Backup disk FS

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1

I have a bare metal install and I want to backup my home folder to an external disk. which file system is recommended for this? I believe (correct me if I’m wrong) that BeFS is not stable anywhere but in Haiku and fat/exfat doesnt preserve extended attributes.

2

Linux can read BeFS. You can also use scp/sftp to copy the files to another machine (Linux, macOS). If you set the password in Haiku, you can use WinSCP on Windows to remotely connect, and grab the files you need.

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3

BFS or ZIP archive. Other solutions may cause loss of file attributes.

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4

Be careful with the config subfolder and check its content in the backup disk, there is a filesystem border and your tool possibly wont dive into the folders because that. I lost my settings because this once.

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5

I always use the addon ZipOMatic to make backups, and never had any issues when restoring the files. The extended attributes were preserved correctly.

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6

For me, I use an external archive disk partitioned & initialized as BFS and use ‘rsync’ to maintain exact duplication between the source to the archive disk, which make restoration very easy. I am usually working from the Terminal most times for such work.

I also use ZIP archiving if copying to non-BFS partitions as X512 stated.

There are other backup software available depending on what you want to achieve.

7

A BFS disk image can be a better idea instead.

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8

Good point. I probably should have clarifed my point of that statement. I use Zip archives for portability reasons and able to open and read these files in other OSes.

However, you made an excellent point, which is why I use the ‘dd’ command to create BFS images as needed that I treat like Ghost images, per se. These I save on foreign partitions. We have so many options for backing up our stuff!

9

There is a mkbfsimage command or something similar, I forgot.

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10

That’s nice…, i didn’t know its existence! thanks for the tip.

11

There is the command to initialize an image file as BFS:

~> mkfs --help
Usage: mkfs <options> <device> <volume name>

Options:
  -t, --type       <fs>   - set type of file system to create

  -l, --list-types        - list file systems that support initializing
  -h, --help              - print this help text
  -o, --options    <opt>  - set fs specific options
  -q, --dont-ask          - do not ask before initializing
  -v, --verbose           - set verbose output

Example:
  mkfs -t bfs -o 'block_size 4096; noindex' ./test.image Data
        This will initialize "test.image" with BFS with a block
        size of 4096 bytes, without index, and named "Data".
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12

could you share your rsync args?

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13

rsync
-auv --delete <== read man/info page for definitions
/boot/home/Temp/* <== source
/usb20fd/Temp <== destination

~> rsync -auv --delete /boot/home/Temp/* /usb20fd/Temp
sending incremental file list
created directory /usb20fd/Temp
BeOS5PEMaxEditionV4b1.iso
digiKam Bug Tracker notes.txt
digiKam-1149-debug-01-07-2021-23-49-29.report
digiKam-1211-debug-02-07-2021-21-19-43.report
digiKam-20791-debug-03-06-2021-20-59-24.report
digiKam-973-debug-24-06-2021-22-42-17.report
digiKam_crash.avi
esv-the.zip
showFoto_crash.avi
zsnes_0717.zip
Epson/
Epson/EPSON Stylus Color 600
Epson/EPSON Stylus Color 740
Epson/EPSON Stylus Color 760
Epson/EPSON Stylus Color 800
Epson/EPSON Stylus Color 850
Epson/EPSON Stylus Color 900
Epson/EPSON Stylus Photo
Epson/EPSON Stylus Photo 700
Epson/EPSON Stylus Photo 750
Epson/EPSON Stylus Photo 750 & PM-770C
Epson/EPSON Stylus Photo 870
Epson/EPSON Stylus Photo EX
Epson/EPSON Stylus Pro
Epson/EPSON Stylus Pro XL
Gobe Productive/
Gobe Productive/Gobe Productive 2.0.1-Archive.zip
Gobe Productive/Gobe Productive 2.0.1-Restore-build
Gobe Productive/Gobe Productive 2.0.1-Restore.pkg
Gobe Productive/Old/
Gobe Productive/Old/GPX8620-201-R5.pkg
Gobe Productive/Old/GPX8620-201.pkg
Gobe Productive/Old/Gobe_Productive_2.0.1_Retail-0.zip
Gobe Productive/Old/Gobe_Productive_2.0.1_Retail.zip
Gobe Productive/Old/ofctemplates036.pkg.zip
import/
import/load_add_rel.txt
import/load_artist.txt
import/load_artist_credit.txt
import/load_artist_credit_name.txt
import/load_artist_credit_type.txt
import/load_bibliography.txt
import/load_country.txt
import/load_credits.txt
import/load_genre.txt
import/load_image_file.txt
import/load_language.txt
import/load_media_file.txt
import/load_medium.txt
import/load_medium_type.txt
import/load_membership.txt
import/load_multimedia_format.txt
import/load_release.txt
import/load_release_second_type.txt
import/load_release_type.txt
import/load_track.txt

sent 760,165,430 bytes received 3,102 bytes 4,565,576.77 bytes/sec
total size is 759,976,007 speedup is 1.00
~> /boot/home/Temp

You get sync errors if backing up into non-BFS (i.e. Fat32) partitions but those are normal since attributes will be lost. Example:
rsync error: some files/attrs were not transferred (see previous errors) (code 23) at main.c(1189) [sender=3.1.3]

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