Re: Are linux-fs's drive-fault-tolerant by concept?

[John Bradford]

> I wonder whether it would be a good idea to give the linux-fs
> (namely my preferred reiser and ext2 :-) some fault-tolerance.

Fault tollerance should be done at a lower level than the filesystem.

Linux filesystems are used on many different devices, not just hard
disks.  Different devices can fail in different ways - a disk might
have a lot of bad sectors in a block, a tape[1] might have a single
track which becomes unreadble, and solid state devices might have get
a few random bits flipped all over them, if a charged particle passes
through them.

The filesystem doesn't know or care what device it is stored on, and
therefore shouldn't try to predict likely failiures.

A RAID-0 array and regular backups are the best way to protect your
data.

[1] Although it is uncommon to use a tape as a block device, you never
know.  It's certainly possible, (not necessarily with Linux).

John.