[opensuse] External USB disk drive - how to get started?
Hi there I would like to make a complete backup to an external harddrive. The drive is new and not formated yet. I would like to SUSE to see the drive, format it and copy my entire /home to the drive. How do I get started? Janus -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Saturday 03 November 2007 19:08, Janus wrote:
I would like to make a complete backup to an external harddrive. The drive is new and not formated yet.
PS: I run SuSE Linux 10.0. Yes, I know. Time to upgrade. That is why I really need a complete backup. :-) Janus -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
Janus wrote:
Hi there
I would like to make a complete backup to an external harddrive. The drive is new and not formated yet.
I would like to SUSE to see the drive, format it and copy my entire /home to the drive.
How do I get started?
Janus
Plug it in. Then open Yast Partitioner. You should see the drive. Format it and specify the desired mount point. -- Use OpenOffice.org http://www.openoffice.org -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Saturday 03 November 2007 23:54, James Knott wrote:
Plug it in. Then open Yast Partitioner. You should see the drive. Format it and specify the desired mount point.
I go YaST -> System -> Partitioner - and I only see /dev/hda - no external drive. Suggestions? Thanks. Janus -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
Janus wrote:
On Saturday 03 November 2007 23:54, James Knott wrote:
Plug it in. Then open Yast Partitioner. You should see the drive. Format it and specify the desired mount point.
I go YaST -> System -> Partitioner - and I only see /dev/hda - no external drive.
I just turned on my external 160 GB drive and it shows up in Partitioner as /dev/sdc. Do you see anything new, when you plug in that drive? -- Use OpenOffice.org http://www.openoffice.org -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
James Knott wrote:
Janus wrote:
On Saturday 03 November 2007 23:54, James Knott wrote:
Plug it in. Then open Yast Partitioner. You should see the drive. Format it and specify the desired mount point.
I go YaST -> System -> Partitioner - and I only see /dev/hda - no external drive.
I just turned on my external 160 GB drive and it shows up in Partitioner as /dev/sdc. Do you see anything new, when you plug in that drive?
James, the OP did state that he is using SuSE 10.0, and you are using 10.3. The point here is, does 10.0 have the same ability to recognise USB drives? If I recall correctly, weren't there some hassles in this area with SuSE prior to (?)10.2? Cheers. -- Past experience, if not forgotten, is a guide for the future. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
Basil Chupin wrote:
James Knott wrote:
Janus wrote:
On Saturday 03 November 2007 23:54, James Knott wrote:
Plug it in. Then open Yast Partitioner. You should see the drive. Format it and specify the desired mount point.
I go YaST -> System -> Partitioner - and I only see /dev/hda - no external drive.
I just turned on my external 160 GB drive and it shows up in Partitioner as /dev/sdc. Do you see anything new, when you plug in that drive?
James, the OP did state that he is using SuSE 10.0, and you are using 10.3. The point here is, does 10.0 have the same ability to recognise USB drives? If I recall correctly, weren't there some hassles in this area with SuSE prior to (?)10.2?
I don't recall and I don't have any 10.0 systems running. -- Use OpenOffice.org http://www.openoffice.org -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Saturday 03 November 2007 20:36, James Knott wrote:
Basil Chupin wrote:
James Knott wrote:
Janus wrote:
On Saturday 03 November 2007 23:54, James Knott wrote:
Plug it in. Then open Yast Partitioner. You should see the drive. Format it and specify the desired mount point.
I go YaST -> System -> Partitioner - and I only see /dev/hda - no external drive.
I just turned on my external 160 GB drive and it shows up in Partitioner as /dev/sdc. Do you see anything new, when you plug in that drive?
James, the OP did state that he is using SuSE 10.0, and you are using 10.3. The point here is, does 10.0 have the same ability to recognise USB drives? If I recall correctly, weren't there some hassles in this area with SuSE prior to (?)10.2?
I don't recall and I don't have any 10.0 systems running.
I didn't catch that. Yes, 10.0 was buggy as all getup when it came to USB external drives and USB thumb drives. I don't know if patches ever made it into that distro version, but I recall very serious issues with speed in transferring files when I went from 9.3 to 10.0. IIRC, the whole underbelly of USB was rewritten from the 9.x days and 10.0 "missed the boat." I remember distinctly feeling very pleased with 10.1 and 10.2 in terms of performance with USB drives. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
Kai Ponte wrote:
On Saturday 03 November 2007 20:36, James Knott wrote:
Basil Chupin wrote:
James Knott wrote:
Janus wrote:
On Saturday 03 November 2007 23:54, James Knott wrote:
Plug it in. Then open Yast Partitioner. You should see the drive. Format it and specify the desired mount point.
