HOWTO: Backup using Rsync to NTFS

[abhiroopb]

I'm unsure about this but I just tested it out (on the folder /var/log). I added the -z tag and the -a tag, so as to preserve file permissions (right?) and I looked at the permissions and it was drwxrwxrwx which is the same as the permissions I get using my guide. So I can't see any change. Further if I look at my EXT3 backup I see drwxr-xr-x. So, I'm unsure what exactly is happening!

As far as I have read and know, NTFS cannot preserve permissions. But I am no expert!

[sanus|art]

I was checking by the permissions of scripts (user, group, executable etc.) and they was preserved while I copied them from backup to my desktop.

P.S.
I am not expert ether, was posted here to increase stability of peoples backup, so if my comments was somewhat misleading - I am apologize.

[abhiroopb]

And you used ntfs? Thats interesting maybe the problems have been addressed. Hopefully someone who has more experience can comment.

[sanus|art]

And you used ntfs? Thats interesting maybe the problems have been addressed. Hopefully someone who has more experience can comment.

Yes, I am not using XP for about 6 months - so XP is for backups only and it is NTFS.

[mashedbear]

Thank you for this Howto. I have followed the instructions changing the paths for my system. The source files are copied to the destination ok but files deleted from the source are not deleted from the destination NTFS drive.

In the terminal (can I send this output to a log file?) I can see an error message saying IO error detected - skippping file deletion.

Any ideas how I can solve this?

ps. I also get this error at the end of the rsync process rsync error: some files could not be transferred (code 23) at main.c(1058) [sender=3.0.3]

[sanus|art]

pass

--log-file=/path/to/log/file/name-of-log-file.log

to it.
e.g.

rsync --force --log-file=/var/log/rsync-www.log --progress --ignore-errors --delete --delete-excluded -avzlpE /home/user/www /media/backup/www

and than see what's wrong.

[mashedbear]

pass

--log-file=/path/to/log/file/name-of-log-file.log

to it.
e.g.

rsync --force --log-file=/var/log/rsync-www.log --progress --ignore-errors --delete --delete-excluded -avzlpE /home/user/www /media/backup/www

and than see what's wrong.

Thanks. I used the log file option as you said. This works great. Still not sure what was causing the problem but have now used the --ignore-errors argument and this seems to be doing the job. So my script is now:

#!/bin/bash

sudo rsync -rltDvu --log-file=/var/log/rsync-backupBIG.log --ignore-errors --modify-window=1 --progress --delete --delete-excluded --exclude-from=/home/paul/bash/BackupBigExclude.txt / /media/EXTHD/gandalf_backup

Thanks for your help

[gluxoid]

Thanks for your tutorial. Especially the --modify-window=1 option has been useful to me.

[krivine]

Thank you; the --modify-window=1 flag was just what I needed.

[Moyamo]

can windows computers read the compressed files?