you want to use with your computer. First, you need to format it using the “mkfs” command (short for “make file system”). This will create a new empty partition on your hard drive and set up all the necessary structures for storing files:
# This script is used to format a new external hard drive using the "mkfs" command.
# It creates a new empty partition on the hard drive and sets up necessary structures for storing files.
# The "sudo" command is used to run the following command with root privileges.
sudo mkfs -t ext4 /dev/sdc1 # "mkfs" is used to create a file system, "-t" specifies the type of file system (in this case, ext4), and "/dev/sdc1" is the name of the external hard drive to be formatted.
# Note: It is important to replace "sdc1" with the actual name of the external hard drive, which can be found by running the "lsblk" command.
Once you’ve formatted your new partition, it’s time to mount it so that Linux knows where to look for files. This is done using the “mount” command:
# This script is used to mount a new partition on Linux.
# It uses the "mount" command to specify the location of the partition and where it should be mounted.
# The user must have sudo privileges to run this script.
# First, we need to specify the partition we want to mount.
# In this case, it is /dev/sdc1, but it can be replaced with any other partition.
# It is important to note that the partition must be formatted before attempting to mount it.
# Next, we specify the location where we want the partition to be mounted.
# In this case, it is the /mnt directory, but it can be replaced with any other directory of the user's choice.
# It is important to ensure that the chosen directory exists before attempting to mount the partition.
# Finally, we use the "sudo" command to run the "mount" command with root privileges.
# This is necessary as only root users have the permission to mount partitions.
# The "sudo" command will prompt the user for their password before executing the command.
sudo mount /dev/sdc1 /mnt # replace '/mnt' with a directory of your choice (e.g., 'myexternalhdd')
Now you can start copying files over to your new partition using the “cp” command:
# This script is used to copy files from a source location to a mounted directory.
# It requires sudo privileges to run.
# The 'cp' command is used to copy files and directories.
# The '-r' flag is used to copy directories recursively.
# The '/path/to/source/*' specifies the source location, where '*' is a wildcard that matches all files and directories within the source.
# The '/mnt' is the directory that was previously mounted.
sudo cp -r /path/to/source/* /mnt
# Replace '/path/to/source' with the location of your source files (e.g., '~/Documents').
# Replace '/mnt' with the directory you mounted earlier.
# Note: The '*' wildcard is not necessary if the source is a single file.
# Example:
# sudo cp -r ~/Documents/* /mnt
# This will copy all files and directories within the 'Documents' folder to the mounted directory.
# Note: If the source or destination paths contain spaces, they should be enclosed in quotes.
# Example:
# sudo cp -r "~/My Documents/*" "/mnt/My Backup"
# This will copy all files and directories within the 'My Documents' folder to a subdirectory named 'My Backup' within the mounted directory.
And that’s it! Your new partition is now ready to use, complete with all its fancy ext4 goodness. But what exactly does “ext4” mean? Well, it stands for “fourth extended file system”, which basically means that it’s an updated version of the original ext3 file system (which was itself a major improvement over the old ext2).
So why is ext4 so great? For starters, it supports larger files and partitions than its predecessors. It also has better performance when dealing with large numbers of small files, which makes it ideal for use in modern operating systems like Linux. And perhaps most importantly, it’s fully compatible with all the other major file systems out there (like NTFS or FAT32), so you can easily share your data between different platforms without any issues.
Of course, as with anything in life, ext4 isn’t perfect there are a few downsides to consider as well. For one thing, it requires more disk space than some of the older file systems (like ext2 or FAT16), which can be an issue if you have limited storage available. And while it does support larger files and partitions, it’s still not ideal for use with extremely large datasets (like video or audio files) due to its relatively slow read/write speeds.
But overall, ext4 is a solid choice for most Linux users especially those who need reliable performance and compatibility across multiple platforms. And if you ever find yourself in doubt about which file system to choose, just remember: when it comes to data storage, bigger is always better!