Haines Brown <haines@???> wrote:

> I left the drive NTFS because I wanted easy access to the drive for folks (granschildren) who do not run Linux.
>
> Othersie I prefer ext4. When you say NTFS is slower, to you mean three times slower (which I am experiencing) or a bit slower?

In my experience, as already said, very significantly slower - so yes, could easily be the /3 performance hit you've observed.

I have a suggestion ...
Create a small partition in NTFS or Fat, and put some files on there saying what else is on the drive - and some hints on how to access it. The way things are, it is highly unlikely that none of the intended recipients would not know anyone with the skills and ability to read the backups - as long as they (your descendants) actually know what to ask.
So yes, if you just have an EXT4 partition, they'll have no idea - if they get a small disk with notes saying "the files are on another partition - find someone who knows Linux or [list of other OSs that handle EXT4], or find software for your Windows machine that can handle it (it does exist), then they'll have the basic information to get at your files.

PS - yes, I second the suggestion for rsync.

Simon