Rsync from say /dev/hda1 to /dev/sda1 backup

DIRdiver · 09-22-2006, 02:45 PM

Hi , If I want to backup up say all my critical files on a partition say /dev/hda1 to an external usb /dev/sda1 backup drive what options should be used to do this , or is rsync not a good tool for this ?

TIA

TigerOC · 09-22-2006, 03:43 PM

rsync is ideal for this purpose. Create a directory called backup on the external drive. Mount the drive under /mnt and do the following;

rsync --delete-after -avH /[directory_name]/ /mnt/backup/[directory_name]

see man rsync for detailed interpretation. Basic explanation is sync the directories and delete updated files in verbose mode.

DIRdiver · 09-22-2006, 04:43 PM

Thanks TigerOC , why would I want to delete any files though ? I am basically just wanting to backup physical harddisk partition /dev/hda1 to an external drive for safe keeping on /dev/sda1

TIA

tidiman07 · 09-22-2006, 07:30 PM

Code:

rsync -arvuz /dev/hda1 /dev/sda1

a- archieve
r- recursive
v- verbose
u- update
z- compress

-check out manual!

Code:

$ man rsync>rsync
$ kate rsync

amitsharma_26 · 09-22-2006, 08:14 PM

http://amitsharma.linuxbloggers.com/how_to_rsync.htm

TigerOC · 09-23-2006, 03:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DIRdiver

Thanks TigerOC , why would I want to delete any files though ? I am basically just wanting to backup physical harddisk partition /dev/hda1 to an external drive for safe keeping on /dev/sda1

TIA

After the initial sync rsync only updates files that have changed making it fairly quick after the initial run. The delete-after switch ensures that files that are no longer present (deleted) are deleted from the archive which means the copy is an exact copy of the original. If you don't use the switch it will retain the files which are likely to be useless to you anyway.

chovy · 10-09-2006, 07:42 PM

http://rsnapshot.org is a great perl utility.