On 3 Dec 2002 at 9:39am, Carl D. Blake wrote

> read/write.  It needs to be a FAT partition because the user is using it
> for running Windows 2000 via VMWare.

As an aside, I find that the following setup works *far* better:

 o Run VMware with a virtual drive that you don't back up, but of which 
   you have a "virgin" image squirreled away somewhere.

 o Have users keep all their important files in their regular Linux $HOME
   dirs, which VMware can set itself up to access (they show up in "My 
   Network Places" or whatever cutesy fsckin name Windows foists upon 
   you).

 o Back up $HOME (obviously).

This has the added advantage that when 'doze $hits all over itself, a 
"reinstall" is a quick 'cp' away.

> Is there a problem with incremental backups on FAT partitions?  I
> searched with google and found some references to some problems, but no
> real explanations or solutions.  Can somebody explain what is going on
> and how to work around the problem?

I rather doubt that FAT has the notion of mtimes, which tar needs to do 
incrementals (I think).  But I'm just making a WAG, really, b/c I wouldn't 
expect it to work.

> Would one solution be to backup the partition with SAMBA rather than the
> standard amanda client?  According to the SAMBA document it should do
> incremental backups.

I don't think that'll work, since the filesystem that you're exporting is 
the problem.  The more I think about it, the more I'd push you towards the 
solution proposed in my "aside" above.

-- 
Joshua Baker-LePain
Department of Biomedical Engineering
Duke University