How-to set up weekly backup onto a separate HDD?

[Keith Lofstrom]

Coume - Lubox.com wrote:
                                                                                
>When I will have reinstall the new FC, I want to set up weekly backup
> on my vital data onto a separate HDD which is plugged though USB. 
...
> How can I do that kind of backup? Is there tools that can manage that?
...

You may wish to take a look at my linux backup page at:

http://www.keithl.com/linuxbackup.html

There are a number of good FOSS solutions, depending on what kind of
systems and users you have.  I use Dirvish, a wrapper around RSYNC.
Other tools are better suited for large sites with many users.  In any
case, if you have a backup drive 2-3 times larger than your main drive,
you can back it up automatically, daily, for months in less than an hour.
TAR is not at all the right solution.

Warning about USB:  there is an unidentified flaw in the Linux kernel
that makes it hang an average of once per hour on very high volume
data transfers to USB2 drives, using the faster peripheral chipsets
like the Cypress.  See:  http://www.keithl.com/usb2bug.html

This flaw was in RH9 and Fedora Core 1 (2.4.xx), I don't know whether
it remains in Fedora Core 2 (2.6.xx).   Obviously, given the very low
appearance rate it will be a P.I.T.A. to locate or even verify.

Keith

-- 
Keith Lofstrom           keithl at ieee.org         Voice (503)-520-1993
KLIC --- Keith Lofstrom Integrated Circuits --- "Your Ideas in Silicon"
Design Contracting in Bipolar and CMOS - Analog, Digital, and Scan ICs