flash drive icon in Nautilus
 

This is probably a dopey question, but hey--just consider the source, OK? ;)

Simple situtation:

Working in Ubuntu using Nautilus file manager in tree view, I want to back up my /home/jim_d/Music folder to a usb flash drive.

I plug in a usb flash drive and confirm it's mounted. In the Nautilus folder tree, the flash drive appears in two places:

As an icon labeled 4.0GB Filesystem
...and in the Ubuntu root folder tree as:
/media/2854-XXXX

So I can paste the folder using either the 4.0GB Filesystem icon, or the /media/2854-XXXX folder, correct?

I guess I'm confused about the "why" of two separate representations of the usb drive, wonder about some hidden "gotcha" and don't want to assume anything. In windows I was accustomed to seeing an icon for an external, but seeing one in Linux confuses me because I read all devices are mounted into the file tree--in this case as /media/2854-XXXX. So I'm not clear on the purpose of the flash icon--maybe it's just a Nautilus thing, with no significance?

Another Q about backups: Is there some advantage to using a dedicated backup tool, compared to a simple UI source-select/copy, then destination-select/paste like I'm doing?

Yo!

Okay, about dopey questions...you're talking to the champ here :D (me) but hey, as they say over here "questions are not stupid, as long as you learn from the ansers..."

Nuf said. Yes, if I plug in a flash/thumb drive, there are two icons, that is normal. In the file browser it apears as a device and on the desktop it behaves as a folder (on my desktop) - so, yes, that's normal. In fact, mine (Arch) opens a fresh file browser as well...talk about service... :)

Yes ... and no. If you want to make a backup as means of a copy (music, pictures, ...) then a copy-n-paste should do. As your flash drive is not plugged in all the time, a "cron" to do a backup would be silly...as there is no guarantee there is even a drive to gobble it up...

If you have a dedicated "fixed" setup (external drive, network drive, internal FTP server in the LAN, ...) I'd recommend rsync:
http://www.linuxmanpages.com/man1/rsync.1.php
and maybe even this
http://www.linuxbasement.com/content...sync-bash-cron

Enjoy, and please keep the questions comming. I learn from these, did ya know that?

;)

Thor