[PLUG-TALK] Back Up Medium Change

[Rich Shepard]

On Fri, 4 Dec 2009, Paul Mullen wrote:

> There's no guarantee a USB device will always be assigned the same
> device node when it's plugged in. For this reason, I usually configure
> fstab with the UUID or LABEL for any removable file systems, rather
> than the device node. E.g.:

Paul/Larry,

   While there is no guarantee, my 1G USB flash drive always shows up in
/var/log/messages as sda1. If I don't have a mount point specified in
/etc/fstab, I cannot mount any removeable device; the message is "only root
can do that."

   My understanding of HAL is that removable devices are supposed to be
automounted on /media/<something> when they're plugged in, and 'mount'
should show that. On my system it doesn't work that way. Is there something
I need to configure so that users can plug in a USB device and have it auto
mounted somewhere on /media or /mnt so I can find it?

>> Is there a benefit of creating multiple partitions on this new
>> external drive (wich cfdisk) before I format it? Or, will a single
>> partition be the way to go?
>
> I don't think there's any straightforward technical answer to that
> question. If all you're using it for is backups, one partition will
> probably suffice.

   That's what I assume. I'll be using dervish to make daily backups (at
least Monday through Friday) and could not imagine an advantage to multiple
partitions. But, since this is new to me asking is better than making some
mistake and blowing up something.

Thanks,

Rich