Although Linux is a much safer OS with far fewer software-related crashes, Linux users
have not been entirely exempt from the involuntary shutdown. When this happens
under the ext2 file system, the fsck program also scans the entire file system to make sure
no data is lost in the crash. It could also take its time in processing the drive before you
can log in.
Choosing a File System 375
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The journal file makes it tremendously faster and easier to confirm that the disk is not
damaged and that data is not lost. The journal knows what changes (saving new data,
creating new files, deleting files, updating, and so on) were made to the disk since the last
normal shutdown and tells the disk scanner where they are physically located on the
disk. The scanner confirms that the location is not damaged and proceeds. This process
does not guarantee that no data will be lost in this situation (the journal does not know
what you typed since the last save before the crash), but it is in much better shape.
ReiserFS also manages blocks much differently than the Extended Filesystem (ext2, ext3),
allowing many small files to share a block.
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