Boost Your Disk Performance by Using Journal Data Writeback Mode of Ext3

As of now Ext3 has been the default filesystem and Journal Data Ordered has been its default mode. Of course, Ext4 has already been included in kernel 2.6.28, but most of us are using Ext3 till we make a big leap in a year or two. So, let's make the best of it while we can.

Ext3 has 3 journaling modes:

1. Journal Data
2. Journal Data Ordered
3. Journal Data Writeback

Most Linux distros by default use mode 2 of Ext3, that is much safer though less faster. We can use mode 3, i.e., Data Writeback to improve with a little tradeoff of safety. In this mode you might loose some recent data in case of a crash. But as a home user there is less chance of such events.
Let's get on to the task.

Open Konsole and be a super user.

Code:

su

Modify /etc/fstab

Code:

nano /etc/fstab

Modify mounted partition by adding data=writeback

Code:

# Pluggable devices are handled by uDev, they are not in fstab
/dev/sda1 / ext3 defaults,noatime,data=writeback 1 1
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts mode=0622 0 0
/dev/sda3 /home auto defaults,noatime,data=writeback 1 2
# Dynamic entries below
/dev/sda2 swap swap sw,pri=1 0 0
/dev/cdrom /media/cdrom udf,iso9660 noauto,users,exec,ro 0 0
/dev/hda /media/cdrom udf,iso9660 noauto,users,exec,ro 0 0

Modify /boot/grub/menu.lst file.

Code:

nano /boot/grub/menu.lst

Add data=writeback the way mentioned below

Code:

timeout 0
color cyan/blue white/blue
foreground ffffff
background 0639a1

gfxmenu /boot/grub/message

title MEPIS at sda1, newest kernel
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/sda1 data=writeback nomce quiet splash vga=791
initrd /boot/initrd.img
boot

title MEPIS at sda1, kernel 2.6.27-1-mepis-smp
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-1-mepis-smp root=/dev/sda1 data=writeback nomce quiet splash vga=791 /mnt/mepis/boot/grub/menu.lst
boot

Now change journaling mode of Ext3 in your disk partitions manually to writeback

Code:

tune2fs -o journal_data_writeback /dev/sda1
tune2fs -o journal_data_writeback /dev/sda3

Now check your filesystem.

Code:

tune2fs -l /dev/sda1

You will see journal_data_writeback applied to your default mount options. Please click on the image to see it in its true size.



And finally, reboot your system.