>
>
> Okay Matt (or anyone else who wants to answer this), could I do this:
first I make a directory in the usb called 'bmike1-backup'

#!/bin/bash
sudo mkdir /backups <-create backups dir
sudo mount /sdc1/backup-bmike1 /backups <- tell computer to see a directory
in the usb drive as /backups
rsync -av /home/bmike1
sudo umount backups; sudo rmdir backups <-make everything like it was


> On Sat, Jun 29, 2013 at 12:45 PM, Matt Graham <danceswithcrows@usa.net>wrote:
>
>> 1. Plug this disk in.  Usually, removable disks have 1 partition of type
>> FAT32
>> or NTFS covering their whole space.  (Check that this is the case, if not,
>> something weird may be going on.)
>>
>> 2. Make a filesystem with a label on this partition.  "mke2fs -j -L
>> MY_BACKUPS
>> /dev/sdN1" .  Find what N is by looking at the output of dmesg | tail.
>>
>> 3. Make an entry for the partition you made in your /etc/fstab :
>>
>> LABEL=MY_BACKUPS  /mnt/backup  ext3  noauto,users,noatime  0  0
>>
>> 4. As root, mkdir /mnt/backup if it doesn't exist, then mount this
>> partition
>> on /mnt/backup , mkdir /mnt/backup/USER , and chown USER /mnt/backup/USER
>> .
>>
>> 5. Make a shell script sort of like this:
>>
>> #!/bin/bash
>> if [[ $1 == '--help' || $1 == '-h' ]] ; then
>>     echo "backs up ~USER to backup drive."
>>     exit;
>> fi
>>
>> if mount | grep /mnt/backup > /dev/null ; then
>>     rsync -av --delete-after /home/USER/ /mnt/backup/USER
>> else
>>     echo "backup disk not mounted.  Trying to mount it."
>>     mount /mnt/backup
>>     if mount | grep /mnt/backup > /dev/null ; then
>>          echo "Is the disk plugged in?  Can't mount, bailing."
>>          exit 1
>>     fi
>>     rsync -av --delete-after /home/USER/ /mnt/backup/USER
>>     umount /mnt/backup
>> fi
>>
>> 6. Any time you want to make a backup, plug your disk in, and run that
>> shell
>> script.  The initial rsync will take some time.  Subsequent rsyncs will
>> take a
>> couple of minutes.
>>
>> This is AFAICT a reasonably good way to do things, because it doesn't
>> take a
>> lot of time to keep your backup up to date, and restoring is as simple as
>> mounting the backup disk and copying things over.  Since there is only 1
>> backup, though, you could delete something, make a backup, then realize
>> you
>> needed that thing.  I have 2 backup disks and rotate them every few days
>> to
>> make that less likely.
>>
>> You could even get fancy and use dm-crypt to back up your stuff to an
>> encrypted disk, which is useful in some situations like when you want to
>> leave
>> the disk somewhere that's not under your direct control like a friend's
>> house.
>>  Using dm-crypt makes things a bit more complex, but I can write another
>> message about that.
>>
>> --
>> Matt G / Dances With Crows
>> The Crow202 Blog:  http://crow202.org/wordpress/
>> There is no Darkness in Eternity/But only Light too dim for us to see
>>
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>
>