Thanks, your response -  was very clear. only thing i'm not sure about 
is the naming a "main back up directory".
so does that mean that after i format it for ext4 or xfs that  i make a 
dir. called
> /media/backup_disk/MyBackups/20110716T190000/).
?
then on subsequent back ups i name them for example
> /media/backup_disk/MyBackups/20110816T190000/).(note month change)
what prevents rsync from thinking that this is a whole new dir? I guess 
i'm not clear on what a 'main backup dir' is.

can i use xfs as the format if my current home dir is on ext3 or 4?
Thanks,
betty i



On 07/16/2011 07:48 PM, Joseph Sinclair wrote:
> For backup, you can rsync to a directory named for the date under a main backup directory (e.g. /media/backup_disk/MyBackups/20110716T190000/).
> This has several advantages over using a lot of small partitions:
>    1) Using different directories on a single partition makes it easier to manage all the data (plus you don't hit the limits on the number of partitions permitted on a device).
>    2) It avoids the problem of figuring out which partition to mount for a backup without mounting them all and searching through the contents.
>    3) It makes rotation simpler (just delete anything more than X days old after a backup if the disk is getting more than Y% full).
>    4) With the right directory names (like the example above) you can find the most recent backup easily as well.

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