[HLUG] SATA drive question

[Paul Stenning]

I'm using Simple Backup with a pair of 500GB USB drives (swapped over 
each week with one kept off-site) formatted to NTFS, with Ubuntu 8.04. 
It works fine, and I can also plug the drive into a windows PC and open 
the backup files with Winzip as they are .tar.gz files.

The trouble with FAT32 is that the maximum filesize is 4GB and my full 
backup files are much bigger than that.  I don't know whether Simple 
Backup would create multiple 4GB files or just fail.  Ubuntu 8.04 seems 
to have no problems reading and writing NTFS partitions which don't have 
that filesize limit.

When I swap the drives I delete the backup files from the one I am 
putting on (which is the older one), which forces it to do a full backup 
first, then it carries on with incrementals.

The only thing I haven't done yet is a test restore because I don't have 
another Ubuntu PC with a big enough hard disk currently.

Paul.


Morven Lewis-Everley wrote:
> I already do exactly what you are planning, and I would recommend FAT32.
> 
> If you are using ubuntu, search the add/remove for an app called "simple
> backup" (i think), which can schedual backups or perform then at the click
> of a button, it also does incremental backups
> 
> Mo
> On Wed, Nov 26, 2008 at 10:36 PM, dicegeorge at hotmail dot com <
> dicegeorge at hotmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> i think best to have it as FAT32
>> which all operating systems can read and write to...
>>
>> should be easy to drag folders onto it,
>> and to have lots of folders,
>>
>> cheap and enough room to back up everything
>> even the weird unix folders which you dont understand
>> cos there might be a setting hidden away somewhere
>> and you'll only know when youve lost it and you need it..
>>
>> and room for loads of photos, cds, xp stuff...
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>                   [george]
>>
>> ~                      [g]                         ~
>> ~        george at dicenews.com      ~
>> ~               07970 378 572            ~
>> ~         www.dicegeorge.com        ~
>> ~                     (c)2008                  ~
>> ~                                                   ~
>>
>>
>> --------------------------------------------------
>> From: <grhmc at lavabit.com>
>> Sent: Wednesday, November 26, 2008 5:28 PM
>> To: "Herefordshire Linux Users Group." <herefordshire at mailman.lug.org.uk>
>> Subject: [HLUG] SATA drive question
>>
>>> Taking George's advice on backing up wholesale to an external hard disk,
>>> my first step has been the purchase of a disk. It's got SATA drive so I
>>> need to know:
>>>
>>> 1 Will it be easy from linux to do a backup of my complete home file to
>>> this external disk
>>>
>>> 2 Could I also put other files on to the disk from a completely different
>>> system, eg a digital camera or an XP system.
>>>
>>> thanks
>>>
>>> Graham
>>>
>>>
>>>
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