Saving backup folder to NTFS HDD?

[nwpnr]

I am running several frugally installed versions of Puppy from a USB thumb drive, including S15Pup32 and S15Pup64. I've created backups of the save folder for both using the Pupsave Backup tool from the Utility menu. Now I want to save them to my HDD which is NTFS, because I am afraid of losing access to my USB.

I dragged and dropped (selecting copy) the savefolder backup from my S15Pup32 to my HDD with apparently no problems. I have yet to drag it back to the USB and see if it still works.

When I dragged and dropped the savefolder backup from S15Pup64 it gave me 1143 errors, so I am assuming it won't work if I tried to use it to replace the existing savefolder should I need to. I don't know where the errors came from but I assume the copy did not like the 64 bit file format.

While studying this problem I ran across an old forum post that had a pet that converted a savefolder to a file image that could be saved on a NTFS drive. https://oldforum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?t=110090
I haven't tried it, because I was wondering if there is an easier solution.

I am primarily interested in saving the S15Pup64 save folder as it is my preferred operating system. So, if there is a way to copy its save folder to a NTFS HDD, I would appreciate any suggestions. You are free to assume I know little about Linux.

[mikewalsh]

@nwpnr :-

In Puppyland, FAT32 is the root of your issue, unfortunately. The more modern save-folder MUST have an underlying Linux filesystem to manipulate it correctly.

The older save-file will work quite happily with FAT32.......because it contains a complete Linux-formatted file-system inside it. The save-file is a kind of container, if you will, and doesn't care what filesystem it's sitting in. But Puppy needs the Linux file-system within to function as it should.

I haven't read that thread before, but I would imagine it's compressing the save-folder into a tarball of some kind......which is seen as a single contiguous file, and wouldn't matter where it went. TBH, I'm at a loss to understand why anybody would format an entire HDD to FAT32 anyway.....

Mike.

[nwpnr]

My NTFS HDD is on an old (20 years+) PC that has years of data on it which I do not want to mess up and I do not trust myself to add a Linux partition to it to place a save folder on it. I will eventually get another USB thumb drive and format it ext to save to, but I am curious if there is a way to save a Linux folder to a NTFS format.

Your thought that the older pet may be using compression in some way made me wonder if I were to use Xarchive to compress the save folder, could I then save it to a NTFS? I am not sure if Xarchive will handle a save folder though.

[mikewalsh]

My Fat32 HDD is on an old (20 years+) PC that has years of data on it which I do not want to mess up and I do not trust myself to add a Linux partition to it to place a save folder on it. I will eventually get another USB thumb drive and format it ext to save to, but I am curious if there is a way to save a Linux folder to a FAT32 format.

Your thought that the older pet may be using compression in some way made me wonder if I were to use Xarchive to compress the save folder, could I then save it to a FAT32? I am not sure if Xarchive will handle a save folder though.

@nwpnr :-

You can certainly compress a save-folder. It's just a directory, after all.

I'd be inclined to give XArchiver a miss, however, and instead use JakeSFR's "Packit". It's a more modern and easy-to-use GUI 'front-end' for the existing "compressors" on the system. And then install his "UExtract" for extracting it later.

You can find Packit here:- https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?t=6868

.....and UExtract here:- https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?t=594

I recommend these to everybody, because they are SO much simpler to use than the older tools....plus, they add a right-click context Menu entry. Which makes them even simpler to use.

TIP:- I'd go with tar.xz compression if you're after the smallest file-size. Otherwise, if you don't mind a slightly larger file at the end, use 'zstd' instead. It's faster, but doesn't compress quite so far as xz does.

Mike.

[nwpnr]

Thanks, I will give PackIt a try, as well as XArchive. I assume I can not pack a live version of my save folder, so I will use my S15Pup32 to pack my S15Pup64 save folder.

I noticed that S15Pup64 has a version 1.15 of PackIt available in the PET manager. Wonder why it does not list the 1.24 version?

I will probably get to it later, as I have to go get my dinner started, but I plan to report my results. To do a true test I suppose I need to pack it, then unpack it and use it during a boot.

[wizard]

@nwpnr

Fat32 has two limits you must observe:

1. Maximum single file size = 4gb
2. It cannot understand Linux symlinks

Number 2 is why you received most of the 1143 errors.

if there is a way to copy its save folder to a FAT32 HDD

Yes, as per @mikewalsh , but only if you compress the folder into a single file, and if that file is less than 4gb.

My Fat32 HDD is on an old (20 years+) PC that has years of data on it which I do not want to mess up

Given this, be sure you have a valid backup of that drive, otherwise it is living on borrowed time.

wizard

[nwpnr]

To Wizard: Thanks

I tried two compressions:

1) I noticed that on S15Pup32 there was a menu item for "Save folder backup and restore" which I believe is the same as the link I gave above because its help button opened to that link. It ran and produced a file with the save folder name and date and an sfb extension, size 322 MB, but when I tried to copy it to my NTFS it gave an error.

2) Next I tried XArchive to tar.gz the save folder backup but it ran for a while then froze and never finished. I had to shut my PC off to get out.

I am going to try PackIt tomorrow and try a different compression type with XArchive.

I do have the most important files on my NTFS drive backed up, as I am no stranger to hard drive failures.

[wizard]

@nwpnr

I am going to try PackIt

I use Packit and tar gzip.

wizard

[mikeslr]

Boot pfix=ram before compressing your SaveFolder, otherwise you're trying to compress it while it's being actively used. Errors are likely, failure possible.
As mikewalsh suggested, try packit. If you have to install packit --i.e., it wasn't built-into your Puppy-- you can install and use it even when booting pfix=ram. Until a Save is executed, an 'installed' application is only in RAM. Menu>exit>restart-x (AKA Graphical Server) causes Puppys to re-catalog what currently makes up their systems 'in RAM'.

[nwpnr]

To mikeslr:

I am trying to compress a savefolder that I make with the standard Pupsave backup utility, not the active savefolder. I decided to try the built in compressions in the Pupsave backup utility, and the results were:
1) using the xz compression I got a 169 MB file. When I tried to copy it to my NTFS it said failed to copy, one error
2) using the gzip option I got a 239 MB file. I got the same error when I attempted to copy it.

I wish the error output was more verbose from the copy, so I could tell why it failed. Is there a way to find it in a log?

Well, it is on to PackIt.