Journaled (external) Scratch Disks at DVinfo.net

Paul E. Coleman · March 27th, 2009, 05:35 PM

Been seeing a lot of comments about not journaling external scratch disks, but no one ever states why. From what I've read, journaling helps in the event of failure like a of power loss, which seems more likely for an external hard drive. Is it that the journaling slows down performance or is it something else that no one is stating?

I have six external enclosures all probably journaled used as scratch disks and back-up.

Robert Lane · March 27th, 2009, 08:05 PM

Years ago when Mac OSX introduced journaling there were some issues with stability and OS overhead causing hangs; that's a thing of the past. Today there's no reason not to use journaling and that's the default OSX configuration. It absolutely *will* and does help rebuilding corrupted directories, just ask the guys at Alsoft who make DiskWarrior.

Andy Mees · March 28th, 2009, 02:36 AM

Wholeheartedly agree. The "don't journal media drives" advice is outdated.

Paul E. Coleman · March 28th, 2009, 08:09 PM

for the clarification. It's so commonly stated that it's probably passed on without even knowing why or why not.

March 27th, 2009, 05:35 PM	#1
Paul E. Coleman Regular Crew Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: 42º 12' N, 72º 32' W Posts: 88	Journaled (external) Scratch Disks Been seeing a lot of comments about not journaling external scratch disks, but no one ever states why. From what I've read, journaling helps in the event of failure like a of power loss, which seems more likely for an external hard drive. Is it that the journaling slows down performance or is it something else that no one is stating? I have six external enclosures all probably journaled used as scratch disks and back-up.

March 28th, 2009, 08:09 PM	#4
Paul E. Coleman Regular Crew Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: 42º 12' N, 72º 32' W Posts: 88	Thanks... for the clarification. It's so commonly stated that it's probably passed on without even knowing why or why not.

March 27th, 2009, 08:05 PM	#2
Robert Lane Go Go Godzilla Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Scottsdale, AZ USA Posts: 2,788 Images: 15	Years ago when Mac OSX introduced journaling there were some issues with stability and OS overhead causing hangs; that's a thing of the past. Today there's no reason not to use journaling and that's the default OSX configuration. It absolutely will and does help rebuilding corrupted directories, just ask the guys at Alsoft who make DiskWarrior.

March 28th, 2009, 02:36 AM	#3
Andy Mees Major Player Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Posts: 645	Wholeheartedly agree. The "don't journal media drives" advice is outdated.