Multiple USB Hard drives Mount order

[zooplibob]

Hi, I'm trying to create a backup system for my machines, which will consist of 4 external USB hard drives backing up the single internal drive at regular intervals.

Two drives will do weekly backups and the other 2 will do monthly.

When I plug them in one at a time, the mount names like "sda1" "sdb1" etc are named in the order I plug them in. However, if they are all plugged in and the system reboots, how can I assure that the same drives retain the same mount names? I dont suddenly want my monthly backup drive which was originally "sda1" to come up as "sdb1" when I reboot, which will screw everything. Thanks

Jeff

[birdman]

Could you leave a .file in the external HDs root directories? Then, check that the file is in either /dev/sda1 or /dev/sdb1 and go from there? For example, touch a file called /.weekly1 in the first of the weekly backups and /.monthly1 into the first monthly backup etc.

Could you test for these files being there in your scripts and proceed accordingly?

[attilathepun]

Why don't you plug them in with the computer off, and then boot the computer and set the mount points? That way they should be in the default order when you set the mount points, and as long as you don't switch them around it should be the same every time you start up.

There's an easy way to tell which is which, too -- I mean, which external drive corresponds to which mounted drive. Start by mounting one at a time and putting a different file on each one (i.e., disk1, disk2, disk3, disk4) Mark which file you put on which drive, and then try booting with all 4 plugged in and running.

Don't know if I'm being at all helpful here, but there are a couple suggestions at least.