backintime empty snapshot

[Pietro Goglio]

Hello I recently installed both kde and gnome back in time on a Ubuntu 12.04 operating system. I tried to back my file from the following path:
/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/gogliop/Desktop/Research/
to the following path on a portable device:
/media/VERBATIM/data/back up
The back up takes little time and the backup folder is empty. I would like to know what it is happening and how to fix it. Here attach you have the log script:
========== Take snapshot (profile 1): Fri Feb 7 15:22:39 2014 ==========

[I] ...
[I] Compare with snapshot 2014-02-07 14:55:59
[I] rsync -rtDH --links --no-p --no-g --no-o --delete --delete-excluded -i --dry-run --out-format="BACKINTIME: %i %n%L" --chmod=Du+wx --exclude="/media/VERBATIM/data/back up" --exclude="/home/gogliop/.local/share/backintime" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/gogliop/Desktop/Research/CV/" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/gogliop/Desktop/Research/" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/gogliop/Desktop/" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/gogliop/" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/" --include="/media/Windows/" --include="/media/" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/gogliop/Desktop/Research/Google Drive/" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/gogliop/Desktop/Research/insurance/" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/gogliop/Desktop/Research/MP folder/" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/gogliop/Desktop/Research/My Dropbox/" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/gogliop/Desktop/Research/OW/" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/gogliop/Desktop/Research/OW tickets/" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/gogliop/Desktop/Research/PhD/" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/gogliop/Desktop/Research/reviewing/" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/gogliop/Desktop/Research/scuola/" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/gogliop/Desktop/Research/seminars/" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/gogliop/Desktop/Research/setups/" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/gogliop/Desktop/Research/SimaPro/" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/gogliop/Desktop/Research/STICS/" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/gogliop/Desktop/Research/styles/" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/gogliop/Desktop/Research/VISA/" --exclude=".gvfs" --exclude=".cache*" --exclude="[Cc]ache*" --exclude=".thumbnails*" --exclude="[Tt]rash*" --exclude="*.backup*" --exclude="*~" --exclude="/home/gogliop/Ubuntu One" --exclude=".dropbox*" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/gogliop/Desktop/Research/CV/**" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/gogliop/Desktop/Research/Google Drive/**" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/gogliop/Desktop/Research/insurance/**" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/gogliop/Desktop/Research/MP folder/**" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/gogliop/Desktop/Research/My Dropbox/**" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/gogliop/Desktop/Research/OW/**" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/gogliop/Desktop/Research/OW tickets/**" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/gogliop/Desktop/Research/PhD/**" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/gogliop/Desktop/Research/reviewing/**" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/gogliop/Desktop/Research/scuola/**" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/gogliop/Desktop/Research/seminars/**" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/gogliop/Desktop/Research/setups/**" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/gogliop/Desktop/Research/SimaPro/**" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/gogliop/Desktop/Research/STICS/**" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/gogliop/Desktop/Research/styles/**" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/gogliop/Desktop/Research/VISA/**" --exclude="*" / "/media/VERBATIM/data/back up/backintime/gogliop-HP-ProBook-6465b/gogliop/1/20140207-145559-898/backup/"
[I] Remove old snapshots
[I] Try to keep min free space
[I] Finalizing

I am looking forward to have a reply and I would like to thank for the precious contributions.

[Germar (germar)]

Hi Pietro,
I couldn't find anything suspicious in your log. Which user do you use for BackInTime (gogliop or root)? Is /media/Windows mounted and accessible for the user which is running BIT?
Please run 'backintime -b' from terminal and post the output in here.

Regards,
Germar

[Pietro Goglio (p-goglio)]

I mounted Windows through the GUI in Ubuntu, as I mounted VERBATIM. If I run the backintime -b as root I receive the following message:"
Back In Time
Version: 1.0.7

Back In Time comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it
under certain conditions; type `backintime --license' for details.