I go YaST -> System -> Partitioner - and I only see /dev/hda - no external drive.
I just turned on my external 160 GB drive and it shows up in Partitioner as /dev/sdc. Do you see anything new, when you plug in that drive?
James, the OP did state that he is using SuSE 10.0, and you are using 10.3. The point here is, does 10.0 have the same ability to recognise USB drives? If I recall correctly, weren't there some hassles in this area with SuSE prior to (?)10.2?
I don't recall and I don't have any 10.0 systems running.
I didn't catch that.
The OP has bought himself an external HD (to be able to do a backup of his 10.0 system before upgrading to 10.3) and is wondering how to go about formatting the HD. James suggested using Yast Partitioner but when OP does this the USB drive doesn't appear in the Partitioner.
Yes, 10.0 was buggy as all getup when it came to USB external drives and USB thumb drives.
I don't know if patches ever made it into that distro version, but I recall very serious issues with speed in transferring files when I went from 9.3 to 10.0.
IIRC, the whole underbelly of USB was rewritten from the 9.x days and 10.0 "missed the boat." I remember distinctly feeling very pleased with 10.1 and 10.2 in terms of performance with USB drives.
Ah, it appears that my memory is still reasonably functional :-) . (I suspect that someone like Carlos E will be able to dredge up from his extensive archives the appropriate messages which provided the "fix" which the OP could apply to overcome his problem.) Cheers. -- Past experience, if not forgotten, is a guide for the future. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Sunday 04 November 2007 05:29, Basil Chupin wrote:
The OP has bought himself an external HD (to be able to do a backup of his 10.0 system before upgrading to 10.3) and is wondering how to go about formatting the HD. James suggested using Yast Partitioner but when OP does this the USB drive doesn't appear in the Partitioner.
Exactly! :-)
(I suspect that someone like Carlos E will be able to dredge up from his extensive archives the appropriate messages which provided the "fix" which the OP could apply to overcome his problem.)
I'll keep my fingers crossed. As an alternative I will have to fire up my old Celeron 400 Mhz with 128 MB ram (which I guess will not run recent versions of SuSE), and use it as a backup media (scp over ethernet). Speaking of which: Is the a size limit for a tar-file? (can I make one big tar of my entire /home ~ around 15 - 30 GB depending of how much I clean up). Loking very much forward to the 10.3 upgrade - and to a better backup routine :-) Best, Janus -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
Janus wrote:
On Sunday 04 November 2007 05:29, Basil Chupin wrote:
The OP has bought himself an external HD (to be able to do a backup of his 10.0 system before upgrading to 10.3) and is wondering how to go about formatting the HD. James suggested using Yast Partitioner but when OP does this the USB drive doesn't appear in the Partitioner.
Exactly! :-)
(I suspect that someone like Carlos E will be able to dredge up from his extensive archives the appropriate messages which provided the "fix" which the OP could apply to overcome his problem.)
I'll keep my fingers crossed. As an alternative I will have to fire up my old Celeron 400 Mhz with 128 MB ram (which I guess will not run recent versions of SuSE), and use it as a backup media (scp over ethernet). Speaking of which: Is the a size limit for a tar-file? (can I make one big tar of my entire /home ~ around 15 - 30 GB depending of how much I clean up).
Loking very much forward to the 10.3 upgrade - and to a better backup routine :-)
Best, Janus
In the meantime you could help yourself by doing some searching for the answer in the Help Database. Start here: http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:SDB Cheers. -- Past experience, if not forgotten, is a guide for the future. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
Haven't followed this thread very closely, so pardon me if there are factors which render my suggestion invalid; On Sun, 04 Nov, 2007 at 11:20:52 +0100, Janus wrote:
On Sunday 04 November 2007 05:29, Basil Chupin wrote:
The OP has bought himself an external HD (to be able to do a backup of his 10.0 system before upgrading to 10.3) and is wondering how to go about formatting the HD. James suggested using Yast Partitioner but when OP does this the USB drive doesn't appear in the Partitioner.
Exactly! :-)
Does anything dictate that you *must* use the old system to do the backup? Otherwise you *could* just boot the 10.3 media to a rescue system, and use that to mkfs, mount, and backup to the USBdisk. Worth a shot, no? I mean, the alternative;
I'll keep my fingers crossed. As an alternative I will have to fire up my old Celeron 400 Mhz with 128 MB ram (which I guess will not run recent versions of SuSE), and use it as a backup media (scp over ethernet).
*is* going to take some time... /jon -- YMMV -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Sunday 04 November 2007 12:30, Jon Clausen wrote:
Does anything dictate that you *must* use the old system to do the backup?
No. I just need a reliable backup of "everything". I prefer to do copy the backup to the external HD.
