From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon May 16 04:55:24 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 19D7416A4CE for ; Mon, 16 May 2005 04:55:24 +0000 (GMT) Received: from harmony.digitalbluesky.net (dsl093-010-046.cle1.dsl.speakeasy.net [66.93.10.46]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 6646943D7C for ; Mon, 16 May 2005 04:55:23 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from steve@digitalbluesky.net) Received: (qmail 42297 invoked by uid 0); 16 May 2005 04:55:40 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO willow.digitalbluesky.net) (steve@digitalbluesky.net@192.168.1.1) by harmony.digitalbluesky.net with SMTP; 16 May 2005 04:55:40 -0000 Message-Id: <6.2.1.2.0.20050516005230.0203f110@mail.digitalbluesky.net> X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 6.2.1.2 Date: Mon, 16 May 2005 00:55:22 -0400 To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org From: Steve Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed Subject: how to format an external usb drive with a freebsd partititon under freebsd 5.3 X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 16 May 2005 04:55:24 -0000 I've done a google search, read the freebsd handbook and searched the mailing list archives...maybe I'm not using the right search terms but I'm not finding the information I need...or I'm misunderstanding something on a fundamental level. I have a 120 gig western digital usb drive with a FAT32 file system connected to a freebsd 5.3 box that I can mount and read/write to okay . But (and I think this is correct) when I backup files from my freebsd 5.3 box to this drive, the file permissions aren't being maintained. That is because it's a FAT32 files system correct? I've always in the past backed up linux/freebsd files to other linux/freebsd boxes so this is the first time I'm dealing with this. What is the correct way to format this FAT32 usb drive so I can put freebsd files on it and maintain the proper owner and file permissions. I've tried to do this with sysinstall based on the instructions in the freebsd handbook but I get an error that freebsd can't write the partition. The usb drive is currently mounted, is that the problem? Steve Bopple www.digitalbluesky.net