HOWTO: Backup using Rsync to NTFS

[kitus_san]

Suffice to say these commands are quite technical, but they all work for me. Notice nowhere here do I tell it to preserve permissions as these will not work if you are copying to an ntfs system.
For more information on rsync commands see http://www.samba.org/ftp/rsync/rsync.html.

Hello, I just came across this tutorial in a desperate search for a solution or a confirmation of something I'm starting to be afraid of regarding NTFS rsync from EXTx. If the author is still monitoring this thread I would be very grateful for a response.

FWIF, this response links to the thread to be found here http://forum.qnap.com/viewtopic.php?...165098#p165098

I can't seem to get rsync to set the creation time of the synced files correctly. It sets the current time instead, pretty much like the command "copy" would do.

Can this be done at all? thanks a lot in advance,

[Moyamo]

have you tried adding the -t option to the rsync command
e.g.

yaseen@yaseens-desktop:~$ rsync -t ~/Pictures /media/Flashdrive/Pictures

[kitus_san]

have you tried adding the -t option to the rsync command
e.g.

yaseen@yaseens-desktop:~$ rsync -t ~/Pictures /media/Flashdrive/Pictures

Hi there,

thanks for your response.

The command I use is

rsync -rlptgoD -vh --delete -i --backup --modify-window=1 /share/photos /mnt/MC4G/Backups/photos/

Please, if you can, have a look at the link provided in my previous post. There you can find some outputs that reflect to a large extent what my problem is.

Thanks a lot

[Moyamo]

That is very unusual. I never have that problem. I not sure if this will help but try replace the -rlptgoD with -a it might make a difference and add -u it will cause rysnc to not replace existing files of a later date than the one on the source. If that doesn't word then there is probably something wrong with the Backup drive

[kitus_san]

That is very unusual. I never have that problem. I not sure if this will help but try replace the -rlptgoD with -a it might make a difference and add -u it will cause rysnc to not replace existing files of a later date than the one on the source. If that doesn't word then there is probably something wrong with the Backup drive

Hellow there,

thanks for answering.

rsync.samba.org states

-u, --update skip files that are newer on the receiver
The problem here is that for some reason, the files on the ntfs partition does not keep the original creation time but the recent time of sync. This is annoying because I lose part of the information in case I need to restore information from that partition eventually. This option may be a workaround but I would rather prefer rsync to analize all the data and then to decide what to sync based on the date itself.

Adding -u seems to avoid resyncing, which is good (I had already incorporated that option from what is stated in the first post). But i just don't want to give in so easy. There must be a way of transfering the creation date from the EXT3 partition on to the NTFS partition.

Thanks a lot,

MArc

[Moyamo]

I have no idea what could be the problem. The times are preserved when I rsync my EXT3 drive to my NTFS drive. I think the only thing left to try is to run the command as root (sudo).

[kitus_san]

I have no idea what could be the problem. The times are preserved when I rsync my EXT3 drive to my NTFS drive. I think the only thing left to try is to run the command as root (sudo).

I'm running that command as QNAP admin (ie, root): http://forum.qnap.com/viewtopic.php?...165957#p165957

Can you confirm that the creation time is kept across rsyncs?? Can you post the command you are running? I don't understand how come the creation time is set to the moment I run the command! this doesn't make any sense

[Moyamo]

sudo rsync -azvvvu  --modify-window=1 --delete --exclude-from=/home/yaseen/bin/doNotSync.txt --log-file=/home/yaseen/bin/backupflash.log ~/ /media/Yaseen\'s\ backup\ flash\ drive/Ubuntu\ Backup

That's the command I run. I run I few identical commands that are exactly the same except for the source and destination.

[kitus_san]

sudo rsync -azvvvu  --modify-window=1 --delete --exclude-from=/home/yaseen/bin/doNotSync.txt --log-file=/home/yaseen/bin/backupflash.log ~/ /media/Yaseen\'s\ backup\ flash\ drive/Ubuntu\ Backup

That's the command I run. I run I few identical commands that are exactly the same except for the source and destination.

Hi there,

just deleted all the files in the destination ntfs partition, run a fresh rsync and again all the files did not preserve the creation timestamp

At least I have a backup of all of my data by now, but I sort of hate having to give in

[pquinnet]

March 20, 2011 and still asking if you can now do RSYNC to an external drive formatted in NTFS ?? ABHIROOPB had a great
writeup in 2006 and I was wondering if anything changed in 5 years. thanks in advance .... pq