From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Aug 23 22:38:34 2007 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7137C16A421 for ; Thu, 23 Aug 2007 22:38:34 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from tijl@ulyssis.org) Received: from mailrelay007.isp.belgacom.be (mailrelay007.isp.belgacom.be [195.238.6.173]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1114113C458 for ; Thu, 23 Aug 2007 22:38:33 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from tijl@ulyssis.org) Received: from 23.204-245-81.adsl-dyn.isp.belgacom.be (HELO kalimero.kotnet.org) ([81.245.204.23]) by mailrelay007.isp.belgacom.be with ESMTP; 24 Aug 2007 00:09:00 +0200 Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by kalimero.kotnet.org (8.14.1/8.14.1) with ESMTP id l7NM8xcN038869; Fri, 24 Aug 2007 00:08:59 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from tijl@ulyssis.org) From: Tijl Coosemans To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org, Patrick.Baldwin@studsvik.com Date: Fri, 24 Aug 2007 00:08:57 +0200 User-Agent: KMail/1.9.7 References: <46CDB649.8060102@studsvik.com> In-Reply-To: <46CDB649.8060102@studsvik.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Message-Id: <200708240008.58635.tijl@ulyssis.org> Cc: Subject: Re: FreeBSD USB disks - booting and backups X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2007 22:38:34 -0000 On Thursday 23 August 2007 18:31:05 Patrick Baldwin wrote: > I'm thinking of backing up my FreeBSD 6.2 webmail server by > installing FreeBSD onto the USB, and then dumping the whole > filesystem onto the USB. That way, in the event of a drive failure, > I can boot off the USB drive, and then just restore everything onto > the webmail server. > > Has anyone else done this? I haven't found any mention via Google, > which has me concerned that there might be a good reason no one's > done this that I haven't thought of. One issue I ran into thus far > has been the 500 GB Western Digital MyBook USB drive I tried first > makes my system crash when I plug it in. I can get another USB drive > and repurpose the one I've got right now, but before I put any more > resources into this idea, I thought I'd bounce it off some experts. > > Any suggestions, links, etc. welcomed. Particularly for large > capacity USB drives that won't crash my system. I use it for a different purpose than you, but I've installed FreeBSD onto a 120Gb Western Digital Passport (2.5") USB drive. It was just like installing normally and works like a charm. That USB drive isn't supposed to crash your system by the way. Have you filed a PR or something?