Does linux manage filesystems better than win32 ?

Lately I've been having problems with my Maxtor 120gb hdd... while I'm in my Windows XP , the hdd would turn off itself automatically.. I mean by this is there would be a loud "clicking" sound, then the hdd would stop spinning (I can tell by touching it) , and second later my winxp would hang. I've to do a physical reboot to get it working again.

At first I thought it was a HDD failure, but when I'm in my Slackware, the problem never occur. It's really odd though. I run "chkdsk" and perfectdisk defragmenter regularly on my winxp, and chkdsk doesn't detect any errors so far.

Is it the way that linux kernel interact with the HDD and managing the filesystem is better than Windows XP?

Manage filesystem? Linux use filesystem differ from Windows..
Linux use ext2/3 or ReiserFs...while WinXP fat16/fat32/ntfs...
Anyway due to Linux algorithm, linux doesn't need any defragment as long as there's some little space left for the harddisk...

This post has been edited by keith_hjinhoh: Apr 24 2005, 07:55 PM

Hey there.

Maybe there is some setting inside Windows XP that caused the problems..
Power management.. Automatically turn off HDD..
Did you enable the HDD Smart feature? Trying read the nformation from Smart report.. If there's any error in the HDD, Smart will be the first to record it down.

Cheers.

Thanks for the reply
Yes I know that. I'm using Reiser on my root partition and ext3 on my /home. What I'm trying to say is maybe the linux filesystem is managing the hdd better than fat16/32 and NTFS.

I did disable S.M.A.R.T on the BIOS as I find a slight performance degrade is S.M.A.R.T is enabled. So you are suggesting that I enable S.M.A.R.T in the BIOS? If I did, where can I read the S.M.A.R.T report? is it through the BIOS?

Thanks

Well, yes. Linux filesystem is way better then Fat16/32/NTFS..I heard Longhorn is gonna applied new filesystem oso....NTFS will be abandoned again....not to said Fat16/32....

We should enable SMART nowadays.
Even if the performance might be slower, it doesn't really affect much on our work. Unless we are working in those time critical environment where 1 milisecond might make a huge difference.

After we have enabled SMART, Windows XP might notify us whenever there are some errors recorded inside SMART.

I'm using Sisoft Sandra Standard Edition to check.
It's free. Check it out.

Cheers.

erm... firstly i don think your hdisk has any problem. i've also have the same prob sometimes ago. i've notice that the reason for clicking sound in the middle of doing something in windows because lack of power. did u have use a lot of power on your pc? i mean like using two hardisk, two cdrom, high performance graphic card and etc? is that problem always accur? as for me, it happen sometimes. after i've chang my power supply to larger power, it not happen again.

AFAIK, file-system management issues have never been directly related to HDD power management. From the description that you gave about your HDD's behaviour, my best guess is that it's most probably due to your system's power-management.

Suggestions:
1. Check out your power-management settings for eg "Auto turn off HDD", "Hibernate", "Sleep mode/Standby mode".
2. If your system is a demanding one, do make sure you have enough power to back it up. It's common to apply True Power/Real Power PSUs to entry-level systems (for eg normal P4s with average GPU cards). It could be that just so happens you were drawing a lot of power just before your HDD decided to shut down.

Hope you'll solve your problem soon...

CHeers

that right fren one more thing dont ever connect hdisk power together with casing fan. as for my experiance, i've connected two hdisk with 9mm fan with the same power line and after a while one of my hdisk suddenly gone from my computer. i think that fan just 'bolot' all power and make one of my hdsik off.

P/s: before it gone, the clicking sound happen and my pc hang for awhile before it back again. but the hdisk is off

Yosh

You guys are right, the problem is with my PSU. The HDD is working fine now, and I've added another HDD to the inventory for some experiment with FC3.

Sorry for the late reply though.

Thanks again, really appreciated it