[HLUG] SATA drive question

[grhmc at lavabit.com]

Thanks for all this, I assume my SATA drive is just the drive type and
irrelevant to what is put in.
On my XP I have an icon at the bottom of the screen which appears when I
connect a camera or the ext HD and its purpose is for safely removing the
connected device. So it seems that windows has caught up at last with the
problem of demounting.
I have an ntfs file system with windows so I guess I'll best stick with that.
Now I've discovered Nero (with my XP) which seems to be a one-stop clever
gizmo for backing up and many other things.
BUT the main question for me was whether to use the external disc for an
Ubuntu backup, with the possibility of other things being added to the
same disc. It seems that you say it's possible and I can go ahead and
experiment with Simple Backup.

Thanks again

Graham

> Yes, Simple Backup creates one huge .tar.gz compressed file for the full
> backup.  For incremental backups it makes a .tar.gz file containing just
> the files which have changed since the last backup.  So you could
> restore files from any backup, not just the latest.
>
> It's not the same sort of thing as SyncToy.  For that functionality in
> Linux you should be looking at rsync or Unison, not at a backup program.
>   Both are in the Ubuntu repositories.  Unison has a GUI whereas rsync
> is command line.  With either you need to use CRON with command line
> parameters if you want to schedule them.
>
> Paul
>
>
> dicegeorge at hotmail dot com wrote:
>> So Simple Backup makes a huge backup file?
>>
>> From windows I use Microsofts SyncToy powertoy utility,
>> it copies files over as individual files, not a huge mega file,
>> and can update only  the changed files too...
>>
>> But I dont know if you can do this from ubuntu...
>>
>>
>>
>>                    [george]
>> --------------------------------------------------
>> From: "Morven Lewis-Everley" <m.lewis.everley at googlemail.com>
>> Sent: Thursday, November 27, 2008 4:03 PM
>> To: "Herefordshire Linux Users Group."
>> <herefordshire at mailman.lug.org.uk>
>> Subject: Re: [HLUG] SATA drive question
>>
>>> Ah, I want aware of a filesize limit. The issue I have with NTFS is
>>> that
>>> if
>>> you dont disconnect it from a Windows machine properly then you cant
>>> open
>>> it
>>> in Linux without accessing it as root from the terminal. Which is a bit
>>> of
>>> a
>>> pain, as getting windows to unmount drives properly seems near
>>> impossible!
>>>
>>> On Thu, Nov 27, 2008 at 12:14 AM, Paul Stenning
>>> <paul at vintage-radio.com>wrote:
>>>
>>>> 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]
>>>>>>
>>>>>> --------------------------------------------------
>>>>>> 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
>>>>>>>