Now that I’ve got Windows and Linux playing nicely, I’m going to reformat my external drive to use as storage for Timeshift. Can somene tell me how it will appear in Grub? And it there any special formatting process I should follow in formatting that drive?
External drive and Grub
- Thread starter Skybear
- Start date
Condobloke
Well-Known Member
If you're using the entire drive for timeshift, format it to ext4.
That format will also work with most 'back up' software eg Rescuezilla and others
I always found the hardest thing to guesstimate, was the amount of space to allow fro timeshift. My external is 2TB, and there is no way Timeshift was ever going to occupy that much space. (if you allow timeshift to run rampant, it will occupy that much.....but asking other people how much space they use (and why) soon gives you an educated grasp of just how much is enough and also how much may not be enough.
Mine:
I am in the process of finding out how much space those snapshots actuall consume. If I was to take a guess, I would say approx 50GB....but a few more minutes will tell me exactly.
Bear in mind yours will vary...perhaps quite a bit...depending on the number of apps installed etc etc.
Mine has topped out at 35GB. I should add another weekly or monthly to that, so that it broadens the scope, time wise, of the snapshots I can go back to if calamity strikes.
I tend to 'play' a lot with my install of LM... liekly too much!....but I enjoy doing so. I also enjoy having the satisfaction of fixing it as well !
So, it all depends very much on the space you actually have on that external
If you have a 2tb external, you can partition off separate space for ntfs stuff....maybe leftover from windows?...format that space as ntfs......there is also a file system called 'fuse' which will also hold ntfs stuff.
This depends how your Linux distro integrates timeshift snapshots with Grub. Some do it automatically, for others you need to customise it.
If you look at this example, the last (recommended) part explains how to add an entry for Arch Linux. It is easier for Arch, because the initramfs image name itself is static, others include the kernel release e.g. initramfs-6.19.11-200.fc43.x86_64.img and may provide automation to add that with the timeshift package.
Note with the ext4 filesystem @Condobloke recommends, timeshift uses rsync to create the snapshot. When using btrfs, it uses the snapshot feature of the filesystem itself. For the Grub menu entry it does not matter, which filesystem you choose. If your Linux is using btrfs for the root filesystem, a Grub timeshift installation will too. If the system uses ext4, you must first check Grub's btrfs support (to boot a snapshot).
It's no issue to start using timeshift and later see how to add a menu entry with Grub, if not done automatically by the distro. Likewise, once created, the menu entries are static. If you unplug the external drive, choosing one pointing to it obviously fails to boot, plugging it in and rebooting, the entry should work again.
unless I am missing something here. if it is an external drive that plugs in via USB you will not need to do anything at all with grub. grub only affects the booting of drives and that is not what you are doing. if it is USB it should just appear as a drive in your file manager. or timeshift. Grub changes are not necessary at all. Sort of like painting the house so you can drive your car.
G'day Mike 
Simplest answer is - well it won't unless you
I can run a couple of tests and let you know in a couple of days, but if you are keen to go, then consider the options provided in the posts above.
Chris
Simplest answer is - well it won't unless you
- Make the drive bootable and
- Having done that, run
sudo update-grub - How it will look only The Shadow knows
I can run a couple of tests and let you know in a couple of days, but if you are keen to go, then consider the options provided in the posts above.
Chris
Just before I sign off for my evening, a note on that link from @Trml , and this is directed at the author of the linked article, not at @Trml who was kind enough to provide it
The author shows his naivete somewhat, in a cardinal "rule" for Timeshift
...for storing snapshots.
In the author's article, he has, in part
That won't work, unless you have your Timeshift set up to store snapshots on your root sytem, which is not a good idea, in case your drive fails and renders the snapshot unavailable.
Later
Wiz
The author shows his naivete somewhat, in a cardinal "rule" for Timeshift
...for storing snapshots.
In the author's article, he has, in part
That won't work, unless you have your Timeshift set up to store snapshots on your root sytem, which is not a good idea, in case your drive fails and renders the snapshot unavailable.
Later
Wiz
You can boot grub regularly and pick a menu entry that points the initramfs to a USB snapshot, that's what the OP had in mind and Grub does support it no issue (if the system recognises the USB media, of course).
Actually it seemed odd to me to use an USB like that as well, I picked the the example as it showed how to add an extra grub-entry to the latest snapshot (on whichever mount point that resides).
