J
Jarret W. Buse
Guest
Partition Format Speeds
Many Linux users may ask about the various partition formats. There are articles on Linux.org which cover more specifics about each format. None of those articles make a comparison on speed differences.
To test speed differences, I used the same USB thumb drive for all tests. The thumb drive remained connected to the same USB Port. The only change was the format of the thumb drive.
To test the speed itself, I copied a folder containing 4.4 GB of 12 files in 1 folder. The results for each format and the time it took in minutes:seconds are as follows:
As you can see, these are in order of fastest to slowest.
NOTE: Click on any of the file system types (except NTFS) to see more detailed information about that file system.
The average breakdown of each for throughput speed is:
These values will change depending on the system and the hardware. Memory size and availability can also alter the results. Free CPU time could affect the values as well, but remember that the overall order should remain the same. The varying throughput of the motherboard and device controller can make a huge difference. The comparison should be similar between the various hardware since it will be the same for all formats.
My test system is running Linux Mint 17.1Cinnamon (32-bit) with a kernel version of 3.13.0-37-generic. Installed are 2 GB of RAM. The test system is a Symple PC.
The command I used to obtain the time is: date; cp -R /media/jarret/TOSHIBA\ EXT/DVD/Files/* /media/jarret/Norton; date.
The command works by first printing the date, performing the copy from the source to the destination with all sub-folders and files. The date is then printed again which includes the current time. From the two printed times I was able to subtract the first from the second and find the time it too to perform the copy.
I hope this helps give an idea of the speed differences of each file system format. Be aware that as the drivers are changed, the performance may be enhanced.
Many Linux users may ask about the various partition formats. There are articles on Linux.org which cover more specifics about each format. None of those articles make a comparison on speed differences.
To test speed differences, I used the same USB thumb drive for all tests. The thumb drive remained connected to the same USB Port. The only change was the format of the thumb drive.
To test the speed itself, I copied a folder containing 4.4 GB of 12 files in 1 folder. The results for each format and the time it took in minutes:seconds are as follows:
As you can see, these are in order of fastest to slowest.
NOTE: Click on any of the file system types (except NTFS) to see more detailed information about that file system.
The average breakdown of each for throughput speed is:
- EXT4 – 10.28 MB/s
- NTFS – 10.23 MB/s
- JFS – 9.71 MB/s
- XFS – 9.26 MB/s
- EXT2 – 9.00 MB/s
- FAT32 – 9.00 MB/s
- EXT3 – 8.37 MB/s
- ReiserFS – 6.25 MB/s
These values will change depending on the system and the hardware. Memory size and availability can also alter the results. Free CPU time could affect the values as well, but remember that the overall order should remain the same. The varying throughput of the motherboard and device controller can make a huge difference. The comparison should be similar between the various hardware since it will be the same for all formats.
My test system is running Linux Mint 17.1Cinnamon (32-bit) with a kernel version of 3.13.0-37-generic. Installed are 2 GB of RAM. The test system is a Symple PC.
The command I used to obtain the time is: date; cp -R /media/jarret/TOSHIBA\ EXT/DVD/Files/* /media/jarret/Norton; date.
The command works by first printing the date, performing the copy from the source to the destination with all sub-folders and files. The date is then printed again which includes the current time. From the two printed times I was able to subtract the first from the second and find the time it too to perform the copy.
I hope this helps give an idea of the speed differences of each file system format. Be aware that as the drivers are changed, the performance may be enhanced.
