[Tfug] backup drive

[Jim March]

On Wed, Jan 7, 2009 at 5:55 PM,  <arizray at comcast.net> wrote:
> Wow, sounds like a great idea. Can do what you suggested. Once it is set up, Suse is gone from boot how should I treat the now backup drive (IDE) BTW. Should I reformat it with specific partitions? Since it has a swap partition I assume I don't need it since it will just be storage. etc.

Yeah, I'd pull all partitions on there now (assuming the data is
already evacuated!) including swap and do something new.  Now what
that something is, is another matter!  If you have any Windows
machines around, you might consider devoting a chunk of it to NTFS if
the remaining portion (likely set up as Ext3) is big enough to do all
your Ubuntu backups.

Because remember, even without opening the case up, you can now
unmount the drive, unplug the USB connector in the back, use a good
USB extender cable and plug this drive into any other computer, Linux
or Mac or Windows.  If you have a piece of drive formatted NTFS, it'll
be readable in all three OSes...basically turning your whole desktop
computer into the world's biggest memory stick :).

Otherwise just make the whole thing Ext3 if you need every bit of it
to backup your primary Ubuntu setup.

In my case, I have three external drives, 160/160/80, and my laptop
has a 250.  So I use one of the 160s and the 80 as primary backup -
both of those are desktop-size IDE drives.  I then have a 160 external
laptop-class drive in a mini-case that is my "flash drive from hell",
split Ext3 and NTFS.  That's for bailing a customer out whose system
is failing and needs backup NOW, and as some "fun files" (movies,
music) that can be nuked for more space if needed or passed around at
TFUG Thursdays :).  A laptop-size drive in a mini-case is tougher and
more compact, so I carry that around while leaving the two big drives
home as backup.

Jim