External drive and Grub

[Skybear]

I haven't used Terminal for that for years, I usually use GParted.

I used our site's inbuilt search facility (top right) with the following keywords

terminal format external drive

to find the following, which is worth a read if you go that way.

https://www.linux.org/threads/how-t...inal-getting-a-base-knowledge-to-start.53878/

To distinguish between your three drives , as you say,


I would use

sudo fdisk -l #That's a lowercase l for larry

Start it with the target (backup) drive unplugged, and run the command, then repeat the command with the drive plugged in and on (is it powered or unpowered?)

I'll show you a highly snipped version of mine, sparing showing all the partitions.

Spoiler: Wizard's Output sudo fdisk -l

chris@Xia-Cinnamon-HDD:~$ sudo fdisk -l
[sudo] password for chris:       
Disk /dev/sda: 1.82 TiB, 2000398934016 bytes, 3907029168 sectors
Disk model: ST2000LM007-1R81
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: E2A7EE41-C3C5-4693-B181-92DE169D2710

Device          Start        End   Sectors  Size Type
/dev/sda1  3903883264 3907029133   3145870  1.5G EFI System
/dev/sda2        2048   41947135  41945088   20G Linux filesystem
/dev/sda3    41947136   94380031  52432896   25G Linux filesystem
<snip>
/dev/sda42 3050872832 3113785343  62912512   30G Linux swap
/dev/sda43 3113785344 3155728383  41943040   20G Linux filesystem
/dev/sda44 3155728384 3208157183  52428800   25G Linux filesystem


Partition table entries are not in disk order.


Disk /dev/sdb: 238.47 GiB, 256060514304 bytes, 500118192 sectors
Disk model: Micron 1100 SATA
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 23DFE224-2C79-470D-BE13-0B577594E4B3

Device         Start       End  Sectors  Size Type
/dev/sdb1  498020352 500117503  2097152    1G EFI System
/dev/sdb2       2048  41945087 41943040   20G Linux filesystem
<snip>

Partition table entries are not in disk order.


Disk /dev/sdc: 3.64 TiB, 4000786153472 bytes, 7814035456 sectors
Disk model: My Book 25EE 
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000

Device          Start        End    Sectors   Size Type
/dev/sdc1        2048   41945087   41943040    20G Linux filesystem
/dev/sdc2    41945088   83890175   41945088    20G Linux filesystem
<snip>
/dev/sdc49 7810914304 7814033407    3119104   1.5G EFI System

Other questions you may wish to consider include but are not limited to:

1. Do I want to use the entire 1TB for Timeshift snapshots? Or maybe
2. A few hundred gigs for Timeshift?
3. A few hundred gigs for Backup of another sort?
4. A few hundred gigs for Windows backup?
5. Other?

Wiz

Thanks for the information and links!