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diff --git a/content/posts/2023-09-02-setup-external-backup.md b/content/posts/2023-09-02-setup-external-backup.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6a94158 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/posts/2023-09-02-setup-external-backup.md @@ -0,0 +1,120 @@ +--- +title: "Setup backup on external disk" +date: 2023-09-02 +draft: true +lang: en +categories: [ blog ] +tags: [] +translationKey: "2023-09-02-setup-external-backup" +--- + +## Backstory + +A few weeks ago (not today), I fucked up: +During irregular disk cleanup, I accidentally removed the config folder! + +Fortunately, I "backed up" the config with git, didn't I? 😌 + +Well yes, but actually no! 🥲 I did commit, but I didn't push. +The latest pushed config had been 9 months before this incident. + +On top of that, many programs generate unreadable configs, which I prefer not +to put into version control, or put sensitive information or large data into +`.config`, which shouldn't be pushed into a remote repository on a server I +don't own. For example, nheko puts authentication info there, and after this +incident I lost the session with several messages---well, matrix's irregularly +regular decryption failure could be expanded into a post on its own, so let's +not digress. + +And then there are more things to back up than just configs, say, my photos and +music. I mirror them between my devices with [syncthing], providing +redundancy, but [syncthing is not backup][syncthing-failure], +and neither is [RAID][raid-not-backup] + +[syncthing]: https://syncthing.net/ +[syncthing-failure]: https://forum.syncthing.net/t/syncthing-deleted-all-files-on-every-device/20518 +[raid-not-backup]: https://www.raidisnotabackup.com/ + +I should back them up, or I might one day be doomed to repeat the mistake. + +## Preparation + +Despite the bitterness from the partial data loss, I kinda didn't have the +spoon to do what I must, so I've been delaying it hitherto. + +### Hardware + +One of the reason I was cleaning up the disk in the first place was that it's +start to be filled up, so I bought a large hard drive to store more data and +backup. Doesn't seem too safe, I know: if the hard drive gets lost or broken, +I'll lose both the main data and the backup, but with a limited budget and +space, that's good enough for now. + +I got a Seagate One Touch 2 TB[^0] HDD. It seems to come with builtin backup +software, which doesn't support Linux of course, and I likely wouldn't use it +even if it did. A USB hub is also needed, as my laptop has a limited number of +USB ports. + +### Formatting + +Coming with the hard drive are several files, such as an `.exe` program to +initialize the backup, I suppose. I don't need these, and the disk can be +formatted ~~right away~~ after I do full-disk encryption on that. + +No partitioning is needed: while I do seek [vegan alternative][margarine], I +intended to use [btrfs][btrfs-kernel] as the file system, which can create +subvolumes, which can act as separate mounted partitions. I will just reformat +the existing partition to btrfs. + +```sh +mkfs.btrfs -L margarine /dev/sdb1 +``` + +[margarine]: https://outerheaven.club/notice/AZ8wYpKOyp2p329V5M +[btrfs-kernel]: https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/filesystems/btrfs.html + +I intend to have three subvolumes, one for big data (not Big Data™) such as +movies or music, one for more personal data and another for backup: + +```sh +mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt +btrfs subvolume /mnt/data/hoard +btrfs subvolume /mnt/data/perso +btrfs subvolume /mnt/backup +``` + +Finally, I need to declare those in the nix hardware configuration file. + + +```nix +{ + (...) + fileSystems = { + "/" = { + (...) + }; + "/data/hoard" = { + device = "/dev/disk/by-uuid/[subvolume uuid]"; + fsType = "btrfs"; + options = [ "subvol=data/hoard" "compress-force=zstd" "noatime" ]; + }; + "/data/perso" = { + device = "/dev/disk/by-uuid/[subvolume uuid]"; + fsType = "btrfs"; + options = [ "subvol=data/perso" "compress-force=zstd" "noatime" ]; + }; + "/backup" = { + device = "/dev/disk/by-uuid/[subvolume uuid]"; + fsType = "btrfs"; + options = [ "subvol=backup" "compress-force=zstd" ]; + }; + }; + (...) +} +``` + +## Setting up + +[^0]: That means 1.81 [TiB] and I feel cheated sometimes. + +[TiB]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byte#Multiple-byte_units. diff --git a/content/posts/_index.md b/content/posts/_index.md index 54dd49c..7a11ae0 100644 --- a/content/posts/_index.md +++ b/content/posts/_index.md @@ -1,11 +1,8 @@ --- -title: Posts +title: Blog lang: en translationKey: posts +categories: [blog] --- -Here are some attempts of mine to draw webcomics, or I should say random -scribbles :) - -Transcript of each comic can be found by appending 'transcript.txt' to the -comic URL. +Here are my blog posts! |