Otherwise you *could* just boot the 10.3 media to a rescue system, and use that to mkfs, mount, and backup to the USBdisk. Worth a shot, no?
Thanks. Haven't thought about that solution and I am not familiar with "mkfs". but I guess I get the idea: I make some backup tar files, boot SuSE Linux 10.3 from a DVD (maybe the "live" version would be even better - maybe it has the YaST partitioner tool?), and from here I will have access to the external HD which I can then copy the backup tar files to. Great idea. Will give it a try. Thanks!
I mean, the alternative; (...) *is* going to take some time...
Oh yes... ;-) Janus -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
Janus wrote:
On Sunday 04 November 2007 12:30, Jon Clausen wrote:
Does anything dictate that you *must* use the old system to do the backup?
No. I just need a reliable backup of "everything". I prefer to do copy the backup to the external HD.
Otherwise you *could* just boot the 10.3 media to a rescue system, and use that to mkfs, mount, and backup to the USBdisk. Worth a shot, no?
Thanks. Haven't thought about that solution and I am not familiar with "mkfs". but I guess I get the idea: I make some backup tar files, boot SuSE Linux 10.3 from a DVD (maybe the "live" version would be even better - maybe it has the YaST partitioner tool?), and from here I will have access to the external HD which I can then copy the backup tar files to. Great idea. Will give it a try. Thanks!
I mean, the alternative;
(...)
*is* going to take some time...
Oh yes... ;-)
Janus
There was a discussion only last week (?or week before) in this forum about doing backups. Check out the archives for the discussion - start here: http://marc.info/?l=opensuse&r=1&w=2 Cheers. -- Past experience, if not forgotten, is a guide for the future. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
Hi, I used to have this problem sometimes in Slackware where auto mount doesn't come all pretty like on SUSE, so I just set up an Fstab entry to take care of it. right now I have SUSE 10.2 and KDE and Gnome would see my USB HD as soon as I plugged it in, but in Window Maker or Enlightenment, I wouldn't have the option and it didn't show up in mount anymore. What I ended up doing to fix it so it worked in every window manager and without X running was just booting and using KDE, checking Mount to see how it was mounted, and just adding that to /etc/fstab and then using mount /dev/sda1 to mount it for use. Hope it helps, -Allen -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
Janus wrote:
On Sunday 04 November 2007 12:30, Jon Clausen wrote:
Does anything dictate that you *must* use the old system to do the backup?
No. I just need a reliable backup of "everything". I prefer to do copy the backup to the external HD.
Otherwise you *could* just boot the 10.3 media to a rescue system, and use that to mkfs, mount, and backup to the USBdisk. Worth a shot, no?
Thanks. Haven't thought about that solution and I am not familiar with "mkfs". but I guess I get the idea: I make some backup tar files, boot SuSE Linux 10.3 from a DVD (maybe the "live" version would be even better - maybe it has the YaST partitioner tool?), and from here I will have access to the external HD which I can then copy the backup tar files to. Great idea. Will give it a try. Thanks!
I mean, the alternative; (...) *is* going to take some time...
Oh yes... ;-)
Janus Plug your usb drive in. Use as root "fdisk -l"
Within the last few lines you should see the device name that your device is, if anything is detected, that is. mount this device to a mountpoint e.g. mount /dev/sdc /mnt Do your backup. If this will not work, use a CD Distribution based Linux where Knoppix is way better that Opensuse imho and do your backups from there, as has been said. If you want to change your harddisks partitioning and/or layout and/or format it's filesystems, use Knoppix, open a konsole, "sudo su" and finally "qtparted" and anything else will be dead easy. Kind regards Eberhard -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Sunday 04 November 2007 12:30, Jon Clausen wrote:
Does anything dictate that you *must* use the old system to do the backup? Otherwise you *could* just boot the 10.3 media to a rescue system, and use that to mkfs, mount, and backup to the USBdisk.
It worked smooth: I Booted from a SuSE 10.3 Live CD and plugged in the USB drive. It was automatically recognized and mounted - and I could start copying files to it (it was already formated as FAT32). The drive is also visible in YaST partitioner tool, so now I can format the drive to ext3 and make the backup. Thanks for the suggestion. Simple. Obvious. Thanks! :-) Janus -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Tue, 06 Nov, 2007 at 00:17:22 +0100, Janus wrote:
On Sunday 04 November 2007 12:30, Jon Clausen wrote:
Does anything dictate that you *must* use the old system to do the backup? Otherwise you *could* just boot the 10.3 media to a rescue system, and use that to mkfs, mount, and backup to the USBdisk.
