[Samba] Using Backup from Windows -> Samba : >4GB file limit?

[Dan A.Dickey]

On Tuesday 12 March 2002 19:22, Joel Hammer wrote:
> As I recall, there is a file size limit with smbfs. You might have success
> by running backup software from your samba server. Tar works fine. Just
> mount your windows drive as a share. I have found that over a gig or so
> I need to use a multivolume backup. I used the split command:
>  tar -blah options | split -options
>
> I notice there is a multivolume option for tar, which I haven't used.
>
> Maybe your windows software has a multivolume option, too.
>
> The simplest thing to do is just cp -au from your samba server. That would
> could backup up everything on your windows hard drive. It would involve no
> fancy compression, etc, and so your chance of data loss is minimal. And,
> the -u only updates new files, so, the second time you backup it goes
> very fast.  The only drawback is that files you erase on your windows
> hard drive will continue to exist on your samba server. This may be seen
> as a bug or a feature. You could write a script to compare the files on
> your windows box and your backup directory on samba and mv files off to
> some deep storage when the files no longer exist on your windows drive.
>
> Others swear by rsync.
>
> I use both the multivolume tar and the cp -au methods. cp -au is much
> simpler to implement.
>
> Joel

Ok.  That was quite interesting.
I tried the cp -au method.  No dice.
Let me rephrase my question, perhaps I left out one important tidbit...
I want to backup my Windows XP Professional laptop to my Linux machine,
which is running samba and a host of other things (Mandrake Linux).
Ideally, I'd like to just run the Backup utility that gets started from the
Backup button on the Tools pane of the Local Disk properties window.
Or perhaps some other freely or cheaply available backup software
that can be installed on the laptop.  It would sure be nice if it preserved
file owners and permissions and whatever else NTFS likes to have around
in the case where I need to actually restore something.
Failing that, I'm open to suggestions as to *exactly* how to mount the
C: drive from the laptop onto the Linux machine and perform a backup
that way (cp, tar, whatever are workable solutions at this point).

Joel,
I thought for sure your advice would work - it was something I simply
failed to think of but in hindsight seems quite obvious.
I enabled sharing on my laptop (was previous turned off), and could
see the C drive via smbclient.  I even managed to figure out the right
smbmount command line to get it mounted onto /windows-c.
(But - maybe I failed here?)
However, now - I cannot see anything listed in /windows-c/WINDOWS.
It just shows up as an empty directory.  It is most definitely not empty.
So, something with permissions isn't quite matching up, if it is possible
for this to work this way.  I did mount the share as a user who is in
the administrator group, BTW.
I'm running samba fairly simply, no PDC or anything like that.
I meant the Linux samba server more of as more storage for the laptop,
something for some overflow or to keep around files used rarely.
(i.e. - downloaded tarballs).
It works for this, and works well.

So, now I'll just try to drop the C: drive on my laptop into one of
the samba shares...  see if that gets me a copy or not.  :)

Any further advice would be welcomed.
	-Dan


-- 
Dan A. Dickey
ddickey at charter.net