Backing up to USB Hdd

fireknite · #1 27th September 2007, 11:59 PM

I went out and bought a USB hdd and have been tar-ing files to back up and put on this hdd. I currently running Core 4 and am planning on upgrading to Core 7 once everything is backed up. I'm wondering how to get Core 4 to allow me to mount and properly use the USB hdd. It's currently set up w/ NTFS(windows file system) and I'm not 100% sure if i want to keep it w/ that file system or go to something like ext3. Please advise.

b_martinez · #2 28th September 2007, 02:51 AM

If the hdd is large enough, why not re-size it using GParted or QTParted? Use 50% for ntfs and 50% for ext3.
Whatever you do, make absolutely sure that you are formatting the proper drive.
First you need to do these commands as root

Code:

su -
[enter root password here]
lsusb

the first command will 's'witch 'u'ser to root
the lsusb command will show if the system detects the hard drive.
If it's detected, then

Code:

vim /etc/fstab

to edit the fstab file. Add an entry for the usb drive similar to

Quote:

LABEL=[name you gave usb drive] /media/[name] auto user,exec,rw,noguid,nosuid,umask0002 0 0

To edit using vim
1) hit the 'insert' key to add
2) use the arrow keys to navigate
3) hit 'Esc' button to quit
4) type in :wq to write out the file and quit the editor.

Now you type in

Code:

updatedb

just to make sure that your computer uses the changed fstab file.
Now, finally you can use GParted to resize and make your etx3 partiton. (Or use the whole drive as win32

)

After you re-size, now you type in [in terminal]

Code:

mkdir /media/[give the usb drive name]
mount -t ext3 -O rw /dev/[name of usb drivein fstab]
cd /media/[name you gave to usb drive

Now you can either use the "cp" command to copy or the "mv" command to move the tar file to the usb drive.
I know this is an overly detailed explanation, but some one else may need the info. [If it works] (I've not used FC4 in a looooong time!
To move the tarfile

Code:

mv /[path to tar file] /[media/nameof usb drive]

i.e /path to tar file =/home/your name/name of tar file
hth
Bill

edit: the above instructions assume you will want part of the drive as NTFS. If not , then in the terminal
mkfs -t ext3 /dev/[name of usb drive]

fireknite · #3 28th September 2007, 05:49 AM

Hey thanks for the info, that all seemed to help. I am having a problem though, it seems as if after using the drive for a while it seems to "loose connection" and quit file transfer. When it does this if you try to copy anything else or remove stuff from the drive it says that it's "read-only" and when trying to change premissions or anything it won't allow it. The only way I seem to be able to get things working again is to unmount it (umount) and remount the drive. This won't work considering it craps out before 1gig of xfer and i've got ~200gigs to back up. Please advise.

b_martinez · #4 28th September 2007, 01:33 PM

fireknite, you've got me on that one. I've never had my drive do that. Perhaps it's a file permission? I really don't think so, but ...... try doing the cp command as root, maybe?
or
How about making a folder on the usb drive and label it FC4.bak, then opening it up and doing a drag and drop type thingy to transfer the file?
Gotta think this one through.
.................................................
Yep, I'll wager a noogie that it's probably a file permission thing if you tarred everything. There's likely filres in the 't'ape 'ar'chive that need root permissions to be transferred, and the transfer won't go through unless it's done by root.
Of course, I've been up since 0500 Thursday and it's now 0630 Friday, so I could be fulla s**t since I'm 90% dain bramaged and 9% zombied.

hth
Bill

fireknite · #5 30th September 2007, 01:55 AM

I think I figured out the problem, I believe it was having issues since i'm using an older mother board on this system w/out usb 2.0, i went out and got a usb 2.0 card and things seem to be going a lot smoother.

New question, is there a way to copy in the cmd terminal to where you can see the progress of the copy, ie xx% or xxx/yyyy complete? I have huge files i'm transfering and would like to see how far they are.

b_martinez · #6 30th September 2007, 03:41 AM

You may want to try

Code:

cp -vh /[path to tar file] /[path to usb drive file]

the -v option is to 'be verbose' ( -vv means be very verbose, maybe too much info)
the 'h' part means to use hash marks to show progress, but I don't think it'll show percentages. ( It may read them out on the end of the line showing the hash marks. )
# <---- this is a hash mark.

If you use the cp command , it'll copy. If you use mv instead, it'll move the file. cp is better, because you can run the "diff' command to make sure you have a good backup

Quote:

diff - find differences between two files

<---- from 'man diff' in terminal

Code:

man diff

or

Code:

info diff

for more information on diff.

If you've never used 'info', use 'man', then when you have some time to learn, in a terminal,

Code:

info info

or open emacs and read the file

hth
Bill

edit: Sorry I didn't think of you using usb 1.0. I b dain bramaged at times.
B

b_martinez · #7 30th September 2007, 05:15 AM

On second thought (man, does my head hurt).....
You may just want to md5sum both files and compare the output string.

Code:

 
md5sum /path to original tar file

write down the data string

Code:

md5sum /path to usb drive backup

and compare them.
But not much faster than 'diff' (if 'diff' even works on .tar.gz files)
Bill

fireknite · #8 30th September 2007, 05:24 AM

well after much trying, for some reason I've still got issues =/ For some reason I've still go the hard drive going into "read only mode". I'm going to be very happy when / if i ever get this figured out =/.

Seems as when i try copying over a 60gig .tar back up it will get about 80% through the file then hangs and comes up w/ an error saying the destination drive is read only and cannot be written to.

EDIT: I'm doing all the copying as root to ensure there is no permission issues...

b_martinez · #9 30th September 2007, 12:22 PM

Try this.
When you open the usb drive (or it opens itself) look at the name for it. Let's assume it's '/media/usb'
Open a terminal and as root type in

Code:

chmod 775 /media/usb
updatedb
exit

chmod 775 <---- gives read/write/execute access to root (first number) & users (second number) and read/execute access to others
updatedb <---- updates data base to ensure that the chmod command gets carried out right now.
This should help with the copying being fubar-ed.
hth
Bill

fireknite · #10 30th September 2007, 06:32 PM

Alright I'll give that a shot. Something I was thinking about is could my .tar file be to large and something happens during the copy? I've got about 5 tar files i'm trying to copy over, theres a couple about 500mb, and a couple 60gb and I don't have problems w/ the smaller ones, just the larger ones.

And thanks a lot for your help, nice to bounce ideas off someone =D.

fireknite · #11 30th September 2007, 11:22 PM

So far, *knock on wood*, the smaller files seem to be working, doing umount and mount between files (while i'm re .tar -ing everything). I guess the USB hdd kinda fell asleep during the xfer of the huge files and caused the "read only" and the errors. I hope that's what it was anyways lol.