NTFS vs EXT on Linux

I just discovered today that my Rescuezilla back-up drives are formatted in NTFS both for Mint and Zorin .... could this be a problem ?????

If I remember correctly I originally did that to get rid of the contents of a certain folder ..... Lost & Found .... that keep reappearing after every back-up ...... some kind of Linux safeguard that was saving orphaned files and folders that could not be deleted even using root .....

Well I decided to just go ahead and convert both of my.... 1 TB HD's ... from NTFS to EXT4 but may have run into a slight snag ....

I have an older version of Rescuezilla 2.2-1 which has worked just fine for years .... but I went and downloaded the newest version just for kicks .... made a boot able thumb drive and installed Rescuezilla on it but I got this message when I tried to run the program ......

Not sure just what that all means so I went back to my 2.2-1 version of Rescuezilla for both OS's Zorin and Mint .....

Zorin was a bit different .... everything ran fine until after I had completed my back-up copy then before it closed this message came up ...... I have never seen this message before in all the years of making back-ups of Zorin

Does this mean my back-up is faulty and I have to redo it ....

Try this. Format the drive using Gparted. Use EXT4. Afterwards, go to the terminal, and type this: "sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/(location of your drive)" (no quotes). "Mkfs" means "make file system." Where I say "location," I mean like "sda2" or "sda3." To find out the label of your actual drive (the one that's being problematic with the lost and found "hoo-ha"), run "sudo fdisk -l" to get an output that should tell you. Put the location information after "dev/" when you have it. Good luck; I hope this works for you. Please report back when done. Thanks.

EDIT: If you already have Zorin OS set up on your primary, OK.

I have found using Rescuezilla on a USB problematical. DVD burn runs better, especially the latest release. All releases of Rescuezilla are meant to be backwards compatible.

In respect of lost and found:

Deleting Lost and Found Contents

Important: Before deleting the contents of the lost+found directory, ensure you have a backup of your important data and understand the potential risks involved.

The lost+found directory is a special directory created by the fsck utility to store files that have been recovered during a file system check. These files are often fragments of corrupted or deleted files. Deleting their contents may not be necessary, as they are usually not recoverable or useful.

That being said, if you still want to delete the contents of lost+found, follow these steps:

  1. Mount the file system: Make sure the file system containing the lost+found directory is mounted. You can check the mount status using df -h or mount.
  2. Change to the lost+found directory: Navigate to the lost+found directory using cd /lost+found (assuming it’s at the root of the file system).
  3. List the contents: Use ls to list the files and directories within lost+found. This will help you identify the contents you want to delete.
  4. Delete individual files or directories: Use rm to delete individual files or directories within lost+found. For example, rm file1 or rm dir1.
  5. Remove all contents recursively: If you want to delete all contents of lost+found recursively, use find and rm together:
find . -type f -exec rm {} \;

This command finds all files (not directories) within the current directory (.) and deletes them recursively.

Note: Be cautious when using find and rm together, as it can permanently delete files without prompting for confirmation.

  1. Verify the deletion: After deleting the contents, use ls again to ensure the lost+found directory is empty.

Important: Do not attempt to delete the lost+found directory itself. It’s a special directory created by fsck and is necessary for file system recovery. Deleting it may cause issues during future file system checks.

Remember, it’s generally recommended to leave the contents of lost+found alone, as they may contain valuable information for file system recovery. If you’re unsure about deleting the contents, consider consulting with a Linux administrator or seeking further guidance.

I also found this nugget with 1 vote:

and this:

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Still no reply from @Frog. Hope he/she (?) got their issue resolved.

Also, @Frog - your first two posts were a bit hard to follow overall (just being honest; sorry). I have re-read them, and I believe what you need to do is follow @swarfendor437's advice about having copies of what data you want/need to keep (e.g., programs, files, games, what have you). You really should do this at the very least. Move everything you want to keep manually to one external drive (delete all partitions on that drive first, then format it completely using the EXT4 format before moving everything on there). Then start all over again with the whole business. Use Gparted to format the whole OS. Remove all partitions on your primary hard drive. Then format everything on there. Use the sudo command provided above (you should have root access by default). Reinstall Zorin OS from there. Start all over again with what you want to install and make it the way you want. Format the two external drives. Run the same sudo command for both. Now, you have a choice: Continue using Rescuezilla, OR drop it and use the Disks utility already included with Zorin OS. I have used it before with success. It's right there, and is simple to use in cloning drives and restoring images. Good luck again.

EDIT: If you use Disks, be sure to run it from a live USB.

EDIT # 2: Don't feel compelled to try one suggestion over the other. Treat both suggestions equally. No pressure. This isn't a contest. Focus on finding out what works for you, and report back here so you can share and have others learn.

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Sorry Folks different Time Zone .... Just got up it is 6:30 AM here .... yes I know my post is confusing .... I do need to explain a bit further ....

There s nothing in my Lost & Found file folder now .... it shows 0 data when opening it using root .... before I installed a fresh copy of both Zorin and Mint a while back .... I had nearly 30 GB of date in that folder ....

I was only explaining why I chose NTFS over EXT4 which I see know I should have just ignored that part .... I am sorry for the confusion .... I will try to edit my OP so other people won't get confused .... but that is excellent info on the Lost & Found Folder .....

My problem now is after doing a new Back-up of my Zorin 17.2 before closing .... a message came up about .....

Failed to output checksum file

See 2nd photo above for full info .... I want to know if I need to delete that back-up off my 1 TB USB drive used for Zorin back-ups and install a new back-up using Rescuezilla ......

I didn't get that message when I back-up Mint and yes Zorin show up on grub screen as my 1st choice followed by Mint if that makes any difference .....

My original posts have been edited as best I can along with some help from swarf .... thank you at 79 you tend to forget stuff ..... LOL

I guess I fixed the problem .... tried a different thumb drive in fact 2 different drives and got the newest version to work on both .....

No "Failed to output checksum file" this time .....

This is the version of Rescuezilla I used ....

rescuezilla-2.5.1-64bit.noble.iso ....

I then made another back-up of Zorin 17.2 and it came back fine ..... deleted the first back-up just to be sure to not use it .....

Thanks for all the info you folks gave in the posts above ..... nearest I can figure out is the thumb drive was bad .... I reformatted it to Fat 32 and I will check it out again later it is only a 16 GB drive ....

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