Tom Kuiper wrote:
What commands would the batch file contain? Is the a DOS/Windows version of rsync? Or would I use rsync on the Linux box to pull the files?
Yes you would need to install cygwin (www.cygwin.com)...they have an rsync package.
Assuming you've got samba set up with a share that your daughter's computer has mapped to, then writing a script file to use rsync to copy new & updated files over to the backup partition should be a piece of cake. The rsync man page (http://samba.org/ftp/rsync/rsync.html) gives several good examples. In your case, you'll definitely want to do a 'push' from your daughter's machine to the linux box.
I'm familiar with fdisk and used that on a previous attempt. (I'm doing it again because the disk failed and hope to get the Windows partition rightthis time.)
Tye 'cfdisk' instead of 'fdisk', it'll make your life easier.
Disk /dev/hdb: 255 heads, 63 sectors, 9964 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/hdb1 1 4587 36845046 83 Linux /dev/hdb2 4588 8338 30129907+ 7 HPFS/NTFS /dev/hdb3 8339 9964 13060845 83 Linux nutmeg:~# mkfs -V -t vfat /dev/hdb2 mkfs version 2.11n (Jan 27 2002) mkfs.vfat /dev/hdb2 mkfs.vfat 2.8 (28 Feb 2001) mkfs.vfat: Attempting to create a too large file sile system. I realize now that I was shooting in the dark. Here are some plausible partition choices: 7 HPFS/NTFS b Win95 FAT32 c Win95 FAT32 (LB e Win95 FAT16 (LB f Win95 Ext'd (LB I don't know how c, e, and f differ.
If you've really only got the three partitions, then use cfdisk to change the partition type of /dev/hdb2 (I assume that's your target partition for backup) to type 'c' -- FAT32 (LBA). The (LBA) identifies this as a FAT32 partition reaching beyond the old 8gb bios boundary).
Maybe if I pick the right partition type, I won't have the "too large" error?
I'm not sure of mkfs.vfat imposes a limit on the size of FAT32 partition. There's nothing inherent in the FAT32 spec that prevents a larger (>30gb) parition, but maybe the linux implementation imposes some limit for some reason. Try ext2 instead of FAT32--in your situation, there's no reason that ext2 won't server you well for a backup partition.
Thanks for your help so far. I may be getting somewhere now.
Good luck. Paul