I switched out two computers because I was having problems with the weaker one. Now I am using the more powerful one and when I go to save stuff in Back in Time it tells me I need a linux-friendly usb drive (see screenshot).

The weaker computer was fine saving the same stuff. (the usb drive is FAT32, which is supposed to be Windows and Linux friendly).

Any idea what's going on? And I'd really rather not re-format the usb drive. Thanks.

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FAT32 isn't linux friendly, it's just compatible with everything.
That error looks pretty explanatory. FAT doesn't support hard links.
If you or the program wants to use hard links, it better be on a filesystem that supports it.. like ext4.

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really the choice of filesystem depends on what you are going to be doing with the drive, if you are going to be using the drive with Linux machines, and only Linux machines, than i would say to go with a linux native system such as ext4 as Sefyir said

if you need to share it with windows or macs, than fat32 would be a better choice, however there is a trade off

fat32 is usable with almost any modern OS, but it lacks a lot of features that *NIX operating systems use, such as hardlinks/symlinks/permission bits etc and also has a filesize limit of 4GB, whereas ext4 isn't as compatible naively with as many operating systems.

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Thanks but how come FAT supported the exact same files (including hard links) on the other computer then?

Thanks. I knew about the file size thing. And as you say fat32 is good for sharing with other systems. Yes, I understand ext4 is better for Linux but in this instance I want to use fat32. But Back in Time is telling me I can't do it. And I looked up "hard links." They're just files. And Back in Time worked fine on the other computer with the destination being formatted in fat32. Just doesn't make sense.

nope, a file system is a tool, nothing more, nothing less, it only makes sense to use the most appropriate tool for the job.

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There are no hard links on that drive, FAT32 does not support hard links. Most likely some odd process is trying to create a hard link when you plug in your USB drive, thus the error message. Gotta love these bloated desktop environments.

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meh, i think environments that obfuscate what's going on are worse than bloat imo.

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I added some checks for the filesystem (and that warning) in current version which was released two weeks ago. BIT was working on your old machine with FAT32, that's correct. But it never used hard links and so it was filling up your drive with a whole new copy of all backup data with every new snapshot you created. I highly recommend using a native Linux FS or at least NTFS if you need to use that drive on Windows, too.

Regards,
Germar, BIT Dev-Team

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Thanks Germar. I appreciate you responding. I do have a few questions still though. (Just trying to understand.)

So since I was using FAT32 as the destination the backups were not incremental?

And please say what you mean by "it" in this sentence:

But it never used hard links and so it was filling up your drive with a whole new copy of all backup data with every new snapshot you created.

So in other words, since the backups to FAT32 destinations are not incremental, you no longer allowed them to occur?

All my usb drives (which is what I use for the destination) are FAT32 but I can reformat some of them to that NTFS.

And I just love BIT. Thank you for it.

No they where not. Take a look at the FAQ How can I check if my snapshots are incremental (using hard-links)?

it = BackInTime used with FAT32 destination drive

There where so many bug reports and questions all caused by FAT destinations so I decide to add this warning. IMHO there is no need to use FAT at all. If someone really need Windows compatibility he/she can use NTFS. Only thing is, that almost every external drives are preformatted with FAT32.

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Thanks Germar.

Only thing is, that almost every external drives are preformatted with FAT32.

Yes.

Okay, I am going to convert a usb drive to NTFS and use that one for BIT. Just one last question:

Your warning about using FAT and hardlinks does not allow the user to use FAT as the destination, right? (So it's kind of more than a warning that lets you proceed, right?)

Jepp. You're right. For FAT this is a strict rule (which means it will not accept this destination). Also sshfs is strict (sshfs doesn't support hard links either). For cifs I added just a warning (default smb config is to not accept symlinks) but you can proceed using that destination.

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Thanks Germar. I appreciate it.