On 21 Aug 2025 at 16:15, home user via users wrote: Date sent: Thu, 21 Aug 2025 16:15:36 -0600 Subject: better back-up? To: users@lists.fedoraproject.org Send reply to: Community support for Fedora users <users@lists.fedoraproject.org> From: home user via users <users@lists.fedoraproject.org> Copies to: home user <mattis...@comcast.net>
> Good morning, > > (background) > * Something went wrong with a back-up to a USB-3.0 stick this past May. > Most everything was recovered, but not everything. I was told that the > stick itself was probably not what failed. There are a few other more > likely causes of the failure, but I cannot diagnose it. One major > possibility is that the desktop on which I was trying to read it damaged > some of the contents of the stick. > * Many of you might recall 3.5 inch (about 8.8 cm), 1.44 MB floppys from > back in the late 1980s. The disc cases had "a rectangular hole in one > corner which, if obstructed, write-enables the disk. A sliding detented > piece can be moved to block or reveal the part of the rectangular hole > that is sensed by the drive." (from wikipedia). > * For me, back-ups are written regularly, but searched or read rarely. > (So write speed is more important than read speed.) > > I am looking for a way of doing back-ups such the media can be hardware > write-protected when wanting to find or recover something from back-up. > My back-ups are typically tens of gigabytes each, and I like to keep at > least 3. > > (requirements) > * local (not cloud or other internet). > * at least 128 GB, more is better. > * write speed as good as or better than USB-3.2. > > (very strongly preferred) > * write lockable and unlockable, just like them old 3.5 inch, 1.44 MB > floppys. Note that I want hardware locking and unlocking (like those > floppies), not software locking/unlocking (such as with command line > options). > > (preferred) > * re-writable as opposed to write once only. > > Blu-ray: is write-once-only, and is much too slow (4.5 MB/sec). > SDXC: some is lockable, but is too slow (100 MB/sec). > By comparison, I read that USB-3.2 realistically does 500-2000 MB/sec. > > What do you recommend? > A couple issues. Always recommend doing a check on any flashes. f3-9.0-1 is a tool that checks for fake usbs. Have gotten some that show a bigger size, but are generally much smaller, and fail in real use. 28984 May 7 10:00 f3write 28912 May 7 10:00 f3read 54392 May 7 10:00 f3probe 20832 May 7 10:00 f3fix 37680 May 7 10:00 f3brew These tools can run some test to make sure you have a good usb. The f3fix, can be used to resize a fake usb to its real size, but I would generally just scrap them. One had a 2TB flash that tested to just under 64G. A second thing, I've been getting m2 usb external cases. Have one with a 2TB nvme, and others with 1TB and 500G. So not sure on speed differences or support. I've been maintainer of Free G4L disk imaging project since 2004. Like to do Disk images that can restore a system if a disk crashes. But it doesn't take a longer time, since it backs up everything (clearing unused sectors will greatly reduce image size, but not time). Final thing, I use rsync to copy specific directories to other partitions or devices, and also to other machines as backup. These are smaller, and faster than disk or partition images. Just for some options. Good Luck. > Side question: I searched for USB-4.2 and USB-4 hardware, hubs, and > sticks. I found nothing. Am I correct in assuming these are not yet > available? > > -- > _______________________________________________ > users mailing list -- users@lists.fedoraproject.org > To unsubscribe send an email to users-le...@lists.fedoraproject.org > Fedora Code of Conduct: > https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/project/code-of-conduct/ > List Guidelines: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines > List Archives: > https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/users@lists.fedoraproject.org > Do not reply to spam, report it: > https://pagure.io/fedora-infrastructure/new_issue +------------------------------------------------------------+ Michael D. Setzer II - Computer Science Instructor (Retired) mailto:mi...@guam.net mailto:msetze...@gmail.com mailto:msetze...@gmx.com Guam - Where America's Day Begins G4L Disk Imaging Project maintainer http://sourceforge.net/projects/g4l/ +------------------------------------------------------------+ -- _______________________________________________ users mailing list -- users@lists.fedoraproject.org To unsubscribe send an email to users-le...@lists.fedoraproject.org Fedora Code of Conduct: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/project/code-of-conduct/ List Guidelines: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines List Archives: https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/users@lists.fedoraproject.org Do not reply to spam, report it: https://pagure.io/fedora-infrastructure/new_issue