WARNING: Not configured
"
and nothing is done.
If I run backintime as gogliop, I receive a very long message, I will copy part of it:
to `/media/VERBATIM/data/back up/backintime/gogliop-HP-ProBook-6465b/gogliop/1/20131024-194437/backup/media/win_d/Documents/My Dropbox/shuttle directory/measured data Agronomie/ICS/plot ordered/SCI9/SCI9 28092010.csv': Operation not permitted
cp: cannot create hard link `/media/VERBATIM/data/back up/backintime/gogliop-HP-ProBook-6465b/gogliop/1/new_snapshot/backup/media/win_d/Documents/My Dropbox/shuttle directory/measured data Agronomie/ICS/plot ordered/SCI9/SCI9 28102010.csv' to `/media/VERBATIM/data/back up/backintime/gogliop-HP-ProBook-6465b/gogliop/1/20131024-194437/backup/media/win_d/Documents/My Dropbox/shuttle directory/measured data Agronomie/ICS/plot ordered/SCI9/SCI9 28102010.csv': Operation not permitted
cp: cannot create hard link `/media/VERBATIM/data/back up/backintime/gogliop-HP-ProBook-6465b/gogliop/1/new_snapshot/backup/media/win_d/Documents/My Dropbox/shuttle directory/measured data Agronomie/ICS/summary/crop/Barley CH4' to `/media/VERBATIM/data/back up/backintime/gogliop-HP-ProBook-6465b/gogliop/1/20131024-194437/backup/media/win_d/Documents/My Dropbox/shuttle directory/measured data Agronomie/ICS/summary/crop/Barley CH4': Operation not permitted
cp: cannot create hard link `/media/VERBATIM/data/back up/backintime/gogliop-HP-ProBook-6465b/gogliop/1/new_snapshot/backup/media/win_d/Documents/My Dropbox/shuttle directory/measured data Agronomie/ICS/summary/crop/Barley CO2' to `/media/VERBATIM/data/back up/backintime/gogliop-HP-ProBook-6465b/gogliop/1/20131024-194437/backup/media/win_d/Documents/My Dropbox/shuttle directory/measured data Agronomie/ICS/summary/crop/Barley CO2': Operation not permitted
cp: cannot create hard link `/media/VERBATIM/data/back up/backintime/gogliop-HP-ProBook-6465b/gogliop/1/new_snapshot/backup/media/win_d/Documents/My Dropbox/shuttle directory/measured data Agronomie/ICS/summary/crop/Barley N2O' to `/media/VERBATIM/data/back up/backintime/gogliop-HP-ProBook-6465b/gogliop/1/20131024-194437/backup/media/win_d/Documents/My Dropbox/shuttle directory/measured data Agronomie/ICS/summary/crop/Barley N2O': Operation not permitted
cp: cannot create hard link `/media/VERBATIM/data/back up/backintime/gogliop-HP-ProBook-6465b/gogliop/1/new_snapshot/backup/media/win_d/Documents/My Dropbox/shuttle directory/measured data Agronomie/ICS/summary/crop/WW CH4' to `/media/VERBATIM/data/back up/backintime/gogliop-HP-ProBook-6465b/gogliop/1/20131024-194437/backup/media/win_d/Documents/My Dropbox/shuttle directory/measured data Agronomie/ICS/summary/crop/WW CH4': Operation not permitted
cp: cannot create hard link `/media/VERBATIM/data/back up/backintime/gogliop-HP-ProBook-6465b/gogliop/1/new_snapshot/backup/media/win_d/Documents/My Dropbox/shuttle dir...

[Germar (germar)]

Which filesystem do you use? Looks like FAT!?
FAT is not able to handle hard-links. I'd recommend using ext[2|3|4] instead.

[Pietro Goglio (p-goglio)]

Here you have the response from the command line through the df -T command:
"
/dev/sdb1 vfat 312492320 263876640 48615680 85% /media/VERBATIM
/dev/sda2 fuseblk 288242180 86261360 201980820 30% /media/Windows
"
However I have been using the VERBATIM hard dik hundreds of times with backintime and I did not have an issue.
I would like to thank you for your precious collaboration.

[Germar (germar)]

Hi Pietro,
I'm not sure if there was a change in 'cp' on what to do if hard-linking isn't allowed. But I'm getting the same error here if I run 'cp -aRl' on FAT. But even if it worked before your old snapshots are not incremental. Which means that every new snapshot wasted space on your disk.

I highly recommend EXT. If you need to use the drive on WIN/OSX, too, you could at least use NTFS. This is able to handle hard-links, too.

Regards,
Germar

[Pietro Goglio (p-goglio)]

Thanks Germar,
                                unfortunately I cannot format my Windows partition which has been formatted ntfs but as you see there the filesystem in linux appear to be fuseblk. I tred with the command line to mount the hard disk as ntfs but unsuccesfully. I tried storage device manager but it does not work. However now I set up my Windows partition as mode 777 which previously I was not able to do it. I was wondering if you could give me any other suggestions. I would like to thank you for your precious collaboration.

[Germar (germar)]

NTFS diver for Linux is fuseblk. This is all fine. But I wasn't talking about /media/Windows (/dev/sda2). You don't need to change anything on this.
But your destination drive /media/VERBATIM (/dev/sdb1) is formatted with FAT and that's the problem. Please try to format that partition with EXT3 (don't forget to save all data on a separate drive before as they will be destroyed).