A simple symlink from /timeshift to wherever a USB drive is permanently mounted via an fstab entry would solve the path conundrum.
@Skybear as timeshift mainly deals with having a fallback to boot when something like an update of the system fails, it is usually not necessary to roll back to snapshots long ago. So, if you want to keep accumulating snapshots just in case, an alternative is to keep a couple of the latest on the regular filesystem and move older out to the usb. In this case, the USB would probably be nothing to create a grub entry for, but rely on one of the existing to roll back to a working system and restore earlier ones (or parts thereof) when needed.
@Trml , on
I should say that the script he advocates is also written for RPM-based distros such as Fedora.
For Debian/Ubuntu/Linux Mint, you need to use initrd references, not initramfs.
So the script would need to be significantly edited in order to be of use to the OP, who is using Linux Mint 22.3.
But it was a nice thought.
Cheers
Wiz
I should say that the script he advocates is also written for RPM-based distros such as Fedora.
For Debian/Ubuntu/Linux Mint, you need to use initrd references, not initramfs.
So the script would need to be significantly edited in order to be of use to the OP, who is using Linux Mint 22.3.
But it was a nice thought.
Cheers
Wiz
Nope.
Yep.
Lol. Short of storing snapshots (not timeshots) off the premises, or up in the cloud with a provider who may go belly up, the safest spot you can store them is on an external drive.
If your external drive (mains-powered or not) plugs in via a USB 2/3 connection, then you just need one more of those available, into which you can plug a Linux Mint Live stick (which has a cut down version of Timeshift already on it), and you are good to restore.
Wiz
It's for Arch and literally the second sentence what I said in this thread.
Now we're discussing among ourselves and the OP has still not shared even what distro they use. Such a time waste. I'll stop replying to any threads on this forum which do not clearly state what they use and what they tried to accomplish their objective from now on.
My bad, I missed that.
What you have missed is that since the OP joined about 7 weeks ago, he has had a number of threads
https://www.linux.org/threads/modifying-grub.63807/
https://www.linux.org/threads/which-disk.64760/
https://www.linux.org/threads/an-empty-option.64802/
https://www.linux.org/threads/repairing-grub.65107/
and more, and they have all related to his new install of Linux Mint 21.3 Cinnamon.
He has done a good job of mentioning the distro used since I brought it to his attention, but failed on this occasion - Murphy's Law, the one you contributed to.
No harm, no foul, as I see it.
Cheers
Wizard
@Skybear Maybe mention Linux Mint in your profile signature. It makes a difference to know that in advance.
In this case, timeshift is a Mint project. As already concluded the distro provides grub integration and any, if not all, tinkering with its configuration needs to be compatible with how the distro provides it in default form. Mint will default to creating its own /timeshift directory on installation is my guess. I've never used it and don't know what happens when you want to point it to an USB disc as intended, or whether the distro supports it optionally even.
In this case, timeshift is a Mint project. As already concluded the distro provides grub integration and any, if not all, tinkering with its configuration needs to be compatible with how the distro provides it in default form. Mint will default to creating its own /timeshift directory on installation is my guess. I've never used it and don't know what happens when you want to point it to an USB disc as intended, or whether the distro supports it optionally even.
Good idea about updating my signature. I’m so used to another forum that has my specs that I forgot they weren’t on this website. Anyway, I’ve updated my signature and added my software and computer specs to my profile. Let me know if I need to tweak anything.
It is a supported option - I've been using it that way for over 11 and a half years.
Cheers.
Now I need to know how to format my external drive. I'd like to use the terminal. Complicating the matter is the external drive is also 1TB, just like my two internal drives. So identifying the correct drive to format is just slightly important. lol.
Last edited:
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
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.
Other questions you may wish to consider include but are not limited to:
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
Code:
sudo fdisk -l #That's a lowercase l for larryStart 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.
Code:
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 SystemOther questions you may wish to consider include but are not limited to:
- Do I want to use the entire 1TB for Timeshift snapshots? Or maybe
- A few hundred gigs for Timeshift?
- A few hundred gigs for Backup of another sort?
- A few hundred gigs for Windows backup?
- Other?
Why don’t you trust Terminal to format drives?
Didn't say I don't trust it. I am a creature of habit, and GParted has served most of my needs since 2014.
Remember that Linux is all about choices.
Remember that Linux is all about choices.
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