[torreydale]

I'm not able to select my 1TB usb external hard drive as the storage directory for Systemback.  I know we've addressed potentially replacing the backup program (Deja Dup) with Systemback, but until I'm able to do the aforementioned, I say leave Deja Dup in the build.

[Wirezfree]

I have an external USB drive formatted with ext4 just for system back,
and a directory for each of my PCs to store restore points & live images.
From my exchange with the dev, it appears to need a LInux type file system.

[torreydale]

Ah.  I believe mine is NTFS.

[Wirezfree]

O.K... That could be why..
If you have a spare USB stick.
Open GParted, and carefully select it.
- Create new partition table, use default type.
- Create a single partition, ext 4 format
- Then try systemback with that.

[torreydale]

I may just end up formatting the external hard drive as ext4.  And because of this stipulation, I still say leave Deja Dup in the build.  Going forward, this limitation with Systemback may be just the thing to turn off some dual booters or people who aren't all in with Linux on day one.  I am all in, but I'm already having to think through whether I want my external hard drive to be all in.  Sometimes, when helping someone move to Linux Lite, I've used it to back up their Windows data.  If I format the external hard drive as ext4, I guess I could boot to a Linux Lite Live CD, access their Windows hard drive from that environment, and back it up to my ext4 hard drive.

By the way, Wirezfree, how are you backing up with Systemback?  Are you creating a restore point to your external drive and including your home directory?  Are you using System Copy?  Or are you doing something different altogether?  I'm not 100% clear on how this serves as a Deja Dup replacement.

[Wirezfree]

O.K,

Couple of things...
You could try to split you external HD into 2 partitions, have 1 formatted ext4 and the other 1 ntfs.

At present, because it's still early days, and have not arrived at best/quickest methods of backups.
I use systemback to do restorepoints when I'm about to add or change significant things, and do periodic "Live Images"
I use "FreeFileSync", used this for about 6 years, and was pleased to see it had a Linux version, I use it to backup all my personal stuff to my NAS.

[Wirezfree]

Quick update,
Out of curiosity I found an unused USB stick.
With GParted I created a new partition table, then created 2 partitions,
1 called ext4 formatted ext4, and 1 called ntfs, formatted NTFS.
and yes you can see(below) both are mounted, but only the ext4 partition is selectable and usable
I don't think this is a failure in systemback, It's that NTFS can't support the necessary permissions according to the dev.