Alejandro_64

Q: What are the benefits of losses of convertin HFS+ to journaled?

Hello! Dirung the recovery process converted my HFS+ to HFS+ journaled. Is this good or bad? What are the benefits or losses of journaled?

 

PS Initially there was a Mountain Lion installed on HFS+ non-nournaled. But upon recovery Lion (10.7) installed and during installation it demanded me to convert partition from HFS+ to HFS+ journaled.

MacBook

Posted on Feb 6, 2013 8:11 PM

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Q: What are the benefits of losses of convertin HFS+ to journaled?

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  • by Kappy,Solvedanswer

    Kappy Kappy Feb 6, 2013 8:14 PM in response to Alejandro_64
    Level 10 (270,190 points)
    Desktops
    Feb 6, 2013 8:14 PM in response to Alejandro_64

    It's better, and it's required for OS X. See Mac OS X- About file system journaling.

  • by Niel,Helpful

    Niel Niel Feb 6, 2013 8:15 PM in response to Alejandro_64
    Level 10 (311,763 points)
    Feb 6, 2013 8:15 PM in response to Alejandro_64

    This enables Time Machine to back it up and the drive to be non-destructively repartitioned at the cost of slightly decreasing performance. Generally, the non-journaled option should only be used on scratch drives where performance is an issue and file retention isn't, and those are only used with programs such as Final Cut.

     

    (76267)

  • by Alejandro_64,

    Alejandro_64 Alejandro_64 Feb 6, 2013 11:49 PM in response to Kappy
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Desktops
    Feb 6, 2013 11:49 PM in response to Kappy

    Are you sure journaling is absolutely necessary for the OS X to be installed on that drive? As far as I remember the first reincarnation of the OS was installed on UNJOURNALED frive. And the request to make it journaled ariived only upon my attempt to reinstall OS X.

     

    As far as I remember there was the ONLY drive in my system (excluding Restore Partition, about 1,5GB) and it was NOT journaled, but OS X ML was installed upon it and fuctioned properly. And the request to make it journaled arrived just when I tried to REINSTALL OS X on it.

     

    Very-very strange...

  • by Alejandro_64,

    Alejandro_64 Alejandro_64 Feb 6, 2013 11:51 PM in response to Alejandro_64
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Desktops
    Feb 6, 2013 11:51 PM in response to Alejandro_64

    And one more clarification - is the journaling so necessary for MacBook? It will never have any power failures or something like that.

  • by BobHarris,Helpful

    BobHarris BobHarris Feb 7, 2013 6:44 AM in response to Alejandro_64
    Level 6 (19,272 points)
    Mac OS X
    Feb 7, 2013 6:44 AM in response to Alejandro_64

    Journaling does not hurt you, it only helps.  It makes sure that all file metadata operations are performed on the correct order, and in the event of a crash, power failure, cable pulled out of external drive, etc... that any file metadata changes occuring at the moment will either be properly completed or rolled back so that the file system is correct.

     

    File metadata are time stamps, ownership, permissions, storage allocation, directory entries, etc... Everything except you actual data.

     

    Without journaling, the current huge terabyte sized drives with millions of files on them would require scanning every file looking at every bit of file system metadata after a crash to make sure that the file system integrety was correct before allowing the drive to be mounted for your use.

     

    This full file system check (fsck) can take hours.   The journal replay takes seconds.

     

    You WANT the Journal.

  • by Kappy,

    Kappy Kappy Feb 7, 2013 11:58 AM in response to Alejandro_64
    Level 10 (270,190 points)
    Desktops
    Feb 7, 2013 11:58 AM in response to Alejandro_64

    For Lion and Mountain Lion the format must be Journaled. They will not allow an installation to proceed on a non-Journaled drive.