Hi!
I have a brand new SSD (my first time dealing with one), with two separate partitions, /dev/sdb1
formatted as ext4
for the BackinTime snapshots and /dev/sdb3
formatted as exfat
for data storage (I partitioned the disk with Gnome Disks) and transfer between different systems (Linux and Windows).
Upon reading wikis, FAQs and forums, I realized that I might need to add the mount option noatime
for the SSD in order to preserve its lifespan.
Currently, the SSD is mounted automatically whenever plugged in and Gnome Disks shows this:
Whenever the partitions are mounted, they show up in /proc/mounts
like this:
/dev/sdb1 /run/media/username/backup ext4 rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,errors=remount-ro,stripe=256 0 0
/dev/sdb3 /run/media/username/DATA exfat rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,uid=1000,gid=1000,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,iocharset=utf8,errors=remount-ro 0 0
My /etc/fstab
contents are:
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
UUID=D47-C /boot/efi vfat umask=0077 0 2
UUID=b53-6f35-4728-b430-8467 / ext4 defaults,noatime 0 1
UUID=78f-399b-4233-82a6-09eef /home ext4 defaults,noatime 0 2
UUID=1f9f-d13b-41ac-bf80-3f29 swap swap defaults,noatime 0 0
I realize that if I add a new line in /etc/fstab
for an external drive that is not going to be constantly plugged in, I might run into trouble at boot time. To avoid that, I read that I might need to add the mount option noauto
and the options nofail
and x-systemd.device-timeout=1ms
too.
Now for those who can offer me their advice, I have the following questions:
-
Will BackinTime work correctly and without problems if I replace the default
relatime
withnoatime
? -
If yes, how should I best go about adding this mount option? By modifying the Mount Options in Gnome Disks (I want to maintain the same behavior whenever I plug in the SSD, which is automatically mounted and labeled)? Or by adding a new line in
/etc/fstab
? Do I have to getsystemd
involved? -
What about the option
x-systemd.automount
? Would I need it so that the drive is automatically mounted whenever plugged in? -
Is there a way to make those mount options permanent for whenever I switch between different systems (Linux or Windows) or different machines? Will modifying the Mount Options on Gnome Disks do this?
-
What should the mount options be in my case? Would the following changes do the trick and which should I keep?
For /dev/sdb1
rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime,noauto,x-systemd.automount,nofail,x-systemd.device-timeout=1ms,errors=remount-ro,stripe=256 0 0
For /dev/sdb3
rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime,noauto,x-systemd.automount,nofail,x-systemd.device-timeout=1ms,uid=1000,gid=1000,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,iocharset=utf8,errors=remount-ro 0 0