[Pietro Goglio (p-goglio)]

I formatted another folder in ext3 as you see this is the results from the commandline df -T:
/dev/sda1 fuseblk 307196 36020 271176 12% /media/System
/dev/sdb1 ext3 15388032 169592 14436772 2% /media/backup
/dev/sda2 fuseblk 288242180 84939780 203302400 30% /media/Windows
the backup folder has become my new snapshot folder, by running the backintime -b command this is the reply from the prompt:
Back In Time
Version: 1.0.7

Back In Time comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it
under certain conditions; type `backintime --license' for details.

INFO: Lock
INFO: on process begins
INFO: Profile_id: 1
INFO: Call rsync to take the snapshot
INFO: Command "rsync -rtDH --links --no-p --no-g --no-o --delete --delete-excluded -v --chmod=Du+wx --exclude="/media/backup" --exclude="/home/gogliop/.local/share/backintime" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/gogliop/Desktop/Research/CV/" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/gogliop/Desktop/Research/" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/gogliop/Desktop/" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/gogliop/" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/" --include="/media/Windows/" --include="/media/" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/gogliop/Desktop/Research/Google Drive/" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/gogliop/Desktop/Research/insurance/" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/gogliop/Desktop/Research/MP folder/" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/gogliop/Desktop/Research/My Dropbox/" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/gogliop/Desktop/Research/OW/" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/gogliop/Desktop/Research/OW tickets/" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/gogliop/Desktop/Research/PhD/" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/gogliop/Desktop/Research/reviewing/" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/gogliop/Desktop/Research/scuola/" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/gogliop/Desktop/Research/seminars/" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/gogliop/Desktop/Research/setups/" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/gogliop/Desktop/Research/SimaPro/" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/gogliop/Desktop/Research/STICS/" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/gogliop/Desktop/Research/styles/" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/gogliop/Desktop/Research/VISA/" --exclude=".gvfs" --exclude=".cache*" --exclude="[Cc]ache*" --exclude=".thumbnails*" --exclude="[Tt]rash*" --exclude="*.backup*" --exclude="*~" --exclude="/home/gogliop/Ubuntu One" --exclude=".dropbox*" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/gogliop/Desktop/Research/CV/**" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/gogliop/Desktop/Research/Google Drive/**" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/gogliop/Desktop/Research/insurance/**" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/gogliop/Desktop/Research/MP folder/**" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/gogliop/Desktop/Research/My Dropbox/**" --i...

[Germar (germar)]

Hi Pietro,
can you access /media/Windows from command line? What does 'ls -la /media/Windows' print out?
Please run the rsync command from your last comment ('rsync -rtDH [...]/new_snapshot/backup/') manually and post the output in here

Regards,
Germar

[Pietro Goglio (p-goglio)]

the prompt afte the /media/Windows is: "
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 16384 Feb 19 09:38 ./
drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 4096 Feb 19 15:42 ../
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 4096 Dec 3 2012 AgriDOC53InstallFiles/
-rwxrwxrwx 2 root root 1451 May 23 2003 Agrisource.lnk*
-rwxrwxrwx 2 root root 482 Jun 4 2012 AMCleanUp.log*
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Nov 15 2012 Autoupdate/
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 4096 Feb 19 09:38 Config.Msi/
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Dec 9 14:24 d5b6cd93d9260afbae19cf09b0e7/
lrwxrwxrwx 2 root root 60 Jul 14 2009 Documents and Settings -> /media/Windows/Users/
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 4096 Sep 5 2012 Drivers/
-rwxrwxrwx 2 root root 17734 Nov 7 2007 eula.1028.txt*
-rwxrwxrwx 2 root root 17734 Nov 7 2007 eula.1031.txt*
-rwxrwxrwx 2 root root 10134 Nov 7 2007 eula.1033.txt*
-rwxrwxrwx 2 root root 17734 Nov 7 2007 eula.1036.txt*
-rwxrwxrwx 2 root root 17734 Nov 7 2007 eula.1040.txt*
-rwxrwxrwx 2 root root 118 Nov 7 2007 eula.1041.txt*
-rwxrwxrwx 2 root root 17734 Nov 7 2007 eula.1042.txt*
-rwxrwxrwx 2 root root 17734 Nov 7 2007 eula.2052.txt*
-rwxrwxrwx 2 root root 17734 Nov 7 2007 eula.3082.txt*
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 1110 Nov 7 2007 globdata.ini*
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 2793537536 Feb 19 14:36 hiberfil.sys*
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 562688 Nov 7 2007 install.exe*
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 843 Nov 7 2007 install.ini*
-rwxrwxrwx 2 root root 76304 Nov 7 2007 install.res.1028.dll*
-rwxrwxrwx 2 root root 96272 Nov 7 2007 install.res.1031.dll*
-rwxrwxrwx 2 root root 91152 Nov 7 2007 install.res.1033.dll*
-rwxrwxrwx 2 root root 97296 Nov 7 2007 install.res.1036.dll*
-rwxrwxrwx 2 root root 95248 Nov 7 2007 install.res.1040.dll*
-rwxrwxrwx 2 root root 81424 Nov 7 2007 install.res.1041.dll*
-rwxrwxrwx 2 root root 79888 Nov 7 2007 install.res.1042.dll*
-rwxrwxrwx 2 root root 75792 Nov 7 2007 install.res.2052.dll*
-rwxrwxrwx 2 root root 96272 Nov 7 2007 install.res.3082.dll*
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Dec 8 2011 Intel/
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 4096 Aug 7 2013 !McAfee.log/
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Jan 17 2011 MSOCache/
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Nov 4 2011 Oracle/
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 3724718080 Feb 19 14:36 pagefile.sys*
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 8192 Feb 19 14:37 ProgramData/
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 8192 Jan 21 14:18 Program Files/
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 24576 Feb 17 22:44 Program Files (x86)/
-rwxrwxrwx 2 root root 254 Oct 19 2012 Program Files (x86)ă*
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Dec 8 2011 Recovery/
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 4096 Dec 9 16:36 $Recycle.Bin/
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 16384 Feb 19 09:23 System Volume Information/
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Jun 4 2013 Temp/
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Mar 30 2012 Transfer_bowesr/
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Feb 6 19:18 .Trash-1000/
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Sep 16 2011 TrueDelete/
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 4096 Jan 22 11:48 Users/
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 1442522 Nov 7 2007 VC_RED.cab*
-rwxrwxrw...