It worked smooth: I Booted from a SuSE 10.3 Live CD and plugged in the USB drive. It was automatically recognized and mounted - and I could start copying files to it (it was already formated as FAT32). The drive is also visible in YaST partitioner tool, so now I can format the drive to ext3 and make the backup.
Thanks for the suggestion. Simple. Obvious. Thanks! :-)
Great! Thanks for getting back to the list with the 'solution', even if it *is* a workaround :) /jon -- YMMV -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Sunday 04 November 2007 04:20:52 am Janus wrote:
Speaking of which: Is the a size limit for a tar-file? (can I make one big tar of my entire /home ~ around 15 - 30 GB depending of how much I clean up).
This is from ext2.txt (ext3.txt is not that detailed) in kernel sources documentation: Filesystem block size: 1kB 2kB 4kB 8kB File size limit: 16GB 256GB 2048GB 2048GB Filesystem size limit: 2047GB 8192GB 16384GB 32768GB -- Regards, Rajko. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Monday 05 November 2007 05:20, Rajko M. wrote:
This is from ext2.txt (ext3.txt is not that detailed) in kernel sources documentation:
Filesystem block size: 1kB 2kB 4kB 8kB File size limit: 16GB 256GB 2048GB 2048GB Filesystem size limit: 2047GB 8192GB 16384GB 32768GB
Thanks. Not sure about the block size on my filesystem, but good to know that at least 16 GB is allowed. Now I just need to find out if there is a size limit for tar. Cannot find anything about that in the documentation. Janus -- Machine Culture http://machineculture.com -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On 11/5/07, Janus
On Monday 05 November 2007 05:20, Rajko M. wrote:
This is from ext2.txt (ext3.txt is not that detailed) in kernel sources documentation:
Filesystem block size: 1kB 2kB 4kB 8kB File size limit: 16GB 256GB 2048GB 2048GB Filesystem size limit: 2047GB 8192GB 16384GB 32768GB
Thanks. Not sure about the block size on my filesystem, but good to know that at least 16 GB is allowed. Now I just need to find out if there is a size limit for tar. Cannot find anything about that in the documentation.
Janus
Tar is a sequential access based program. So it "might" have limits on how big a single file within the archive is, but it should not have any limitations on the size of the overall archive. Greg -- Greg Freemyer Litigation Triage Solutions Specialist http://www.linkedin.com/in/gregfreemyer First 99 Days Litigation White Paper - http://www.norcrossgroup.com/forms/whitepapers/99%20Days%20whitepaper.pdf The Norcross Group The Intersection of Evidence & Technology http://www.norcrossgroup.com -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
Quoting Basil Chupin
James Knott wrote:
Janus wrote:
On Saturday 03 November 2007 23:54, James Knott wrote:
Plug it in. Then open Yast Partitioner. You should see the drive. Format it and specify the desired mount point.
I go YaST -> System -> Partitioner - and I only see /dev/hda - no external drive.
I just turned on my external 160 GB drive and it shows up in Partitioner as /dev/sdc. Do you see anything new, when you plug in that drive?
James, the OP did state that he is using SuSE 10.0, and you are using 10.3. The point here is, does 10.0 have the same ability to recognise USB drives? If I recall correctly, weren't there some hassles in this area with SuSE prior to (?)10.2?
I had no trouble with USB external drives on an up to date SuSE 10.0. It recognized them and mounted them in /media without intervention. With 10.3, it recognizes them, but I have to mount them manually. Look at syslog(s) and see if the system is seeing them. Jeffrey -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Sun, 2007-11-04 at 14:15 +1100, Basil Chupin wrote:
James, the OP did state that he is using SuSE 10.0, and you are using 10.3. The point here is, does 10.0 have the same ability to recognise USB drives? If I recall correctly, weren't there some hassles in this area with SuSE prior to (?)10.2?
No I use flash drives just fine in 10.0 an external should be seen. ___ _ _ _ ____ _ _ _ | | | | [__ | | | |___ |_|_| ___] | \/ -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Sat November 3 2007 18:44, Janus wrote:
On Saturday 03 November 2007 23:54, James Knott wrote:
Plug it in. Then open Yast Partitioner. You should see the drive. Format it and specify the desired mount point.
I go YaST -> System -> Partitioner - and I only see /dev/hda - no external drive.
Suggestions? Thanks.
Try restarting Hal: rchal restart then plug your disk in again. -- Carlos FL Who is General Failure, and why is he reading my disk? -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
participants (12)
-
Allen -
Basil Chupin -
Carl Spitzer -
Carlos F Lange -
Eberhard Roloff -
Greg Freemyer -
James Knott -
Janus -
Jeffrey L. Taylor -
Jon Clausen -
Kai Ponte -
Rajko M.