[Germar (germar)]

Please run 'mkdir /media/backup/backintime/gogliop-HP-ProBook-6465b/gogliop/1/new_snapshot/backup' and run the rsync command again.

[Pietro Goglio (p-goglio)]

I made the directory and run rsync, the prompt shows the following:
sending incremental file list
./
media/
media/Windows/

sent 81 bytes received 23 bytes 208.00 bytes/sec
total size is 0 speedup is 0.00
Checking the directory, there are several directories up to Windows inside the new_snapshot. The Windows directory is then left empty.
Thanks Germar.

[Germar (germar)]

Hmm, that's quite wired. It doesn't print any error. Looks like /media/Windows is a symlink but it can't be one. Please post the output of 'ls -la /media'

Just in case please activate 'Copy links (dereference symbolic links)' in 'Expert Options' and try again to create a new snapshot.
Sorry for poking around in the fog. I've no idea what is going wrong. All seems to be fine with your files.

[Pietro Goglio (p-goglio)]

Here you have the prompt from the ls -la:
drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 4096 Feb 25 11:32 .
drwxr-xr-x 25 root root 4096 Feb 10 16:20 ..
drwx------ 5 gogliop gogliop 4096 Feb 18 16:15 backup
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 13 Feb 14 14:35 .created_by_python-fstab
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 4096 Dec 8 2011 System
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 16384 Feb 24 10:07 Windows

I tried to run backintime with the copy link option! The first time got stuck while the second time it did nothing and this is the log report:
========== Take snapshot (profile 1): Tue Feb 25 11:40:02 2014 ==========

[I] ...
[I] Compare with snapshot 2014-02-25 11:39:19
[I] rsync -rtDH --copy-links --no-p --no-g --no-o --delete --delete-excluded -i --dry-run --out-format="BACKINTIME: %i %n%L" --chmod=Du+wx --exclude="/media/backup" --exclude="/home/gogliop/.local/share/backintime" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/gogliop/Desktop/Research/CV/" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/gogliop/Desktop/Research/" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/gogliop/Desktop/" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/gogliop/" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/" --include="/media/Windows/" --include="/media/" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/gogliop/Desktop/Research/OW/" --exclude=".gvfs" --exclude=".cache*" --exclude="[Cc]ache*" --exclude=".thumbnails*" --exclude="[Tt]rash*" --exclude="*.backup*" --exclude="*~" --exclude="/home/gogliop/Ubuntu One" --exclude=".dropbox*" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/gogliop/Desktop/Research/CV/**" --include="/media/Windows/Documents and Settings/gogliop/Desktop/Research/OW/**" --exclude="*" / "/media/backup/backintime/gogliop-HP-ProBook-6465b/gogliop/1/20140225-113919-412/backup/"
[I] Remove old snapshots
[I] Try to keep min free space
[I] Finalizing

The results on the USB disk is the same with an empty Windows directory.
I would like to thank Germar for the help.

[Germar (germar)]

I'm sorry to say that I've no more ideas on how to help you with this. I'll keep this bug report open so may be someone else can help.

[buhtz (buhtz)]

Dear Pietro,

the project has moved to GitHub and your bug report can no be found here:
https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/435

Your report is quite old. Are you still using BIT? Maybe you found a solution for the problem you reported? Or can you still reproduce the error?